At the height of late 90s Pokemania, Nintendo released Pokemon Stadium for the Nintendo 64. Instead of offering a full-fledged RPG adventure like the Game Boy games, Pokemon Stadium kept the focus on Pokemon battles. The game was popular enough to warrant a direct sequel and a handful of spiritual successors, but Nintendo and The Pokemon Company moved away from this style of game after the Wii’s Pokemon Battle Revolution. 20 years later, there’s finally a new game to carry on the Pokemon Stadium legacy in the form of the free-to-start Pokemon Champions. Sadly for those that have been waiting ages for a new game in the Pokemon Stadium style, Pokemon Champions doesn’t come close to delivering an experience as strong as its predecessors.
Pokemon Stadium was primarily a game about Pokemon battles, stripping away the adventure and exploration of the main series games, but it had some extra bells and whistles to make it a little more appealing. The big draw of Pokemon Stadium was seeing Pokemon fully rendered in 3D, many for the first time ever, plus it offered connectivity with the Game Boy games and featured genuinely fun multiplayer mini-games. Pokemon Champions, by comparison, really only has the battles, so there’s not much to chew on beyond that.
One’s enjoyment of Pokemon Champions is going to depend entirely on whether they are interested in competitive Pokemon battles. Pokemon Champions boasts Ranked Battles, Casual Battles, Private Battles, and Online Competitions, with Single Battle and Double Battle variants. The goal of the game is to win online battles and reach the elusive Champion tier.
Pokemon Champions is All About Battling
Battles in Pokemon Champions play out like they have in the main series Pokemon games for decades. Players take turns using moves as they try to knock out their opponent’s Pokemon. Pokemon types play a major role in one’s success in any given Pokemon Champions battle, as using Pokemon that are super-effective against your opponents’ creatures is the quickest and most reliable path to victory. There are abilities, held items, and various other things to keep in mind as well, but at its core, Pokemon Champions battles are mostly about picking the right Pokemon to use.
In a standard 1v1 match, Pokemon Champions players choose three Pokemon from their pool of six, and their opponent does the same. This way, no one knows who will have the type advantage until the battle starts. This makes sense, though the complete lack of 6v6 battles is disappointing.
The lack of 6v6 is far from the only disappointing exclusion in Pokemon Champions. The game also lacks any kind of local multiplayer battles, which was a staple of its predecessors. Pokemon Champions is focused strictly on the online experience, but it’s still a rather baffling oversight to not have at least the option for local fights.
The lack of options at launch makes Pokemon Champions feel pretty barebones. On the bright side, the battles themselves look great. While Pokemon Champions has some bugs that have impacted the visuals for some gamers, I personally haven’t had any issues and think the game looks pretty great. Pokemon and their attacks have never looked as sharp as they do in Pokemon Champions, and hopefully the 3D models here are a sign of things to come for the Generation 10 games, Pokemon Winds and Waves.
But while the Pokemon in Pokemon Champions look fantastic, that shines a light on another of the game’s shortcomings. There are only 187 Pokemon in Pokemon Champions at launch, which is a mere fraction of the 1,000+ that currently exist. This theoretically means Pokemon Champions battles can be better balanced since there are fewer moving parts, but the general lack of Pokemon is yet another way the game feels incomplete.
To Catch Them is My Real Test, To Train Them is My Cause
The way that Pokemon are earned in Pokemon Champions is a little interesting, at least. Once a day, Pokemon Champions players can meet a lineup of randomly selected Pokemon for free, and then choose which one they want. Additional Pokemon recruitment in any given day costs Quick Coupons or Victory Points (VP). Once a new Pokemon is selected, players can choose to recruit them on a trial basis of seven days for free, or pay VP to keep them forever.
Any Pokemon fans that use the Pokemon Home app can also bring their Pokemon from other games to Pokemon Champions and use them instead. But regardless, adding new Pokemon to your roster is always fun, and it’s exciting to see what will pop up. Tying Pokemon catching to VP and other in-game consumables would potentially be a recipe for disaster, but Pokemon Champions alleviates the pain by making these things fairly easy to get without spending real money.
Pokemon Champions doles out all kinds of free goodies through its Daily, Weekly, and Starter missions. Simply playing the game is enough to earn plenty and keep Pokemon Champions‘ monetization model from becoming overbearing. In fact, anyone entertained enough by the Pokemon battles to stick with the game for the long haul should be able to get a lot of time out of Pokemon Champions without ever feeling the need to spend any money.
Some Pokemon Champions players have reported serious connectivity problems. I haven’t had too many issues, but it is annoying how “Communicating…” pops up on the screen before most moves.
VP is used for more than catching Pokemon. It can also be used in the Frontier Shop to get held items, Mega Stones, and avatar customization options. Additionally, those that want to go under the hood and tweak their Pokemon to perfectly match what they’re looking for can spend VP to “train” their Pokemon and reallocate their stat points.
At the time of this writing, it is not possible to buy VP directly in Pokemon Champions, but diehard fans can choose to buy the Premium track of the Battle Pass for $9.99 and a membership that’s either $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. The membership comes with 1,000 additional box spaces, 15 more Battle Teams, exclusive missions, and songs. If you are someone that is serious about competitive Pokemon battles and is confident that the game will hold your attention, then by all means, but I don’t think it’s anything that most people need to spend money on. The free experience is perfectly serviceable for what it is, and it’s not like buying the membership adds anything that significant.
Pokemon Champions is easier to tolerate because its monetization model doesn’t seem to be predatory or egregious, like what we see with many other free-to-play games. It delivers fun Pokemon battles that look great, but the game’s biggest issue is the lack of content. Anyone that needs a little more than endless Pokemon battles isn’t going to get a lot out of Pokemon Champions, but at least those that do decide to play it regularly won’t have to break the bank to enjoy it.
Pokemon Champions is out now for Nintendo Switch with iOS and Android versions coming later in 2026.
