With the powerhouse franchises Zelda and Mario making their Switch debut (with Odyssey coming out later in the year), people are eagerly anticipating Pokemon Switch’s space on the stage. As these powerful critters made their mark on the portable games market, it makes sense that the Nintendo Switch would be a perfect home for them.
So, what would we like to see?
Top 5 Must Have Features for Pokemon Switch
What’s interesting about the world of Pokémon is that there are so many levels of immersion that we’ve had – whether you started on the RGBY versions of Gen 1 or you started with Pokémon Go or Sun/Moon. It’s a huge fanbase to cater to, so we’d love to hear your views as well!
1. More in-depth avatar customisation in Pokemon Switch
I may be biased in this, but since my hair colour changes on a regular basis, I never get to have a Pokémon character who actually has my shade. Just a shade swatch would be great! I love the idea of the salon and buying clothes/accessories to jazz up your character – so the more choices, the merrier!
2. Pokémon Switch Contests
I really missed this in Pokémon Sun and Moon. For me, it’s the idea of using Pokémon you wouldn’t normally use in a new way. It’s all about the moves rather than the base stat they come with – allowing you to make a team of Pokémon that you love the look of, but wouldn’t be the best in battle. With the amount of Pokémon now out in the world, it seems to be excellent for replay value and post-story.
3. Pokémon Stadium-esque Minigames
Is this the marmite of the Pokémon world? I surely hope not! I spent my childhood playing these mini games with family and friends, to the point where we would play them as a standalone session rather than just a way to chill out between battles. I also liked the way that you could help grind your Pokémon’s stats in these simple but effective mini games in Pokémon X and Pokémon Y – so a multiplayer version of this in Pokemon Switch, where trainers could bond with their Pokémon in the process seems like a win-win to me.
4. A good online hub
So the Pokémon Sun and Moon’s Festival Plaza had some good features in order to buff your Pokémon to certain levels after the Elite four, which can help for post-game things, as well as getting to guide your online visitors around your personalised set up. Hopefully the Pokemon Switch version will build up on the online features of the plaza and previous games that will keep players interested throughout.
5. Multiple narratives?
The idea of Trials in Sun and Moon as an alternative to badge harvesting was very refreshing to me. Could there be a sense of a global Pokémon journey – where each place offers a new way of existing with Pokémon? The franchise seems to focus on journeying, travelling and discovering new places and people, so having this in one game (an open world like Zelda, maybe) would have me as hooked (or even more) than I was with Breath of the Wild.
So there we have it – what would you like to see in Pokemon Switch?
