The Pokemon franchise has always encouraged players to “catch ’em all”, but in recent years, that slogan has nearly destroyed the franchise. However, a newly announced game could remind players why they picked up that Poke Ball in the first place.
During the Pokemon Day 2025 Presents live stream, fans of the franchise were surprised by an announcement trailer no one had expected. Instead of a Black and White remake, or some another off-shoot game with moba elements, the first look at a title called Pokemon Champions was offered.
This game, coming to the Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, will focus on the “main” series battle mechanics, encouraging players to curate a team of powerful companions and go up against others around the world.
The trailer was surprising and refreshing, offering something nostalgic and familiar that differed greatly from the overconsumption-style gameplay that has plagued the series since Pokemon Go’s release.
Pokemon Go’s hoarding has broken the series
NIANTIC/DEXERTOWhile collecting boxes of Pokemon was always a goal in the games before Pokemon Go, the release of the mobile app in 2016 took collecting to a whole new level. Gone were the days of fostering a deep and emotional relationship with your starting team and taking them to the finish line.
In its place, constant mobile gameplay, events, and updates directed players to catch more and more. Legendaries became dime-a-dozen as players farmed Raids for Shinies. Rare Pokemon were only good if they were Shiny with perfect IVs. The tap-to-battle Go Battle League became a meta of two dozen options with the best stats.
Pokemon went from an epic trainer journey to a frantic, furious frenzy of overconsumption, leaving players pummeled by a never-ending feeling of fomo and lacking satisfaction with gameplay.
Unfortunately, the “more is best” motto didn’t stop at Pokemon Go. The Let’s Go games turned the Kanto region into a thinnly-veiled version of the mobile app, Legends: Arceus ditched a solid story for fetch quests to catch dozens of the same species, and Scarlet and Violet were nearly destroyed by mechanics designed primarily to encourage Shiny hunting.
In fact, as I finished Pokemon Scarlet and Violet in 2022, I remembered feeling empty. I had boxes of Shiny Pokemon. There were dozens of catches with good IVs…but to what end? There was no Battle Tower to take my favorites against challenging opponents. There were no endgame goals outside of getting a Shiny Charm to occupy my time. It felt pointless. When had Pokemon boiled down to a bunch of boxes filled with prizes? What happened to the elation of battle, success, and accomplishment?
Pokemon Battles aren’t just for level grinding
One of the worst things to come out of the Pokemon Go era of gameplay was the erasure of trainer battles. In the original games, battling NPCs was a crucial part of world emersion and was required for leveling up to face Gym Leaders.
In Pokemon Go, battling is not the focus. It can be completely ignored if players don’t want to engage with it. In Legends: Arceus, it was significantly reduced, and by Scarlet and Violet, only a handful of NPC trainer battles were left in the game – and these could be skipped entirely.
“If two trainers’ eyes meet, a Pokemon battle must occur.” This line was a staple, even more so than the catch tutorial, of earlier games in a franchise. From Ash Ketchum flinging Poke Balls at every person he met to the grueling challenge of Victory Road in the video games, a trainer knew that to be the best, they had to battle.
The removal of the battle system from recent games has left them empty, and players have had to fill the void with as many catches as they can manage. I believe the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, but always getting the same thing.
I caught so many Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet looking for the high older titles used to offer, and instead, I was buried in Pawmi and empty inside. Paldea truly drove me to madness.
Pokemon Champions could fix what Pokemon Go broke
While the details on the newly announced Pokemon Champions have been limited, with more information promised in the near future, the first look at how the game would function was very promising.
Players will curate teams of Pokemon to battle opponents. They will also be able to use HOME to bring their favorites from previous games into Champions. This means all those Shiny Pokemon with perfect stats could finally have a purpose outside of sitting in a storage box.
Champions aims to allow “core game-style battles to be enjoyed by more players than ever before”, putting the joy of traditional Pokemon battles at the foundation of the new game. It seems to be an expanded version of the Battle Tower, where players can battle real people instead of NPCs.
At this time, it doesn’t seem like there will be a heavy focus on catch mechanics, Shiny hunting, or Gacha reward systems of other current titles, allowing players to train hard and battle up the ranks with their favorite companions.
This return to a core mechanic in the Pokemon franchise isn’t just exciting; it’s critical. The series needs to be more than a Shiny generating Pokemon storage system. Without the core elements that made the original games fun, there isn’t enough in the titles to keep fans playing. This has led to shorter lifespans of interest in recent titles and fatigue from those who have loved the series since its inception.
Champions can be the thing that reminds players that there is more to Pokemon than Shiny encounters and catch hauls. The satisfaction of working hard and building up a magnificent team of powerful monsters is part of what makes the games amazing, and it needs to come back.
