Pokemon Champions Announced

A new Pokemon game was announced during today’s Pokemon Presents livestream. The game is called Pokemon Champions, and it will feature turn-based 3D Pokemon battles similar to Pokemon Stadium. It will feature core-style battles, and is being developed by Game Freak and The Pokemon Works. The game will actually feature compatibility with Pokemon Home, allowing players to use the Pokemon that they’ve transferred over to the app. For the first time, rather than just trading Pokemon on mobile, players will be able to have classic, turn-based style battles similar to the mainline games.

The gameplay in Pokemon Champions is largely focused on battling, so players probably shouldn’t expect the same RPG elements from the mainline games. However, we can expect some interesting changes. The first trailer for the game featured Mega Evolutions and Tera Pokemon battling against one another, which is not something that has ever been available in the series! The first trailer for Pokemon Champions can be found below.

The Pokemon Stadium series started life on Nintendo 64. The concept was that it allowed players to transfer their Pokemon over from the original Game Boy games and battle them out in 3D, against friends and CPU opponents. Pokemon Champions very much seems like a spiritual successor to that concept, by expanding on what’s already capable in Pokemon Home. Like Pokemon Home itself, Pokemon Champions will be available on Nintendo Switch, as well as iOS and Android devices.

One of the biggest complaints about Pokemon games in the Nintendo Switch era is that they have not allowed players to use all of the Pokemon that have been released throughout the franchise. Given that Pokemon Champions is compatible with Pokemon Home, it seems like this game might rectify that, allowing players to utilize the more than 1,000 Pokemon that have been released over the last 29 years. That has not been confirmed just yet, but it seems like a strong possibility, if not at the game’s arrival, then at some point down the line.

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It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a game quite like Pokemon Stadium, and it will be interesting to see how players feel about Pokemon Champions once they’ve gotten a chance to experience it for themselves. The core concept of Stadium became somewhat redundant once Switch married Nintendo’s handheld and console platforms, but this seems like a smart way to bring it back, while also making it a little more modern. For fans that have always wanted a mainline Pokemon experience on mobile devices, this also seems like the closest thing we’ve ever had to that. Unfortunately, a release date for Pokemon Champions has not been announced just yet, but hopefully The Pokemon Company will have more details in the near future.

Are you excited for the release of Pokemon Champions? What did you think of today’s Pokemon Presents? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!