Pokémon Champions review: your favourite needs a better moveset

The big picture

There is a moment in Pokémon when “look at this lovely creature” becomes “can it survive that specific attack if I change these stats?” Pokémon Champions is built for the people who find the second conversation equally charming. The wandering is stripped back in favour of recruitment, training and battles, leaving you free to discover that a carefully assembled team still has one extremely inconvenient weakness. Your opponent appears to have brought it.

Champions launched on Nintendo Switch on April 8, 2026, with iOS and Android following on June 17. It is free to start with optional purchases, and cross-platform battles connect mobile players with Nintendo hardware. Switch 2 runs the Switch game with a free visual update; it is not a separate native Switch 2 edition. You can now overthink the same move on several different screens.

Recruit first, reconsider shortly afterwards

Recruitment offers a lineup to choose from, with a limited trial allowing you to try a Pokémon before committing to keeping it. Earned Victory Points fund recruitment and training, including adjustments to stats, moves and Abilities. The practical work of shaping a team sits close to the battles where that team will discover whether the work was any good.

That creates a useful loop for curious players: try a combination, identify what it cannot handle, change something and find out whether the solution has introduced a different problem. A team is rarely improved by simply announcing that the previous loss was unfair. It may be improved by noticing that nobody had a convincing answer to the same threat three times in a row.

You need not regard yourself as a tournament player to enjoy that process. Finding a coherent job for a favourite creature is its own reward. Affection and tactics can coexist, although affection may have to accept that the creature's original moveset was assembled under a more forgiving interpretation of “useful.”

HOME visitors have rules

Pokémon HOME compatibility provides continuity with eligible existing partners, but only supported Pokémon can visit. Creatures recruited in Champions cannot be sent to HOME, and training changes made here do not transfer into HOME. A returning visitor's training can be remembered under the stated conditions, with an exception involving changed forms. Check those rules before designing an entire evening around one particular partner.

This is a supported connection, not an unrestricted collection manager. The restrictions matter precisely because bringing a familiar Pokémon into another game is appealing. It is better to learn which creature can make the trip before arranging a team in your head and then discovering that its central member has not been invited.

The benefit is still meaningful. Old favourites can have a fresh competitive role, and the training system gives you ways to develop that role within Champions. Just keep the direction of travel and the boundaries of what carries over clear. A battle-focused game and a collection service have different jobs, even when the same small monster is involved in both.

Free to start is the beginning of the explanation

Victory Points cannot be purchased directly. That is a specific and useful distinction, not a promise that everything around the game is free. Optional purchases exist, including a Starter Pack. Separate the basic invitation to battle from extras you might want rather than treating one reassuring currency rule as a complete description of the economy.

Ranked play is organised into seasons, and regulations can change which Pokémon are eligible. A carefully assembled squad is therefore not necessarily a permanent solution. Players who enjoy adapting to a changing environment have a reason to return; players who hope to settle on one team and stop following the rules may find additional homework waiting. The creatures have stayed cute. The eligibility list has become less sentimental.

For people who like revising the plan

The mobile versions are already released, not future promises, and cross-platform play avoids separating friends according to the device in their hands. The core appeal remains the same everywhere: build a team, predict another player and adapt when the prediction turns out to have been optimistic.

Pokémon Champions makes a clear case to people who enjoy that cycle in itself. It concentrates the part of Pokémon that can keep a conversation going long after a battle ends. Bring an eligible favourite, try the formats and leave room for changes. Your brilliant plan may need one small adjustment, followed by another small adjustment, followed by an entirely different team.