Pokemon Champions Review: Not Quite The Champion It Aimed To Become

As a Pokemon fan and someone who enjoys competitive games, Pokemon Champions instantly caught my attention. We’ve all dreamed of becoming a legendary trainer like Ash Ketchum from the classic anime, right? Well, Champions exactly puts you in the shoes of an actual Pokemon trailer where you “Collect ’em all” and battle them in stadiums.

To be honest with you, I’ve always been a fan of Pokemon Battles, so Champions was right up my alley when I saw the gameplay for the first time. It felt like a new arena where I could get on that endless grind to elevate my ranks as a Pokemon trainer, while I catch Pokemon in the wild in GO. And after spending a good amount of time, around 20-something hours with Champions, I’m left with mixed feelings like a poor Psyduck.

Sure, the game is the next VGC standard for competitive Pokemon play, and some features do genuinely stand out, but they aren’t enough to cover up the mess I’ve had to go through, which left me disappointed. So, as I step out of yet another disappointing Pokemon battle with my Charizard getting whooped by a Lucario, here’s my Pokemon Champions review, something you might relate to or revolt.

All Your Pokemon Can Shine in Champions

There are plenty of Pokemon games out there, and I’ve played almost every one of them. Call it an obsession or training, but I’ve built the best teams you can find in these games, and have always wanted to bring them all together in one place. After all, I grew up watching Ash and Brock’s escapades through the Kanto region. Thankfully, Pokemon Champions delivers on that idea really well.

Using the Pokemon HOME app, you can bring your favorite Pokemon across various titles, such as Pokemon GO, Scarlet & Violet, Legends ZA, and many more. And honestly, this is where things started to click for me. I already had a bunch of top meta picks like Incineroar, Garchomp, and Gengar ready to go, so putting my team together felt almost effortless. Moving them from Pokemon GO to Pokemon HOME was smooth and quick, with no hassle at all.

But here’s where things get a bit rough. If you haven’t played any of the Pokemon games, then you’re pretty much stuck spending a ton of in-game currency just to recruit Pokemon. In my case, having my Pokemon transferred from other games gave me a solid advantage. I could focus on training, experimenting, and filling the gaps in my team without worrying about building everything from scratch — and honestly, that makes a huge difference.

Training Pokemon is Easier Than Ever

If you’ve played any of the mainline Pokemon games, then you’ve known the pain behind training a team of six Pokemon. Grind for hours, catch every encountered Pokemon, check their IVs, and further breed them by spending more resources, just to get the perfect setup. This was a fun experience for me, but doing it again and again drained me to a point where I just stopped farming for those perfect battle-oriented stats.

Others might enjoy this tedious process, but honestly, I loved breeding. At the same time, grinding for hours just to get that perfect IV wasn’t my thing. Pokemon GO simplified that by introducing a new stats system, which simplified the core needed for competitive Trainer Battles.

However, Pokemon Champions makes it more accessible for new and experienced players. The depth of the stats, moves, and every other detail from mainline Pokemon titles is still there, which is crucial for a game where your Pokemon’s technicality matters more than anything.

Instead of grinding for hours, slapping countless wild Pokemon and managing a breeding factory, you can simply use the game’s sole currency, Victory Points, to get things done. Simply select the Stat Alignment, allot the Stats points, and slap the desired movesets and abilities on your Pokemon at the cost of a mere amount of VP. In just a few steps, your Pokemon is battle-ready. But there’s a massive hurdle that comes with this.

The Progression Curve of Pokemon Champions Needs A Revamp

As I’ve said before, I’ve been a Pokemon trainer all my life, so things like the Pokemon Type Chart, matchups, advantages, and disadvantages feel second nature to me. But, imagine thinking about a new player who just started their Pokemon journey with this game. It’s a completely different ball game for them.

The learning curve for Pokemon Champions is too steep, just because learning the fundamentals of Pokemon matchups and team building can be quite a complicated process; something a non-Pokemon fanatic will find quite hard to grasp.

Don’t get me wrong, the game does include tutorials, and while I skipped most of them except the rewarding ones, they mainly cover battle modes, mechanics, and features like Mega Evolution. For a new player, that might sound helpful, but it’s not enough to truly understand how Pokemon battles work. With the free Pokemon and basic guidance, you can climb to the lower ranks, but progressing beyond that becomes much harder.

What makes the progression curve worse is the limited number of usable Pokemon and a stingy amount of rewards. I am a sucker for competitive battles, and climbing through ranked modes for me was like an Aipom climbing a tree. But I stopped at Ultra Ball Tier 2, the moment I learned about the rewards for reaching the next rank.

The Champions Tier is the highest rank in Pokemon Champions, which is equivalent to the top 300 players in the world. Yet, it rewards you with only 1,000 VP. Yep, you heard that right. All that grind, but for what?

As lucrative as it sounds to a non-Pokemon player, for me, this was absolute daylight robbery. I mean, no extra Pokemon storage, no bonuses, nothing. Reaching the top should feel rewarding, but right now, the grind doesn’t match the payoff, and you can say I felt like a Snorlax at that point.

Limited Pokemon Roster Might Be a Blessing or a Disaster

Coming to the Pokedex in Pokemon Champions, it’s quite limited, making it one of the biggest turn-offs for me as a Pokemon fan. When I first saw the full list of Pokemon that were going to be in Champions, it felt like pure ragebait to me. My favorite Pokemon Metagross, Rayquaza, Mewtwo, and some others were cut out of the game and that was honestly quite shocking.

But I moved on from it because I’ve always enjoyed experimenting with different Pokemon and building creative teams around them. Getting those underrated options, combining them with the best Pokemon in Champions, and making a team that takes your opponents by surprise. This is something that I loved doing, with both Pokemon GO teams and TCG Pocket decks. Unfortunately, Champions limits my creativity and slaps me like I’m from Team Rocket.

But the biggest shocker to me was that Pokemon Champions only allows final evolutions. This meant that I wasn’t able to use the Electabuzz, Magmar, or Chansey combo with the Eviolite item that boosts the Def and Sp Def of Pokemon that can still evolve. On top of that, some of the best held items, like Rocky Helmet, Life Orb, and Assault Vest, were missing from the game. I’ve used these items quite frequently in the past, so building a team without them feels like Champions is just trolling me at this point.

Honestly, the lack of Pokemon and items is understandable because The Pokemon Works wanted to “play it safe” and make the game “beginner-friendly”. But at the same time, they’ll just raise the learning curve and ask you to grind until you actually understand what the game is about. I mean, really?

But letting that aside as well, because I’m a loyal franchise fanboy, playing with a limited number of Pokemon and items made the game quite stagnant for me, as I wasn’t able to explore some wild team-building possibilities I was ambitious about. But guess what? That too, is being restricted by the limited Pokemon Storage, which is the worst nightmare for a free-to-play player. Well played, The Pokemon Company, please, take my Poke Balls as well now.

Free-to-play Game That is Not So Free-to-play

Pokemon Champions is a free-to-play game, and like every live service game, monetization plays a key role here. However, the game was quite conveniently labeled as a “free-to-start” title; it is majorly locked behind paid subscriptions like Starter and memberships if you take a closer look at it.

After the sales figures for Legends ZA were quite disappointing, The Pokemon Company went for another cash grab tactic with Champions, and this time they know how to play their cards right, because let’s be honest, VGC trainers will pay for microtransactions, like Starter Pack.

Let me break it down for you with an example: so the base storage capacity of Pokemon Champions is 30, and once you hit the storage limit, you’re forced to send some Pokemon back before adding new ones. This restriction directly impacts both collection and experimentation, making it harder for free-to-play players to fully explore different team combinations.

But guess what? The storage can be increased by 5 once you reach Great Ball and Ultra Ball ranks. I’m not so sure if you get extra storage after reaching the Master Ball Rank, but there must be some catch to it. Since this is the first ongoing ranked season of Pokemon Champions, it’s unclear whether this limitation is temporary or here to stay. Ideally, storage capacity should increase with each season, but for now, free-to-play players like me will have to manage with what they have.

To me, it honestly feels like the game is trying to juggle way too many ideas at once, drifting away from what it’s actually supposed to be. On the Nintendo Switch, the whole free-to-play setup with a seasonal Battle Pass gives off this weird, watered-down Fortnite vibe without the actual Battle Royale part. And then on mobile, it suddenly shifts gears and feels heavily inspired by Pokemon TCG Pocket.

You log in, grab one free Pokemon daily, and that’s pretty much it — kind of like opening your daily pack there. But here’s the frustrating part: unlike TCG Pocket, where you’re constantly earning Pack Hourglasses to open more packs, there’s no real way to use VP to expand your storage or push your progress further. So after a point, it just starts feeling unnecessarily restrictive, and honestly, a bit disappointing.

Chopped Visuals Make The Turn-Based Battle Feel Lifeless

Pokemon Champions was teased as a stadium game that elevates the turn-based battle with its enhanced graphics and polished visuals. But the promise doesn’t hold up after playing the game for 20+ hours. The singles and doubles formats feel clunky, lifeless, and repetitive – far from what you’d expect from a proper VGC-style platform. To be fair, some move animations do look impressive, like Eruption, Waterfall, and Draco Meteor. But that’s about it.

When I first started playing, there was a sense of excitement. I tried out different modes, ranked singles and doubles, casual matches, and more. But they all shared one major issue: the BORING ARENA design. For a battle-focused game, you’d expect a variety of environments – something like a volcanic arena, a beachside setting, caves, or even more type-based arenas. Instead, there’s just one stadium. It looks polished, with reflective flooring, good lighting, and dynamic camera angles, but it quickly becomes repetitive over time, and it felt more like Groundhog Day to me than a unique battle.

To make it worse, the camera angles don’t scale properly with the moves, breaking immersion. The close physical attacks feel ranged, and so on. For example, take a look at Mega Charizard X using Dragon Claw on Goodra. Dragon Claw is a physical attack that closes the distance, but here it looks like a ranged attack as Charizard throws his claws. This is disappointing as Pokemon Legends ZA, and Legends Arceus had the Pokemon go up to their opponents to attack them.

Let’s not forget how lifeless the Pokemon look during battle. Even Pokemon Battle Revolution, released back in 2006, managed to give mons their own unique charm in the battle, and the aftereffects of an attack made the game feel lively. Look at how Charmander and Togepi have their own animations. Pokemon Champions clearly missed the direction that it needed to elevate the standard battle system.

Performance: Not A Video Game Championship Worthy Software

Imagine you’re right in the middle of a battle, making a crucial play, and suddenly, a “Communicating” message pops up. Then it happens again. And again. Yeah, that’s the kind of thing that instantly kills the momentum, especially if this were a Championship match with massive viewership.

For Nintendo Switch 2 players, Pokemon Champions promised a free enhancement update that was supposed to improve visual performance. But honestly, it barely delivers. The upgrade feels minimal at best: the visuals are only slightly sharper, and the game is still locked at 30 FPS. When comparing that to Pokemon Legends ZA, both games are pretty much on the same level. Champions sticks you in a single arena, while Legends ZA leans heavily on those copy-pasted cityscapes—so neither really pushes things forward in terms of visual design.

Champions just don’t feel great to play, with noticeable frame drops and bugs creeping in, making things worse. The Mega Evolution turn order glitch, which decides whether your Pokemon or your opponent’s evolves first, is very frustrating to deal with. It might sound minor, but in competitive battles, that can completely swing the outcome.

At this point, it really feels like Nintendo is just playing it safe with its newer Pokemon releases. The lack of effort shows — not just in the visuals, but in how poorly optimized the game feels, even on their latest hardware.

Verdict: Game That Felt Short of a Promising Battle

After spending so much time on the game, building my best teams, and climbing through ranks, I walked away with one clear feeling — Champions had all the potential to be a great competitive Pokemon experience, but it just doesn’t stick the landing.

Don’t get me wrong, the core idea is genuinely exciting. Being able to bring your Pokemon together, skip the tedious grind, and jump straight into battles feels like a dream come true for any long-time trainer. And for competitive players, this could easily become a go-to platform, as they can focus more on the strategy than the grind.

But the more I played, the more the cracks started to show up. The limited roster of Pokemon, lack of meaningful rewards, restrictive free-to-play model, and underwhelming performance all drag the experience down. It feels like the game is constantly holding you back instead of letting you fully enjoy nostalgic Pokemon battles.

In the end, Pokemon Champions feels like a solid foundation that just isn’t built upon properly. If you’re a hardcore competitive fan, you might still find yourself grinding through it. But for everyone else, it’s quite difficult not to feel what could’ve been so much more — kind of like bringing a full team to battle, only to realize half of them can’t even enter the arena.