Pokémon Champions has been released, a battling focused competitive game hoping to capture the hearts of the series’ dedicated players. However, some performance limitations and gameplay choices have a slice of the community feeling disappointed.

Performance woes include being locked to 30FPS on the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, plus some burdensome navigation across in-game menus. Pokémon leaker Centro Leaks complained about the game having “slow, clunky menus”, while Angelico on X dubbed the game’s performances as “pathetic”.

Aside from performance problems, the game forced some changes to the typical Pokémon game format. Most notably, a hard stance on the Pokémon Video Game Championship (VGC) format, where teams of six Pokémon are taken into a doubles match, and only four of them are actually used in battles. This, while the standard in official Pokémon events, is far from the full six-Pokémon singles format many players prefer.

AfroSenju on X summarised their feelings as such: “I really liked Pokémon Champions until I found out you can’t 6v6. This game honestly just feels like a fleshed out beta.” These battle rules cannot be changed either, even in private matches against friends, another sticking point for some fans.

There are also significant absences from Pokémon Champions, beyond the vast number of usable Pokémon not accessible in the game, with only 186 present in the game as of launch. Many items are also missing, like Rocky Helmet, Heavy Duty Boots, and more. This has thrown a stone at established norms for competitive Pokémon in ways not all are happy with.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom from Pokémon Champions players! Some, expecting more to be added in the coming months and years, are happy about an assumed slow rollout of new additions over time. Kylerooswashere on the Pokémon Champions Reddit wrote: “I personally love the lack of the best items in the game. Lower power formats don’t [just have to have] the higher power mons removed. I think this is a great opportunity for some of the less used items to see some usage. also really helps to not have newer players literally one shot out the gate by choice bands and life orbs. Better players are still gonna win, simple as that.”

However, for those put off by the initial offering from Pokémon Champions, it’s hard to pull away from old homes for competitive play. “It’s actually insane that they refuse to add 6v6,” writes Ultimate Ace on X. “Pretending like smogon players don’t exist for pride reasons at this point.” Smogon being the fan-run competitive Pokémon platform, a popular hub for such ventures for years.

While Eurogamer hasn’t got a review planned for Pokémon Champions, there are plenty of guides to help those still keen through their competitive journey! These include Pokémon Champions mystery gift codes, and how to recruit Pokémon in Pokémon Champions.