‘Pokémon’ makes a fantastic console debut with ‘Sword’ and ‘Shield’

As the first new Pokémon games to debut on a home console, Pokémon Sword and Shield are such a wonderful step for the 23-year-old series.

Before we dig in, let’s get a couple important details out of the way. I played Pokémon Sword for my review and I chose the starter Grookey, an unspeakably precious little grass-type primate Pokémon who carries a stick. I love him.

I picked Grookey eight months ago, the moment it was revealed in a Nintendo Direct video, but a short cutscene near the beginning of Sword and Shield that introduces the three starters nearly pulled me into another camp, just because they’re all so emotive and fun. The little video of the Pokémon all interacting with each other is something that’s new to the series, probably thanks to the added technological power of the Switch over Nintendo’s handheld consoles.

It’s an added layer of emotion right off the bat that immediately made me feel more connected to Sword and Shield than I ever have to any other Pokémon games. Pokémon Let’s Go: Pikachu! and Evee!, the Switch remakes of the original Pokémon games, almost got there, but don’t quite match these latest games.

Sure, Sword and Shield are the first main Pokémon games that don’t allow you to own every Pokémon from every previous iteration of this series, but there are still so many Pokémon in Sword and Shield. All of them have crisp, pretty models and animations, and I can’t even fathom how much work it would take to do that for hundreds more.

These games don’t feel like they’re lacking in Pokémon at all, and if you can get beyond the fact that there are less than 900 Pokémon in Sword and Shield, these are fantastic Pokémon games.

Welcome to Galar

Galar, the region of Pokémon Sword and Shield, is inspired by Great Britain and an altogether pleasant place to have a Pokémon adventure.

Everything about it is very British. There are tons of sheep Pokémon called Wooloo, people love curry, you call your mom “mum” and the TV “the telly,” people say “mate” and other phrases I don’t understand as an American, and gym battles take place in stadiums reminiscent of soccer — er, football — stadiums. There’s no voice acting, otherwise everyone would have British accents. 

There are some liberties taken here in terms of the environment, of course, because different Pokémon require very different climates from rocky, desert-like cliffs to dense forests covered in giant glowing mushrooms, which I don’t think exist in Great Britain. The opening town and routes are very British though, with its grassy hills and plains and farms.

The diversity is great and, importantly, each area is colored brilliantly. 

The new Pokémon in Galar are (mostly) great too. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to reveal any new Pokémon or Galar variants, which is a mild bummer because I desperately want to share an image of my favorite Galar variant of one of the original Pokémon, but I also want anyone who plays these games to experience the surprise for themselves.

Like all new Pokémon games, there are a bunch of cool and cute new Pokémon, but there are also a couple that are viscerally upsetting. Like I said, I can’t reveal them yet, but a couple I’ve seen have a real scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel vibe.

The biggest changes

For the first time in a main Pokémon game, Pokémon can be seen wandering around the world in tall grass, in bodies of water, and sometimes out in the open, similar to how they were in the Let’s Go games.

It’s a nice new development in the game that helps cut down on some of the blind wandering in grass that happens in earlier games when you’re looking for a specific Pokémon. In Sword and Shield, you can see what you’re getting yourself into.

Making Pokémon visible makes them easier to avoid too, which is nice if your party is weak, but there are still some Pokémon that aren’t always visible in the grass, so you could still see some surprise encounters in the grass, and many visible ones will chase after you aggressively.

The other big new addition in Sword and Shield is the Dynamax feature, which imbues Pokémon with powers from Galar and turns them into giant, red-tinged monsters capable of dealing some pretty powerful attacks.

Dynamax can only happen in certain situations. You can’t just bust it out for every battle against regular-sized Pokémon. There are caves that leak power where you can battle wild Dynamax’d Pokémon, and gyms in Galar are built over these leaks so you can also Dynamax your Pokémon in gym fights.

It’s a nice way to mix things up and the visuals are a lot of fun.

Classic Pokémon fun

The thing about Pokémon games is they haven’t really changed much over the years. The visuals continue to get better and the environments continue to change, but the core of these games stays the same.

This includes the colorful characters like Team Yell, who are obnoxious fans of fellow gym challenger Marnie, and are basically the Team Rocket of Sword and Shield, rivals and friends that add a little spice to the adventure, and very visually distinct gym leaders who refuse to branch out from one specific type of Pokémon.

The battles haven’t really changed, progression and exploration hasn’t really changed, and the core mechanics of the games are as reliable as ever. They’re as fun and addicting as ever too.

There is enough in Sword and Shield to make these games feel fresh, even eight generations in, but things haven’t changed so much that it no longer feels like the Pokémon games we all know and love. The good bits continue to be good, and the new additions feel like smart decisions from the developers.