Pokemon Champions is set to release this April, with a mobile version of the PvP battler launching "later this year."
The Pokemon Company revealed the release window during its Pokemon Presents livestream on February 27, in a splashy, new live-action trailer you can watch in full below. A live-action trailer means there's fine print at the bottom clarifying that a large, aggressive man and a little, smirking girl beating each other up in Pokemon Champions from inside a popcorn-covered stadium is "not representative of actual gameplay experience." But, you know, if you look closely, there are some legitimate hints in the trailer as to what might be coming in Pokemon Champions.
In another clip, four kids battle each other in a nail-biting bracket – seemingly confirming that up to four players can tussle at a time. Later, a woman sitting alone on the bus leads her stern-faced Tyranitar to victory with a strategic Stone Edge attack summoning a burst of splintered rocks from the ground, demonstrating that you can be a Pokemon champion especially while enjoying your local public transit.
Visually, all the Pokemon Champions snippets this latest trailer shows off are vibrant and dynamic – in the style of developer past work of the game's developer, The Pokemon Works, which made the cute tracker Pokemon Sleep and the less popular Pokemon Friends puzzle game. Where will Pokemon Champions fall on the developer's track record? We'll learn soon, in April.
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