Pokémon Champions launches to mixed reception, as performance woes and competitive changes turn some away

Pokémon Champions has been released, a battling focused competitive title 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".

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Pokemon Champions - Official Overview Trailer | Pokemon Presents July 2025 Here's an overview trailer for Pokémon Champions!Watch on YouTube Aside from performance problems, the title forced some changes to the typical Pokémon title 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.

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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 ## Editor's Note The gaming community will surely have mixed reactions to this news. Source: [Eurogamer](https://www.eurogamer.net/pokemon-champions-reception-performance-woes-competitive-changes)