{"id":136791,"date":"2026-04-10T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-199605"},"modified":"2026-04-10T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:00:00","slug":"review-pokemon-champions-switch-the-most-accessible-flawed-competitive-pokemon-has-ever-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/04\/10\/review-pokemon-champions-switch-the-most-accessible-flawed-competitive-pokemon-has-ever-been\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Pok\u00e9mon Champions (Switch) \u2013 The Most Accessible & Flawed Competitive Pok\u00e9mon Has Ever Been"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\"Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keeping up with competitive Pok\u00e9mon battling has always been a hassle. As the mainline series shifts from generation to generation, so does which Pok\u00e9mon are available, access to specific Pok\u00e9mon, methods for training those Pok\u00e9mon, the introduction of new moves, abilities, and held items, as well as a continued cycle of overpowered strategies and how to counter them. It\u2019s very easy to fall behind.<\/p>\n

I myself fell behind after skipping most of the Pok\u00e9mon Scarlet & Violet<\/a> era that ran from November 2022 to April 2026. After such a long break, I was excited to hop back in to the next era with Pok\u00e9mon Champions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Champions, you see, is the new free-to-play home of competitive Pok\u00e9mon, releasing on both Switches and eventually mobile devices. It promises to both centralise and streamline battling; what\u2019s more, Champions\u2019 structure alludes to the eventual return to older battle gimmicks like Z-Moves and Dynamax, which aren\u2019t available in Scarlet & Violet and likely won\u2019t be programmed into the upcoming Pok\u00e9mon Wind & Waves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which all sounds great if you\u2019re a veteran player or a newcomer curious about competitive Pok\u00e9mon, right? Well, yes and no \u2013 Champions has released in a sorry state that creates more problems than it solves, though it does solve one massive issue that overshadows all others.<\/p>\n

With Champions, training Pocket Monsters has never been easier. Traditionally, breeding for perfect Individual Values (IVs), Effort Values (EVs), specific moves, and hidden abilities could take hours per ‘mon; for an average player like myself, experimenting with different Pok\u00e9mon and stat spreads was not worth the time commitment.<\/p>\n

That is no longer the case. In Champions, you can hop into the training menu and simply set your desired EVs, abilities, and moves. IVs thankfully have gone the way of the Aerodactyl.<\/p>\n

Before, if I wanted to make a Trick Room team \u2014 a move that allows slower Pok\u00e9mon to act first \u2014 I\u2019d need to catch Ditto with the lowest possible Speed IV to breed the rest of the team with. Then, I\u2019d need to hatch dozens upon dozens of eggs per Pok\u00e9mon until they were all as slow as possible, allowing me to beat out other Trick Room teams.<\/p>\n

\"Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It took me less than five minutes to put a Trick Room team together before queuing up for ranked battles in Champions. When I wanted to use my slow Incineroar on a faster team, I quickly switched the infamously overpowered Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s stats around for the low price of some in-game resources \u2013 more on those later.<\/p>\n

Champions further streamlines things by introducing a way to recruit Pok\u00e9mon, sidestepping the need to boot up a different game, transfer a ‘mon to Pok\u00e9mon HOME<\/a>, and then transfer it into Champions \u2013 though that option is still available and likely preferable to those that already have battle-ready rosters, because recruiting relies on a bit of luck.<\/p>\n

You can roll a random lineup of 10 Pok\u00e9mon once a day \u2014 or spend a resource called Quick Tickets to do so immediately \u2014 and recruit one of them on a trial or permanent basis with the latter requiring a different type of ticket, though unfortunately these recruited ‘mons can\u2019t be transferred to other games.<\/p>\n

\"Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found this immensely helpful to bring myself up to competitive speed because I did not have a Sinischa, Basculegion, or Sneasler ready to go, which are three of the most powerful Pok\u00e9mon currently playable. I simply spent some Quick Tickets to roll the gatcha-like system a few times until these Pok\u00e9mon appeared and voil\u00e0 \u2013 a handful of competitive monsters were born.<\/p>\n

No longer do I feel like there\u2019s a massive Mount Coronet to climb before I can even think about competing on a ranked ladder. As a result, I do think Champions will draw more people into the scene \u2013 especially if future updates solve the new problems introduced alongside these boons.<\/p>\n

Foremost is the convoluted monetisation. It\u2019s \u2018free-to-play\u2019 but offers a $6.99 \/ \u00a35.99 Starter Pack that entices with some resources and much more space to store Pok\u00e9mon, as the initial limit of 30 is incredibly restrictive. There\u2019s a premium in-game battle pass that \u2014 thankfully \u2014 only locks cosmetics behind a $9.99 \/ \u00a37.99 price tag, and then a $4.99 \/ \u00a34.19 monthly Membership (or $49.99 \/ \u00a341.99 for 12 months) that provides more missions to obtain resources to train and recruit Pok\u00e9mon, even more spaces to store Pok\u00e9mon, and some other goodies.<\/p>\n

\"Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then there\u2019s a Pok\u00e9mon HOME subscription ($2.99 \/ \u00a32.69 monthly or $15.99 \/ \u00a314.39 annually) that you\u2019ll probably want so you can bring over Pok\u00e9mon from other games more easily, as the free version is also restrictive on space. Other than the Starter Pack, these are all recurring monthly or yearly charges.<\/p>\n

Having transferred over and trained lots of Pok\u00e9mon already, I can say with confidence that most of the paid content is unnecessary \u2013 especially the Battle Pass. I have plenty of tickets of every type to use if I wish to customise teams further. That said, I could definitely see resources becoming scarce in the future when more Pok\u00e9mon are added.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Champions can get expensive quickly for what amounts to not much more than an online mode available in every other mainline Pok\u00e9mon game. Other than some helpful tutorials and some quirky characters that act as glorified menus, there\u2019s no story here, nor are there any unique ways to battle or \u2014 inexplicably \u2014 options to customise rulesets in private matches.<\/p>\n

\"Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Making matters worse are technical issues and oversights. Certain mechanics \u2014 like the order Mega abilities trigger in \u2014 are broken at launch, though there are plans to squash these bugs<\/a> in the works.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m personally more annoyed about the poor performance on Switch 2. I assumed the promised free Switch 2 upgrade was delayed at first because Champions looks rough and runs at 30 fps. Turns out there\u2019s a bug where you have to undock and redock your Switch 2<\/a> for it to load 4K visuals. However, I was certain some 60fps update was on the horizon when an opponent\u2019s Politoed set up the rain weather effect and the frame rate dropped further.<\/p>\n

But no \u2013 it seems that update was automatically installed and this is the best it gets on Switch 2. Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Z-A<\/a> and the Switch 2 version of Scarlet & Violet ran at 60fps, so I found it bizarre that Champions launched in this state on the more powerful console. I didn\u2019t mind this as much when playing undocked, which quickly became my preferred way to battle. Champions looks good on the smaller Switch 2 screen.<\/p>\n

\"Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I do, however, disagree with a common criticism I\u2019ve seen online that Champions has too few Pok\u00e9mon or removes too many staple held items like Life Orbs and Choice Specs. We don\u2019t know the timeline for new additions, but this restrictive start has two things going for it: it allows newer players to get up to speed and recruit good Pok\u00e9mon, and it creates a unique meta where veterans can enjoy figuring out what works and what doesn\u2019t instead of falling back on known, overpowered combinations and steamrolling the competition.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simultaneously the most accessible and flawed competitive Pok\u00e9mon has ever been.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

With that all said, the core mechanics of online competitive Pok\u00e9mon battles remain as solid as a Steelix. Predicting whether your opponent will switch out their Whimsicott, protect with their Mega Charizard Y, or try to catch you off guard with a powerful, offensive attack creates mind games as addictive and intense as ever.<\/p>\n

And as someone who has participated in competitive Pok\u00e9mon on-and-off since 2011\u2019s Pok\u00e9mon Black & White<\/a>, the ease with which I can now train Pok\u00e9mon has me hopeful that Champions will, much like Scarlet & Violet before it, evolve into a more complete, comprehensive experience. But as it stands, the convoluted monetisation, disappointing performance, and inexplicable bugs make this another lacklustre Pok\u00e9mon experience to add to the pile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked) Keeping up with competitive Pok\u00e9mon battling has always been a hassle. As the mainline series shifts from generation to generation, so does which Pok\u00e9mon are available, access to specific Pok\u00e9mon, methods for training those Pok\u00e9mon, the introduction of new moves, abilities, and held items, as well as a continued cycle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}