Nintendo Has Huge Plans For Pokemon On The Switch

Rather than wait for their E3 broadcast in a couple of weeks, Nintendo has opted to pull back the curtain early on all things Pokemon, revealing two Switch exclusives and one game that will also be released for mobile. Get ready to catch 'em all.

In traditional Nintendo fashion, they decided to announce a bunch of games in a super popular series on a random Tuesday night. Folks were pretty sure that a Pokemon direct was coming and then, boom, it suddenly happened. Even more surprising was the fact that the presentation covered three distinct games.

First up is the game (or games, really) everyone pretty much knew was coming, Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu! And Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee! The titles of these games leaked a couple of weeks back from a reliable source, but we didn't have any hard details about the games until last night.

This duo of games is a sort of remake of Pokemon Yellow, taking players back to the Kanto region to catch Pokemon, train them and go on all sorts of adventures. This is probably the most accessible game in the series outside of Pokemon Go, which it draws a lot of inspiration from. In fact, these games can actually sync with Pokemon Go for extra functionality, and Pokemon within the game are caught in similar fashion. Rather than battle Pokemon like in previous games, you'll instead come upon wild critters out in the wild and catch them by throwing a Pokeball in their general direction. This can be done with the buttons, by physically waving a Joy-Con in the air, or by pretending to toss a new Pokeball peripheral that doubles as a controller for the game.

Obviously, this streamlined Pokemon experience isn't what some of the more diehard fans were hoping for, but it has all of the makings of another runaway Nintendo hit. Also, while no information was offered, Nintendo made it clear that the team is hard at work on the next core game in the series as well, so don't fret about this being a new direction for the standard Pokemon games.

Finally, there's Pokemon Quest, a new game that's available as of now on the Nintendo Switch and heading to mobile next month. Pokemon Quest is a free-to-start game that boasts new blocky designs for the beloved critters. You'll hunt them in the wild, build a team of three and take part in active battles that let you trigger your team's abilities however you see fit. After that, you can head back to camp in order to upgrade your team, befriend new Pokemon and even cook meals that may attract additional pals. It's free, so what have you got to lose?