As a new platform for the future of competitive Pokemon multiplayer, the launch of the free-to-play Pokemon Champions has been less than idea.
Following the game’s release, players have noticed a litany of issues with the free-to-play battle simulator including bizarre visual bugs, a severe lack of Pokemon to play with, incorrect genders, and even broken moves.
In Pokemon Champions, there are countless minor issues. Galade, a male-only evolution of Kirlia, is marked as female in the tutorial, Haze bizarrely restores HP to a Pokemon instead of eliminating stat changes, and there’s a bug that causes resolution to be sliced in half. Additionally, players’ transfered Pokemon between Pokemon Home and Pokemon Champions are currently trapped in a digital limbo as a horrid bug is currently stopping them from being moved.
For all of the technical issues that have surrounded prior mainline Pokemon titles, at least the games played correctly. Since release, players have rightly complained with some of the series’ biggest professionals stating that the game should not be used for real competitive play.
In a Japanese-only statement to fans, the developers of Pokemon Champions have addressed some issues regarding the game, promising to fix a slew of bugs that are plaguing the game.
The developers have noted that the glaring Pokemon Home issue should now be fixed via a silent hotfix, but other issues are currently being investigated, including the following:
- – The description of the “Leech Seed” state is incorrect. Incorrect: Takes damage equal to 1/16 of maximum HP Correct: Takes damage equal to 1/8 of maximum HP However, the calculation is correct during battle.
- Under certain conditions, when both Pokémon Mega Evolve simultaneously, the order may be unintended.
- The gender of some Pokémon in the tutorial is incorrect.
- The gender of some Pokémon in the released coordinated teams is incorrect.
- When in Encore state, the ability “Lightning Rod” may not activate correctly.
- When viewing move details during battle, if you hover the cursor over “Mega Evolution” and press the B button, you cannot select the move. If this phenomenon occurs, you can avoid the inability to select the move by opening and closing the surrender window with the “-” button.
Despite the public address of some issues, some of the games biggest problems remain undiscussed, including the game’s horrendous performance on Nintendo Switch 2. As the long-awaited return to the Pokemon Stadium style of battling, Champions has been a major disappointment for hardcore fans.
While the game is currently only available on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, Pokemon Champions is also planned to release across mobile and tablets on Android and iOS. There is currently no specific release date for this version of the game.
