Being the Very Best With Pokémon Sword and Shield at E3 2019

If there’s one Nintendo franchise that consistently delivers an excellent experience, it’s the core Pokémon series. From Red and Blue to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, each mainline Pokémon game has its own fanbase, with many players (myself included) widely enjoying each title. This means there’s a lot of pressure on the newest generation of main Pokémon games, Sword and Shield, to live up to the series’ prestigious legacy, The E3 demo I played has given me a lot of faith in the upcoming games, as they seem to be a great transition from the series’ portable origins to the Nintendo Switch.

My demo took me through the Galar region’s Water-type gym, led by the aptly named Nessa. Using the Sword and Shield’s three starters, and three other announced Pokémon, I plowed through the gym rather quickly and had a wonderful time doing it. The visuals, gameplay, and music were all upbeat and exciting, leaving me entertained for the entirety of the demo.

“Dynamax is shaping-up to be a fun addition to Sword and Shield, especially if it means I can use an enormous Dunsparce, or better, a huge Mr. Mime.“

Visually, Sword and Shield look incredible, as they take Pokémon’s iconic style and make it look better than any of the previous 3D titles did. Trainers and Pokémon alike all look expressive, though I have to mention that I think the newly announced monsters look particularly good. Everyone’s talking about Yamper (which is fair, it’s adorable), but I think the real new MVP is the Fairy/Dark-type, Impidimp; a goofy-looking imp creature who sports a dumb grin interrupted only by his big tongue dangling out. It’s like a cross between the Imp from Dragon Quest and Freddie Freaker, and I couldn’t possibly love it more than I already do.

Combat is what you’d expect from Pokémon, with the addition of Dynamax. Dynamax is a new feature that feels like the next iteration of Mega-Evolutions and Z-Moves. Though it only lasts for three turns (or earlier, if your Pokémon faints or is swapped out), Dynamax looks to be quite the game-changer in battle. Your Pokémon grows to the size of a kaiju, towering over everything else on the field. Your newly-grown Pokémon gains new, more powerful moves for the duration of Dynamax, which can quickly stomp out an unprepared foe’s team. Both visually and from a gameplay perspective, Dynamax is shaping-up to be a fun addition to Sword and Shield, especially if it means I can use an enormous Dunsparce, or better, a huge Mr. Mime.

I’m rather excited for Sword and Shield to come out, largely thanks to just how fun the demo was. The recent Pokédex news does concern me a bit, but everything else about these new entries looks to be a fantastic first-step onto the Nintendo Switch, though we’ll have to wait until the full game releases on November 15th to know for sure.