Nintendo has announced a number of new Pokémon Games, bringing some of its traditional battling, open-world exploration and collecting mechanics to a home console for the very first time. However, they aren't quite what fans of the mainline series have been hoping for. Fortunately, those same fans may get exactly what they want some time next year.
The three big games that Nintendo showed off during last night's direct showing were Pokémon Quest, Pokémon Go: Pikachu and Pokémon Go: Eevee. The former is a casual title with bizarre looking Minecraft-like graphics, non-traditional battling mechanics, no trainers whatsoever, and levels to "clear" with minigames, chests to unlock and trophies to earn. It's an odd entry in the series, but it's free to play and is clearly targeting a completely different audience than the usual.
Pokémon Go: Pikachu and Pokémon Go Eevee on the other hand, are a little bit more typical. They feature open world exploration, traditional Pokémon battling and a proper story to fight through. It also introduces cooperative play for the first time in the series -- but what fans aren't so happy about is that the capture mechanics are straight out of Pokémon Go, the mobile game. You'll also be able to swap Pokémon back and forth between your phone and the Switch game, which some are happy with, others aren't.
If all of that sounds disheartening to you, then never fear, as Nintendo had one more trick up its sleeve during the announcement. It said that it was planning another Pokémon release on the Switch in 2019. It's the second half of 2019, but it is a "core series Pokémon RPG," will be everything you've come to expect from the series over the year, as well as introducing a tonne of new Pokémon.
With #PokemonQuest and #PokemonLetsGo, there are so many new ways to explore the world of Pokémon! Trainers can look forward to even more with an all-new core series Pokémon RPG title in development for the second half of 2019! pic.twitter.com/d5uiIpenMI
— Pokémon (@Pokemon) May 30, 2018
It's going to be a bit of wait, but considering fans have been waiting for a proper, home console Pokémon game since the mid-90s, another year's wait isn't too much to ask.
