You Can Do it, Pikachu!
Between the gen IV games getting remade as Pokemon: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl later this year and the reveal of a Breath of the Wild-inspired open-world game in Pokemon Legends: Arceus coming in 2022, the Pokemon franchise has a lot coming down the pipeline in the near future. That hasn’t stopped them from announcing a new game–one in a genre that Pokemon has never touched before. Pokemon UNITE will be a team-based strategic battle game, much like a MOBA. We’ve already had a chance to see some of Pokemon UNITE’s gameplay. Now it’s time to discuss the gorgeous and action-packed cinematic trailer that dropped recently.
The video follows two teams of five Pokemon as they face off against each other, using special abilities, helping to catch wild Pokemon, evolving, and trying to earn more points than the other team. A number of very recognizable Pokemon appear on both teams, ranging from gen I classics like Snorlax, Slowpoke, and Mr. Mime to popular latecomers like Lucario, Absol, and Scorbunny. While the trailer freely admits that it wasn’t made using in-game graphics–and the in-game graphics we do see are from an in-progress build–it still does an excellent job of building excitement. Watching Pikachu race about on all fours, trying frantically to keep tabs on its teammates while blocking its opponents from scoring, got us unironically excited. If this is anything to go by, Pokemon UNITE will be pretty awesome to watch on streaming sites.
In the trailer, Scorbunny is shown evolving into Raboot and then Cinderace after helping its trainer to capture some wild Lillipups. While the video doesn’t go into any real detail on what impacts the evolution mechanic will have beyond a power-up, it’s still wonderful to see evolution in action. We can’t wait to see more of Pokemon UNITE in the future.
Will you be trying the free to play Pokemon Unite on mobile or the Nintendo Switch? Let us know down in the comments, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.