A few months ago, we got one of the fastest Pokémon remakes ever in the form of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
These two followed just a year after their original releases, which was a bit of a surprise when, you know, it took us 11 years to get a Hoenn remake, and we’ve pretty much given up on ever seeing Sinnoh again.
At the time, I was very happy to dig through everything the Internet would tell me about the new games. I spent several hours busily investigating new features, reading up on fan theories, and just generally learning new things.
One of those new things I learned was that Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were the last planned Pokémon games for the Nintendo DS family.
I couldn’t see that being the end of Pokémon, though, so I got the idea in my head that before long, we’d see our favourite fictional critters on the Switch. It hadn’t been confirmed at the time, but I got disproportionately excited about it anyway.
As it turns out, I was right.
Around the end of May, we got the exciting news that Pokémon would be coming to the Switch in the form of Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee and Let’s Go Pikachu. The games are actually supposed to be remakes of the original Pokémon Yellow, with a bit of a twist of modern tech.
Here’s what I know about it so far—and what I’m excited about!
The games work together with Pokémon GO
Pokémon GO was one of those things for me that immediately lost any appeal when I had to give up my data connection. It was great for occasionally catching the random Pidgeys that would appear in my apartment complex, but it didn’t take long for me to run out of balls.
Perhaps in a bid to reinspire those of us who have grown apart from it, the new games will (partially) integrate with the phone app to migrate Pokémon originally found in the Kanto region to your game.
I know, I’m being a little salty. But I do think it’ll be really neat to see how it works!
You can take your Pokémon with you
When HeartGold and SoulSilver came out back in 2009, they included a Tamagotchi-sized “PokéWalker” that let you take a pixellated version of your party Pokémon out for a walk. It counted your steps, and translated that into experience points for your Pokémon.
It was a neat idea, but it really didn’t take teenage me long at all to lose the PokéWalker. With my level 50-something Dragonair inside.
So sad.
That approach kind of disappeared after that game release, never to be seen again. Well, sort of.
The newest games will use something very similar to the PokéWalker, in the form of a stress-ball-sized Poké Ball Plus. Unlike the PokéWalker, though, the Poké Ball Plus is not included as part of the game; it seems to be structured as an optional accessory, and goes for $65 CAD.
Which is almost the same amount as an entire Switch game. Just sayin’.
Am I excited for it? I think I’d be interested in trying it out if it weren’t for the price tag; I did like having an easy way to level up my Pokémon, other than the inevitable level grind!
It’s multiplayer
Although Pokémon games have had interactivity basically as long as they’ve existed, so players could connect and battle their Pokémon against one another, it looks like the new games are taking this to a new level.
Instead of relying on connections, it looks like Pokémon Let’s Go supports local multiplayer—so you can run around in the same game with another player. It does sound like there are limitations to what you can do in this mode, but it’s still very much a first for the series.
The Switch is pretty much designed for multiplayer, so it makes perfect sense that this would be the approach.
I’m honestly so excited to try this feature out; it really seems like something Shane and I would get lost in!
It lets you walk around with your Pokémon
One of my absolute favourite parts about HeartGold (and why it’s still one of my favourite games ever) is that it let me walk around with my Pokémon outside of their balls. I loved turning around to talk to my dear Dragonite, Blake, and watching the little happy faces showing up over his head!
I’ve been hoping and dreaming that we’d get this function back in newer games; it was actually built into Sun and Moon, but for whatever reason, that bit of code never got activated.
Now, we’ll finally be getting it back—and in a game with graphics of a high enough caliber to go on a TV, no less.
I can’t wait!
YOUR TURN
One thought on “Why I’m excited for Pokémon on the Switch”
I’m also looking forward to this 🙂 My wife and I have never been able to play a Pokemon game co-operatively until Pokemon Go (battling gyms and raids together). It’s very appealing for us to play this together and also to connect it with PGO saves!