7/10 – 20 hours as of review
4/25/2026
Pokemon tends to do a lot of clown-worthy stuff, and Champions is no exception. The game’s cutscenes are slow and laggy, there are barely any items to use in this competitive battler, and there are numerous bugs and glitches and general oversights in mechanics (that luckily I haven’t really run in to).
Despite this, I’m having so much damn fun. I found my new online game to hyperfixate on lol. I’ve really enjoyed importing Pokémon from my Switch games and making fun teams to challenge the meta. Customization is easy, battles are snappy, matchmaking is quick, the lobbies you make with your friends work well, and the economy of the game’s currency isn’t half bad. You can get away with not spending a single dime on the game; any MTXs just make you get a roster faster and easier. I only splurged on the Starter Pack to get resources to train loads of Pokémon much faster, and I STILL haven’t used up all of those even after reaching Master Ball rank in Doubles after 15-20 hours. Plus, there are a boatload of achievements to help you stock up on currency to spend on items and other things. Just playing the game with different Pokémon is all you need. Also, It’s Pokémon battling at the end of the day. Champions provides a direct line to getting right into the action.
I love how much Champions’ release has revitalized the competitive Pokémon scene, and gotten so many people into it, including myself. I’ve been on and off with competitive Pokémon, doing a casual draft league here and there, but team building and battling in Champions has gotten me so much better at battling. At a rapid pace, too. All because the game makes it so easy to put a team together and jump into a match. People are sharing their stories and their teams and I’ve been having so many fun conversations with my friends over our experiences playing.
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