Fans had eagerly awaited the Pokémon Presents video presentations on Feb. 27 (the franchise’s anniversary), as they wanted to see what the series has lined up next. While the upcoming and ambitious Pokémon Legends: Z-A understandably took the lion’s share of the limelight this year for being the next mainline video game, Pokémon Champions was the next most exciting announcement. This forthcoming spinoff for Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms strips the core series’ RPG mechanics for pure turn-based strategy, echoing two classic Nintendo 64 games.
Pokémon Stadium and Stadium 2 were the series’ first premium 3D console experience in the late ’90s to early ’00s. The upcoming Champions has the perfect opportunity to build on their legacy and foundations with more modernized battle simulation features. With the confirmation of Gen VI’s Mega Evolutions and Gen IX’s Terastallization making a comeback, as well as connectivity with Scarlet and Violet and the Home app, Pokémon Champions has exciting potential to be one of the franchise’s best spin-off games.
Pokémon Champions Can Follow Stadium's Example of Solo & Co-Op Play
Pokémon Stadium's Single-Player Tournaments Can Complement Champions' Online
a concept like Pokémon Champions in the 2020s. But the key is robust single-player and multiplayer options that draw in passionate, competitive Pokémon players and curious casual players from the start. Pokémon Stadium and Stadium 2 gave players the 151 and 251 species rosters, respectively, to experiment with teams even if they didn’t have the original Game Boy games to transfer with.
This was complemented by some engaging Cup tournaments and a full-blown Gym Leader Castle with a more compelling difficulty level than the mainline Game Boy games. The Pokémon Champions trailer was more of a stylized proof of concept showcase rather than gameplay-focused. Still, featuring species like Charizard, Dondozo, Samurott, Lucario, and more suggests the in-game roster will have a welcome degree of variety for the Generations represented.
Pokémon Champions will even feature at least three game modes at launch in the form of Ranked, Casual, and Private Battle formats. Though these are broad definitions until more info is unveiled, these modes could reasonably cover all bases for casual and competitive multiplayer matches on top of single-player formats. It’s too early to tell for sure, but it would be a shock if the game excluded NPC battles, especially since Champions has a wealth of options for battling formats to mirror Stadium‘s Cups and Gym Leader Castle.
The reality is this will be a live-service game at its core, and an online-first approach is guaranteed, but even Pokémon TCG Pocket could be proof of how multiplayer and single-player functions can coexist. Themed solo battles with increasing difficulty, backed by additional matches to correspond with new Pokémon TCG Pocket expansions, could be loosely adapted for the Stadium-like gameplay loop Champions will presumably have. It’s exciting to think of the upcoming spinoff boasting Generation-themed Gym Leader battles featuring anyone from the Kanto league to Gen IX’s Paldea region.
Champions Must Avoid a Wii Pokémon Spinoff's Pitfalls
The N64 Pokémon Stadium Games Are Outlines, But Champions Can't Be Complacent
However, it’s just as important that developer The Pokémon Works—a co-venture between The Pokémon Company and Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl devs ILCA—don’t fall into the complacency of a lesser-known successor. The Nintendo Wii’s Pokémon Battle Revolution used the same turn-based strategy genre and debuted for the Gen IV Pokémon games Diamond and Pearl. It seemed like a Stadium game in all but name, but notably watered down.
The game received a lukewarm critical reception for feeling more like a gimmick for the Nintendo DS titles than a full-fledged game in its own right. Core features, like a full roster of rental Pokémon akin to the Stadium approach, were scrapped, and the Sinnoh region roster was locked from players who didn’t have Diamond and Pearl to connect to Battle Revolution. This severely hampered team composition and customization, and it offered little incentive to keep battling through the game’s single-player colosseums or even online battles.
Battle Revolution was considered a bare-bones experience compared to the Stadium games in 2007, meaning Pokémon Champions can’t afford to be the Wii game’s equivalent deep into the 2020s. It’s perfectly reasonable for even a mainline game to be incapable of supporting all 1,000+ species of Pokémon, let alone a spinoff like Champions.
Live-service game or otherwise, the upcoming Switch and mobile game needs to treat outside games and its transfer app like supplements rather than a crutch. It’s not hard or surprising to see that Champions is partly intended as a vehicle to further incentivize Home subscriptions and other Pokémon games. Regardless, gatekeeping a deep bench of Pokémon to form unique teams (like Battle Revolution did) and introducing new players to the series’ competitive meta would hold Champions back.
Multiple Mainline Pokémon Features Can Coexist
Pokémon Champions Can Include Battle Frontier & World Tournament Elements
One of the more prominent criticisms of developer Game Freak’s mainline Pokémon games is the introduction of interesting features that sometimes get scrapped in later Generations. This year’s Pokémon Legends: Z-A is rectifying this criticism at least in part with the return of the fan-favorite Mega Evolutions mechanic introduced in the Nintendo 3DS games Pokémon X and Y. That makes it all the more exciting that the Pokémon Champions trailer confirmed Mega Evolution support by showing Mega Charizard X.
Even Gen IX’s Terastallization and the more consistent Regional Form feature are returning from the mainline games, as Samurott’s Hisuian Form from Pokémon Legends: Arceus was also seen in action. These are all positive signs that Champions will feature a cocktail of engaging mechanics of the mainline series without worrying about the latter’s RPG trappings restricting it. But Pokémon Champions can be even more ambitious than this.
Without needing to have fully explorable overworlds where players progress a storyline, the turn-based strategy game can reintegrate forgotten ideas like the Battle Frontier or the World Tournament. These post-game battle facilities were already widely seen as the closest thing to competitive Pokémon battling for single-player gameplay. The Frontier’s facilities would feel right at home in Pokémon Champions‘ focused battle-simulator experience and shake things up with different battling formats.
Whether it’s alternating teams match-to-match in the Battle Factory or the marathon of the Battle Tower, incorporating some form of these facilities in the spinoff would be a fun way to test teams before taking on other players. Plus, the World Tournament from Gen V’s Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 would be a seamless way to feature iconic characters like the original protagonist Red or the Sinnoh region’s champion Cynthia. In some ways, this would feel like a natural progression of what Pokémon Stadium and Stadium 2 laid the groundwork for during the N64 console generation.
The Pokémon Stadium games were particularly fun and intuitive ways to get a more challenging battle experience, solo or with friends, in their heyday. But even the flagship Gen III games Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, released shortly after Stadium 2, broke new ground with the introduction of Passive Abilities, which each creature has to change the flow of battles. That’s not to mention the plethora of new Held Items created since Gen II that Pokémon can use to get an extra tactical edge.
These would be terrific incentives for playing solo Battle Facilities in Pokémon Champions, buying Held Items and the like with in-game “Battle Points” earned through defeating NPC opponents, just like the mainline Battle Frontier. Most importantly, these hypothetical features would still be in service of creating an engrossing and evergreen game that excites even more people into taking part in the competitive meta.
With the pending release of Pokémon Champions on Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms, it’s even more unlikely nostalgic fans will see an outright “Pokémon Stadium 3.” But with all the thrilling possibilities that a spin-off game like this can pave the way for, Pokémon Champions has the chance to be something special on its own terms.
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Pokemon Champions
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