The highly anticipated “big project” from The Pokémon Company turned out to be a 5v5 MOBA game coming out later this year.
Pokémon Unite is being joint developed by The Pokémon Company and Tencent’s studio Timi. It will be releasing on the Nintendo Switch and Mobile.
The game has crossplay between both platforms and will be free-to-start. The announcement caused massive uproar in the Pokémon community, and I just wanted to share my thoughts.
People were expecting the “big project” to be Diamond and Pearl remakes, or even a Let’s GO sequel. We even had the company president, Tsunekazu Ishihara hyping up the reveal.
Everyone had high expectations and unsurprisingly, Pokémon Unite failed to live upto them. I’m trying to look at the game with an open-mind though, and honestly it’s hard.
Personally I was hoping for them to revive one of the spin-off series. Bringing back Pokemon Ranger, or a proper new entry in Mystery Dungeon.
There’s no reason why this couldn’t have been announced with New Pokemon Snap and Cafe Mix. It probably would have softened the backlash too.
That being said, I don’t think Pokémon Unite looks terrible. I’m a huge fan of League of Legends and Pokemon as a franchise has ideas that lend itself well to the MOBA style.
We’ve seen in gameplay footage already how the developers have created some unique systems based around Pokemon concepts. Such as Evolution, or Abilities changing as you level up.
It also looks like the game is drawing inspiration from League of Legend’s Dominion mode, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s fresh compared to the typical MOBA format.
Pokémon Unite has potential to be good, however the challenge is going to lie in winning the fanbase over.
On paper, there is no better company than Tencent when it comes to developing MOBAs. Because they’ve had over a decade experience with League of Legends.
Pokémon is also the biggest franchise in the world, so the game is going to get plenty of attention when it releases.
Whilst the announcement for Pokémon Unite could have been handled better, it’s too early to judge the game itself.
If you want to learn more about Pokemon Unite, you can check out the website here.