{"id":594204,"date":"2026-04-08T21:27:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/594204\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T21:27:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:27:21","slug":"pokemon-players-roast-woeful-free-nintendo-switch-game-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/594204\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Players Roast Woeful Free Nintendo Switch Game Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new Pok\u00e9mon game for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 is off to a poor start following severe backlash to its limited offering.<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Champions<\/a> launched today and while it\u2019s playable on both the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, the latter console has reportedly received no noticeable improvements despite its more advanced hardware.<\/p>\n

This means the game is locked at a mere 30fps but that\u2019s far from its biggest problem, as players are pulling the game apart for a number of reasons online.<\/p>\n

In short, Pok\u00e9mon Champions is a free-to-play battle simulator that\u2019s supposed to be reminiscent of Pok\u00e9mon Stadium or Pok\u00e9mon Colosseum.<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Home can be connected to it allowing you to transfer your own Pok\u00e9mon from other Nintendo Switch games like Pok\u00e9mon Scarlet & Violet.<\/p>\n

It all sounds good on paper and many were excited for its release but come launch, they were met with nothing short of disappointment. Even some of the freebies released for the game haven\u2019t quelled the outrage.<\/p>\n

Read More: Pok\u00e9mon Drops New Nintendo Switch Freebie After Failed Launch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Champions Has Fainted<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s wrong with the game? At the time of writing, the game is suffering from some minor performance issues on both consoles but the biggest problem stems from the actual content.<\/p>\n

The roster apparently has less Pok\u00e9mon than Pok\u00e9mon Stadium 2 according to Centro LEAKS on X, which for context supported 251 \u2018mon.<\/p>\n

The above is made worse by the fact the game\u2019s Rental Teams, in place for those who can\u2019t transfer their own teams, are sub-par and ultimately useless if you want to be competitive.<\/p>\n

Game modes are also a point of contention, as the game is online-only meaning you can\u2019t have local multiplayer battles with friends. In fact, there\u2019s no singleplayer mode whatsoever, meaning you\u2019re always having to go online rather than potentially face NPC opponents instead.<\/p>\n

\"Pok\u00e9monThe Pokemon Company<\/p>\n

The only silver lining here is that Nintendo Switch Online isn\u2019t required for multiplayer.<\/p>\n

However, the biggest sin Pok\u00e9mon Champions commits is there are no 6v6 battles.<\/p>\n

For the longest time, Pok\u00e9mon battles have allowed players to form their own teams of six \u2018mon and pit them against each other, but that\u2019s not possible in this free-to-play game.<\/p>\n

This has been by far the most prominent criticism we\u2019ve seen of the game so far.<\/p>\n

Even Joe Merrick from Serebii has weighed in on the game\u2019s launch with a post saying<\/a>, \u201cGoing from the perfection of Pokopia to this…whiplash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Champion\u2019s launch day is rough to say the least – and while the game is free-to-play, it\u2019s clear players were expecting more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new Pok\u00e9mon game for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 is off to a poor start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,11222,10844,68736,127,346,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-594204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-free-games","11":"tag-nintendo","12":"tag-nintendo-switch","13":"tag-nintendo-switch-2","14":"tag-pokemon","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}