Pokemon Sword and Shield finally launched today on the Nintendo Switch. Assuming, of course, that Presidential intervention doesn’t get it removed from store shelves. It feels like the end of a long promotion cycle, but in truth the game has arrived rather quickly. Pokemon Let’s Go launched just under a year ago – on November 16th 2018. Likewise, we’ve been drip-fed details and new creatures at a slow pace. Instead, promotion focused on two new concepts for the series: Dynamaxing and the ‘wild area’.
Now the game is out and on store shelves a wealth of new information is pouring onto the internet. The most important of which is our first comprehensive look at all the new creatures. We’re not going to spoil anything by revealing any of the latest discoveries here. If you do want to check out what’s been unearthed in the Galar region we recommend Serebii.net, which is constantly being updated with new details. Their new Pokemon page has a handy list of all the new ‘mon, with pictures links to their full statistics. A new trailer that came out just before launch gave an overview of the entries key features. If you want a spoiler-free taste of what’s to come check it out below.
What has dominated the news stories surrounding these new Pokemon titles has been the fact they do not contain every Pokemon. I’ve seen this absence of many past Pokemon as ‘Dexit’, which is frankly genius. It seems a downside to the way video games are reported on that this minority of negativity has been given so much attention. Unsurprisingly, this has culminated in a ‘review bombing’ of the game. This is a practice where users swamp aggregate sites with malicious low scores in order to make their take seem more popular. Metacritic currently has the game’s user score sat at a 3.6 out of 10. Despite Pokemon Sword and Shield not being the huge leap forward many were hoping for, critic reviews situate the game as much more positive. The games definitely seem poised as a cautious step forward. In a series that’s constantly critiqued for a lack of innovation these entries seem like they give us some of the biggest shake ups in ages. It falls on the GameFreak and the next entries in the series to truly deliver on what a Switch Pokemon game is capable of.
