{"id":136803,"date":"2026-04-11T05:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-199763"},"modified":"2026-04-11T05:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:25:00","slug":"round-up-the-reviews-are-in-for-pokemon-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/04\/11\/round-up-the-reviews-are-in-for-pokemon-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Pok\u00e9mon Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/850b1a7dba96f\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/850b1a7dba96f\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"850b1a7dba96f\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Pok\u00e9mon Champions\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/850b1a7dba96f\/pokemon-champions.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/850b1a7dba96f\/pokemon-champions.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"563\" alt=\"Pok\u00e9mon Champions\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: The Pok\u00e9mon Company<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The new &#8220;free-to-start&#8221; battle game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/pokemon_champions\">Pok\u00e9mon Champions<\/a> launched for the Switch this week and critics have now had their say.<\/p>\n<p>Starting with our own review here on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/pokemon-champions\"><strong>Nintendo Life<\/strong><\/a>, we said this new title was the most accessible but flawed competitive Pok\u00e9mon has ever been, awarding it five out of ten stars:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The core mechanics of online competitive Pok\u00e9mon battles remain as solid as a Steelix&#8230;But as it stands, the convoluted monetisation, disappointing performance, and inexplicable bugs make this another lacklustre Pok\u00e9mon experience to add to the pile.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/nintendo-switch\/related-articles:199605 @ 1775922203 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what other outlets had to say:<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/pokemon-champions-review\"><strong>IGN (Review in progress)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;While it is a functional way to let you pit Pok\u00e9mon against others around the globe, its lackluster offerings out of the gate don\u2019t inspire much excitement at the moment&#8230;While being \u201cfree\u201d gives it some allure, you really need to send your own Pok\u00e9mon over from Home to properly take advantage of it, which means you already have better, more complete games at your disposal&#8230;right now Champions feels like it might need an evolution of its own if it wants to be the very best Pok\u00e9mon battler out there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/pokemon-champions-review\/\"><strong>ScreenRant &#8211; 5\/10<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of work to be done, but <em>Pok\u00e9mon Champions<\/em> could end up in a better spot over time. Nipping the bugs in the bud is a great start, and there are already promising updates on that front. But it also needs a fundamental shakeup, and more modes need to be added to prevent folks from leaving.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;With some better options for party diversity, a bigger Pok\u00e9dex, and custom modes, <em>Pok\u00e9mon Champions<\/em> could be a great side game for huge Pok\u00e9mon fans. For now, it&#8217;s a flawed experiment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dexerto.com\/gaming\/pokemon-champions-review-an-unfinished-battle-sim-with-huge-potential-3348327\/\"><strong>Dexerto &#8211; 3\/5<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Pokemon Champions has a fantastic onboarding process for players unfamiliar with the ins and outs of competitive battling, but it still feels like it needs work. It would massively benefit from smoother performance, a review of its puzzling monetization, and a toning down of its grind, which, while more straightforward than the mainline games, requires sizable time investment just to unlock everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/reviews\/pokemon-champions-review-the-battle-frontier\/1900-6418480\/\"><strong>GameSpot &#8211; 7\/10<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Assuming The Pokemon Company continues to support Champions with balance patches, new features, new Pokemon, and new items on a regular basis, it could live up to its potential as the premier avenue for Pokemon Battles.Right now, though, Pokemon Champions provides two different experiences for seasoned players and newcomers respectively&#8211;and unfortunately for newcomers, it&#8217;s an uneven one that will require a lot of their own dedication and time to improve. Perhaps the barrier to entry for competitive Pokemon can never be smashed entirely, but Champions wears it down, and those willing to push through it will find one of the most thrilling competitive games on the other side.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr>\n<aside class=\"object object-youtube\">\n<figure class=\"youtube\" data-videoid=\"AZr7HQh_iJ4\" data-start=\"0\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AZr7HQh_iJ4?rel=0&amp;hd=1&amp;showinfo=0&amp;modestbranding=0&amp;autohide=1\"><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/nintendo-switch\/related-articles:199729,199672,199654 @ 1775921710 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<p>Have you downloaded Pok\u00e9mon Champions? How are you finding it so far? <em>Let us know in the comments.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: The Pok\u00e9mon Company The new &#8220;free-to-start&#8221; battle game Pok\u00e9mon Champions launched for the Switch this week and critics have now had their say. Starting with our own review here on Nintendo Life, we said this new title was the most accessible but flawed competitive Pok\u00e9mon has ever been, awarding it five out of ten [&hellip;]<\/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-136803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136803","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=136803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}