THE FUSE

Pokémon Champions is being pegged as an approachable platform for those who have never gotten into competitive Pokémon battling. As a decades-long Pokémon veteran, competitive play has always eluded me. It’s not even a matter of the systems being overwhelming. I know how type matchups, stats, EVs, IVs, and all that other shit work. But my attachment to Pokémon is so fundamentally emotional in nature that, when you strip away a lot of the flavor and adventure, the core mechanics and number crunching that remain all feel a little too impersonal for my tastes. I was curious to see if Champions could do anything to alleviate that when I checked it out for a bit at PAX East this week.