Pokemon Masters shows off online co-op battles in a new trailer

Pokemon Masters lets you recruit familiar trainers from across Pokemon history, and now we know that extends to online co-op too. The latest trailer for the upcoming mobile game from The Pokemon Company and DeNA (Nintendo's mobile partner for Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem: Heroes) shows how you'll be able to team up with two friends to take down AI opponents in special co-op battles.

Pokemon has kept multiplayer at its core ever since the days of Game Boy Game Link Cables, and now Pokemon Masters is taking a fresh crack at the series' tradition. It would be possibly too cool if you could participate in 3v3 battles between two teams of players, but we can always hope that's another feature DeNA will reveal further down the line.

Pokemon Masters co-op battles will let you pull off the usual Sync Moves that bring both your trainer and their poke-pal into the fight. In-game emotes will help you coordinate your strategies in real-time, including administering a clutch Potion to a friend's wounded pocket monster. Then the real fireworks start when all three players team up for heavy-hitting Unity Attacks. 

The trailer doesn't cover this part, but DeNA also announced that you'll be able to change up individual Sync Pairs by giving your trainers special duds. If a trainer wears a Sygna Suit into battle, they'll bring a different Pokemon into the fight; for instance, Brock usually teams up with Onix, but when he's wearing his suit he'll party with Tyranitar instead. You could say that fashionable Sygna Suits let your trainers blow up and then act like they don't know nobody.

Pokemon Masters is still scheduled to hit Android and iOS devices sometime this summer, so you'd better start planning with friends for who's going to be on Potion duty now.

Stay tuned to our San Diego Comic Con 2019 schedule for more trailers and news throughout the weekend. 

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.