I’ve been interested in video games from a young age, and they have influenced me my entire life, leading me to study Japanese in college, with a dream of someday being able to translate the games I love so much! I’ve been a lifelong writer dabbling in both fiction and essay writing and I hope to use it to share my love of video games with the world.

Where Mint Shines

• It’s not entirely new, but it’s definitely noticeable, refreshing, and unexpected when things veer off the expected course.
• Other times you’ll see an exclamation mark in tall grass, denoting a hidden Pokemon, but you can avoid these if you chose to.
• Instead, Pokemon will roam the wild and you chose to battle or catch them by running into them.
• Pokemon Sword and Shield retain some elements from Let’s Go while reverting to the old style in other ways.

However, once you become the Champion, all the Pokémon in the Wild Area’s levels are set to 60, which I felt like removed some of the fun I had with encountering Pokémon of all different strengths. Furthermore, once you can fully explore the Wild Area, it’s clear that it is not actually a very big area at all. Still, I’m really hoping that we will see more free-camera locations in future Pokémon games. Streamlined though it may be, the new games actually give players the biggest opportunity yet to explore the world, as it includes a brand new Wild Area. The challenge from the traditional style of games has been infused with Let’s Go’s quality of life improvements; such as having the Pokemon Box available at any time, and indeed the removal of HM moves .

However, Gigantamax Pokémon Max Raids feel nearly impossible to find. These games are the first main series Pokémon games to feature an open-world, free-camera area. Called the Wild Area, it is full of Pokémon of all different species and levels, including ones much higher than your team. The level of the Pokémon you can catch is limited by how many Gym Badges you have. These high-level Pokémon make exploring the Wild Area an adventure that will keep you on your toes.

Mario Tennis Aces (For Nintendo Switch)

Unfortunately, much like most other games on the Switch, things start to fall apart when you try to play with friends. And in what might be the game’s most baffling cut, the Global Trade Station, which allowed you to trade with random people across the world, making specific requests for Pokemon, while fulfilling others, is also gone. Arguably the best thing about these games, in my opinion, is their lack of a story. There barely is one—the driving motivation this time is not for you to stop some evil team in their evil plans, and take on a Legendary Pokemon, it’s simply… to win the Pokemon League. It’s refreshingly honest, and adds to the sense of ownership over the journey and adventure, along with the Wild Area.

From a gameplay standpoint, however, I feel like these forms are honestly a bit unnecessary. The first problem is that, unlike Mega Evolutions freeware downloads , a past way to change a Pokémon’s appearance and strength, there is a three-turn limit on Gigantamax Pokémon staying in that form, and a location limit. It’s very hard to find, let alone capture, a Gigantamaxed Pokémon, and you can only use it for three turns in a very specific spot. If you want to use a Gigantamax Pokémon, you have to catch it as an evolved Pokémon in the wild.

Doing a Frosmoth raid with other players.Some Pokémon can take special forms when they Dynamax, which is then called Gigantamaxing. Only special Pokémon caught in Max Raid Battles or given as gifts can achieve this ultimate form.

Pokemon Sword and Shield represent the best games the series has seen since the start of the 3DS era, and a promising foundation for the franchise to build on with future games. But as far as I am concerned, these games represent a return to form after the disappointments of the last few years. Like I said, then, there’s a lot these games do well, and a lot they do not. That the Wild Area is such a great hub, that I keep returning to and spending time in, only added to my sense of ownership over my adventure.