Pokemon Unite

Genre: MOBA

Players: 10 Team Competitive (Online)

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS AND LOOTBOXES

Pokemon Unite is a free-to-play MOBA released on Nintendo Switch in 2021, with a version of the game releasing on mobile devices soon after. This game seeks to take the same sort of gameplay you see in other MOBAs like Smite and make it accessible for a wider audience, incorporating some of the elements of the Pokemon franchise into the gameplay.

The presentation here is stellar, and while this game doesn’t do anything especially taxing or impressive, it is nevertheless extremely polished. Human characters and their pokemon all have a good amount of detail, light cel shading effects, and smooth animations. The areas they’re fighting in have some nice detail and variety too. And the music is much in line with the mainline games in the Pokemon franchise, though I sadly don’t have any individual tracks to share with you just yet. Suffice it to say, they’re top-notch, and feature the same good mix of orchestral and synthesized music that does a good job of backing the action without distracting from it.

The gameplay itself is mostly pretty typical for a MOBA, though it’s generally fun and gets the core gameplay right. I will credit the game for at the very least making Pokemon evolution play into the gameplay – as your Pokemon levels, it will eventually evolve into a different Pokemon species (if it’s a breed that evolves), and the highest evolutionary form has a different and more powerful moveset than the earlier forms. This can make it all the more enticing to try to get your character leveled up quickly, not just to power up your character and their abilities, but also to access new moves that are unavailable in earlier forms.

However, I am disappointed that this game ignores many of the other elements of Pokemon that could have made this a more unique MOBA. Elemental typing doesn’t seem to play any role here, meaning there’s no reason you can’t have a team with all fire types or all electric types if you like. Rather, the different types of Pokemon are broken into more standard archetypes for the genre – the attacker, the defender, the speedster, the support unit, the healer, the all-rounder, that sorta’ thing. And unlike other MOBA’s, you don’t have much flexibility in altering your move set – you get two special moves and an ultimate move, and the only thing you can change are the two specials, with each one getting an alternate to swap out with it.

There are more frustrations here – despite the wide appeal of the Pokemon franchise, this game doesn’t do a good job of making sure its players have access to important information to help newer players understand what’s going on. As far as I can tell, the game doesn’t display scores to indicate which team is winning and by how much – it only tells you when your team or the opponents have a significant lead. In addition, the game doesn’t make it clear when you succeed or fail exactly why that happened – multiple times during the game, I got one-shotted by an opponent in my own healing zone when at full health, and I’m still unclear as to just what they did to accomplish that.

The other thing I need to address here is the monetization. This game must use at least a half a dozen different types of currency to measure progress and gate access, seemingly designed to confuse players. Gold, tickets, gems, battle points, energy, fair play points, holowear tickets… and of course if you’re short what you need, you can always buy… gems, which can be traded for other resources…

Okay, look, here’s the thing. I do not have a problem with a free-to-play game that uses microtransactions for its monetization. The game’s gotta’ make its money somewhere, right? The problem is, this game is using a license that appeals specifically to young children, and it’s using every sleazy trick in the book to target the most vulnerable gamers in the community.

On first glance, you might not think the game has lootboxes, but they’re cleverly hidden behind the “Energy Rewards”, which requires energy, which cannot be purchased, but you can purchase energy boost tanks to speed up how fast you get energy. On first glance, you may not think the game even has microtransactions. After all, there’s no way to directly buy the currency in the shop. Oh, but if you click on an item you can’t afford in an effort to learn about it, you’ll kindly be directed to an option to pay for gems. These are the kinds of tricks these guys are playing to hide just how sinister this all is.

To make things worse, one of the other things that’s hidden here is just how slow progression in the game is once you get past the initial few hours, which will see you in possession of your first three or four Pokemon. But of the remaining 19 or so Pokemon, judging by the cost to obtain them you’ll be looking to acquire them at a rate of perhaps one or two per month. So you’ll be able to get them all without paying for them… in roughly a year’s time. Ooooooor… the game whistles nonchalantly as it suggests… if only you had some gems, you could get them now hint hint…

Edit: I was reminded in a comment about one important element of the microtransactions here that I neglected to mention, and it needs to be addressed – pay-to-win. Players can use some of the various currencies they obtain in the game to “power up” held items (think equippable items like armor and weapons to get an idea), giving your character statistical bonuses. In other words, you use currencies to give your character a clear advantage over an opponent using the exact same character with the exact same build and the exact same held items. Want to stay competitive? You gotta’ power-up your items more. Don’t have enough currency to do so? Then pay up.

Again, let me say, this is a game that is designed to appeal to children. The ESRB rates this game “E for Everyone”, because the ESRB does not care about predatory monetization targeting children. And even if you’re a grown adult, after the initial joy this game presents starts to wear off, you’ll find yourself looking at a game with glacial progression and a zillion different kinds of currency designed with the intention of confusing players.

One other issue I need to bring up before I close this out. Despite this game being designed simultaneously for Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, the Nintendo Switch version oddly does not support the touchscreen. This is all the more exasperating because the game’s control layout is frustrating and counter-productive. This is because the game uses the A button to attack, the R, ZR, and ZL buttons for special attacks, the left stick to move, and the right stick to aim attacks. Can you use the right stick, A button, and right shoulder buttons at the same time comfortably? Because I haven’t figured out that trick yet. The game does allow for some flexibility in its control options, but does not let you freely reassign moves to any button you want – you can only reassign shoulder button moves to other shoulder buttons, and only reassign face button moves to other face buttons. Why? Who knows.

For all its many, many, many flaws, Pokemon Unite still manages to be a fun MOBA with a great, polished presentation, and no doubt if you judged this game by its first few hours, you’d consider it to be an absolute joy to play. However, this veneer of lighthearted fun hides some serious gameplay issues and even more serious predatory monetization that can’t be overlooked. If the control issues were addressed and the game’s monetization was less sleazy, I could see myself giving this game a full letter grade higher. But as-is, the fun gameplay doesn’t stop this game from leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

tl;dr – Pokemon Unite is a MOBA that brings Nintendo’s colorful creatures into the genre. The core gameplay is good, and the presentation is highly polished, but unfortunately the controls are frustrating and the game’s nasty monetization is particularly sleazy and sneaky, with molasses-slow progression after the initial introduction. As fun as the gameplay is, I can’t give the game a glowing recommendation with problems this severe.

Grade: C+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Winner:

Worst Microtransactions – Nintendo Switch seemed to be mostly free of nasty microtransactions in 2021, but there were still a few games that featured sleazy monetization, and by far the worst of them (that I played, anyway) was Pokemon Unite. Yes, I know it got adjusted to be not quite as bad shortly after launch, and I honestly don’t care – it’s still a ghoulish and exploitative game targeting children with numerous mechanics designed to coerce players out of their money. From significant pay-to-win mechanics, numerous currencies to hide what you’re paying, hidden lootboxes, and content that would take months to unlock without opening up your wallet… again, in a game meant for children. Games in this category are often disgusting, but Pokemon Unite is outright despicable.

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