New game Pokémon Champions revealed for Switch & mobile on Pokémon Day

The annual Pokémon Day showcase has unveiled a brand new Pokémon game that focuses on the series’ old school turn-based battles.

Many of the entertainment world’s biggest franchises now have their own celebratory day, whether it’s Star Wars and May The 4th Be With You or Alien Day on April 26 (as in the planet LV-426). Pokémon Day’s origins aren’t quite so contrived though, as February 27 is simple the day the original Pokémon Red and Green games were released in Japan, in 1996.

That means it’s only the 29th anniversary this year and yet we still got two significant announcements during Thursday’s Pokémon Presents showcase: the first proper look at Pokémon Legends: Z-A and a brand new game called Pokémon Champions.

Champions will be released for both Switch and iOS/Android and will focus on the old school turn-based battles of the series, in what seems to be essentially a modern update of the Pokémon Stadium titles.

Although there was a nice reveal trailer, showing Pokémon battles through the ages, from Game Boy to Switch, it wasn’t super clear what the game is.

It’s implied the battles will work the same as the mainline games but how exactly you obtain the pokémon you fight with wasn’t mentioned.

In Pokémon Stadium you basically just got loaners, with generic stats, but you could also upload and use your own pokémon from the mainline games. It seems Champions might work in a similar manner, with the reveal trailer boasting of access to Pokémon Home, which in turn gives you the ability to use critters you’ve caught in Pokémon Go and Scarlet/Violet.

There was no mention of the Nintendo Switch 2 at all during the Pokémon Presents but since it’s backwards compatible with the original Switch, Pokémon Champions and Z-A should work on it anyway – even if the games aren’t necessarily enhanced in any way.

The showcase was just shy of 20 minutes long but the other announcements were merely minor updates to the various other ongoing games.

This included Pokèmon Go, Pokèmon Cafè Remix, Pokèmon Sleep, Pokèmon Unite, and Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, most of which had special promotions or free gifts for Pokémon Day.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet does too, even if it’s just a Rotom phone case, while the physical trading card game was announced as getting mega evolutions.

There was also a spot for Pokémon Concierge, whose stop motion animation continues to make it the most visually interesting of the Pokémon cartoons.

The show will be getting new episodes on Netflix in September, with the addition of pokémon Shinx, Growlithe, and Corphish. If you’ve not seen the show, then the first four episodes will be free on the Pokémon Company YouTube channel until March 9.

There was no hint of a tenth generation mainline Pokémon game, but given the criticism that developer Game Freak has faced over the technical failings of the last two games they seem to be taking their time with the next one, which will likely be a Switch 2 exclusive.

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