POKÉMON Reveals MOBA Game POKÉMON UNITE
Today, The Pokémon Company revealed some more exciting news for fans. First, Pokémon Cafe Mix was released today apparently. We were told about this last week with no news about a release date. Well, it’s out now. Then, we were shown an interesting video all about trading Pokémon to reveal a new game that promised to be all about team battles.
Pokémon Unite is a strategic team-based game from TiMi Studios of Tencent Games. They wanted to make an enjoyable cooperative game, and I’m intrigued. I’ve been wanting an awesome cooperative Pokémon game. Masaaki Hoshino then showed us how the game played.
The game allows two teams of 5 to battle against each other, and it’s basically a MOBA. I take that back. It’s not basically a MOBA. It is a MOBA. There are areas that you’re trying to capture bases to score points. There are wild Pokémon you can defeat for experience, you can decide which moves you want to learn when, and you can even evolve at certain levels. There are also new specific moves called Unite Moves which I’m guessing are like the ultimate attacks in other MOBAs. This honestly looks like the perfect Pokémon MOBA!
Pokémon Unite will be available on mobile platforms and on Nintendo Switch with cross-play supported. This is so exciting!
We then got to see a match played out, and it honestly looks like fun. It looks like there are some interesting Pokémon that will be available from the start including Blastoise, Charizard, Venusaur, Pikachu, Lucario, Clefable, Gengar, and more. The commentators did point out that there are no type advantages in this game. Also, we learned that you don’t have to go all the way back to your base to heal, you just have to get to one of your controlled goals. The goals can be destroyed which will mean opponents have fewer healing areas. Also, during the last two minutes of a match, points are doubled.
Something I actually appreciate about Pokemon Unite is that it seems to be all about getting points and being timed. This is in contrast to most MOBAs where the game ends when the enemy base is destroyed. Now, I’ll know exactly how long each match will take.
We weren’t given a release date, but were told we’d get more details in the future and that it will be free-to-start. I was not expecting a MOBA, but I’m actually really excited for Pokémon Unite. I think this is a game that I’ll be able to enjoy and hopefully the community doesn’t get as toxic as other MOBA communities out there. I know many were expecting Let’s Go games for the Johto region and people are still begging for Gen 4 remakes, but what did you think about the reveal of Pokémon Unite?