“They’re toxic, so they deserve a toxic game.” This is what a friend jokingly told me the other day in reference to the general Pokémon fanbase, in reference to the reveal of Pokémon Unite.
Pokémon Unite is the franchise’s just-announced step into the world of MOBA, or multiplayer online battle arena. Fans were furious when this game “took the place” of an announcement for Diamond & Pearl remakes or a Johto version of a Let’s Go title. However, there was a deviation of people who agreed that this wasn’t the right time for the launch of yet another core title. Rather than feeding the fire of greedy fans, The Pokémon Company is taking the right step by giving us a filler game and having Game Freak focus on making Crown Tundra a big step up from the recent releases.
Sometimes, watching Pokémon fans respond to things is amusingly comparable to watching a toddler scream their head off when you take away their candy bar. Whether it’s being angry that Galarian Ponyta isn’t a Fairy-type, threatening to boycott a game over a limited Pokedex, or spitting fire when Alola has a different challenge setup, there never seems to be a dull moment with this community. Again, just like small children, they shout when they don’t get their way, shout when they do because it isn’t good enough or wasn’t what they wanted. Game Freak is the parent who was feeding into this behavior for a while, but the backlash that surrounded Sword & Shield was evidently enough to make them realize it was time to take a step back as far as the process of developing core games goes.
Players tend to forget that Pokémon is a series aimed at all ages. They’ve survived by keeping the same niche so that they can market themselves to new generations of players time and time again. Many of said players never lose a love for the game, but when you age, what you’re looking for in a game becomes different than what it was when you were eight years old. What Game Freak has to do is take the time to find a harmony of medium between what older players are interested in and something that will be appropriate for children to enjoy. Several fans have voiced the complaint that the core games just aren’t challenging enough for them, so this is the perfect chance for developers to take time to work on how to put hard and easy modes into the future titles.
The release of Pokémon Cafe Mix, Unite, and even the Gacha Pokémon Masters are all signs that the Pokémon Company is stepping out of its comfort zone with creating non-core games. In Masters, everyone has only one Pokémon and you focus on leveling up the trainer and their partner as a duo. Pokémon Unite could even be seen as a way of Nintendo answering the call of people who wanted something a little bit more challenging, or even a way to magnetize MOBA players into the fandom. So for the time being, let’s try to appreciate what Game Freak is sharing and offer them the benefit of the doubt that Crown Tundra will wow us.
Doesn’t mean I may or may not be secretly hoping for a Hey You, Pikachu! remake of course.
