Pokémon Champions is all about the battles

Game Freak dropped a surprise trailer at today’s Pokémon Presents livestream for something called Pokémon Champions. It’s a dedicated battle sim, recalling the glory days of Pokémon Stadium for the N64. This means that Champions distills the franchise’s formula down to just battling, with a heavy emphasis on multiplayer.

To that end, the game is cross-platform, with the developer saying that players on “Nintendo Switch and mobile” will be able to duke it out. We don’t know what kind of roster the game itself will provide, but it integrates with the cloud-storage service Pokémon Home. People should be able to pull most of their favorite Pokémon from titles like Pokémon Go and recent mainline entries like Pokémon Sword and Shield. It also works with the spin-off Pokémon Legends: Arceus. The official press release, however, does note that there will be some restrictions when it comes to availability.

The gameplay should feel instantly familiar to anyone who has ever dabbled in the franchise, as the trailer description touts tried-and-true “mechanics such as Pokémon types, abilities and moves.” The footage even shows more niche mechanics like Mega Evolution and Terastallization, indicating that players may not be tied to the base-level Pokémon rule set.

There’s no release window yet. All we know is that it’s currently in development. Speaking of release dates, today’s livestream did reveal that Pokémon Legends: Z-A will be coming out by the end of the year for the Switch.