All 11 Pokémon Switch Games Ranked

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[jaxteller]

I just want the classic Pokémon in switch. Imagine playing emerald or platinum

[elastichedgehog]

I hope we get more 'Legends' type games.

Edit: Boys, we got 'em.

[MasonOfLife]

Hot take but I actually like random encounters in Pokémon, I think Sword and Shield did it best by giving us both, and having it so that the random encounter could be avoided

[ColonialSun-mgtq]

Remember when everyone hated the art style in let’s go and now it’s still the best looking mainline game on switch

[That_Lady_Charlie]

Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee are the most technically proficient mainline Pokémon games on Switch.
They're aesthetically consistent, and even though the catching mechanics are weird, it's a tighter and more fully realized version of Gen 1.
Let's Go gameplay is not for everyone, but it's hard for me to make an argument against it being the best mainline Pokémon on Switch.

[By-the_Way]

It may have not sold incredibly well, but I do wish we had a Pokken 2. There are so many Pokemon I'd love to see and play with. (And I want to see a nice single player story mode.)
As for the games, my favorite would be Scarlet/Violet and Arceus, I absolutely loved 'em.

[GameSethMatch]

As someone who never played gen IV originally I would say Brilliant Diamond has given me that experience while not requiring a huge time sink. Enjoying it a lot

[coltdeedede]

My hottest take of the Switch Era Pokémon is that Pokémon Let’s Go has the best art direction the series has seen with Mizutani’s character designs and soft painterly aesthetics. If you disagree I strongly encourage you to look at the concept art and the characters designs - I would love to see Johto return in this style (maybe not so Pokémon Go infused but more so artistically). The designs in Scarlett/Violet and Sword/Shield are great too but they don’t infuse with the rest of the world at all, the environment designs don’t match the love seen in the character designs and it’s a shame these mainline titles aren’t given more time to cook.

[ivanzoneBR]

Legends Arceus is the best, I had so much fun playing it last year and I might even elaborate more why this is one of my favorites experiences on Switch in a video at some point, but thruth be told, it is really a great game that while it could have been even better if wasn't rushed, it was excellent all around and felt like a real evolution of the series as a whole.

[greydeathangel]

I personally love Legends Arceus more than the Scarlet and Violet games. It was worked on after the fact and made to run so much smoother. Maybe it is the smaller areas with loading screens between that helps, cause they don't want to do a major overhaul on their game engine.
What I'd like to see in another game would be to take the Legends formula, but add in some features from the other mainline games. Like for example the Underground from BDSP, that dungeon mini game from the Sword/Shield crown tundra expansion, camping/picnicking from S/V, and how about a lot more options for battling?

[scottymclaren]

I just want Pokémon Red, Blue, Green and Yellow….. is it too much to ask?

[MisterZebra]

New Pokemon Snap is so unbelievably good. It’s my go-to game to pull out when I don’t have anything else to play because there’s somehow still stuff in there I’ve never seen. It also sets an impossibly high standard for the rest of the franchise and, not gonna lie, is probably a big part of why I haven’t bought any Pokemon games except Arceus since.

[bandicootsauce]

My Personal Ranking:

1. Rescue Team DX
2. New Pokémon Snap
3. Legends: Arceus
4. Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee
5. Pokkén Tournament DX
6. Scarlet & Violet
7. Sword & Shield
8. Detective Pikachu Returns
9. Unite
10: Café Remix
11: Quest

BDSP: "And then there's me!"

Me: "No, there's coral, there's rocks, there's Wailmer poo... and THEN there's you."

[benhmedia]

New Pokémon Snap quickly became one of my favorite games of all time and I'm so happy to see others love it, as well. It's so sad how Pokémon games rarely look this good but it makes me appreciate this all the more.

[amirgarcia]

I already knew that Pokémon Legends Arceus would be the highest of the mainline games, since it’s by far the most unique and impressive Pokémon game on Switch. I made, it made catching tons of fun due to being able to interact with Pokémon on the overworld with lite Monster Hunter mechanics, actually having a notable amount of difficulty with the addition of Alpha Pokémon and the fierce and ferocious Noble Pokémon boss fights, and just being able to run around in and explore these sizable overworlds was a ton of fun. To this day, I still wish Pokémon Co. supported it more, instead of tossing out ScarVi in the same year when it clearly needed more time in the oven. I can only hope we get another game in a similar style in the future (perhaps Legends Kyurem?), and it’s safe to say that despite not being marketed as such like with BD/SP, this was the actual Sinnoh remake all along.

[hman]

Violet being above sword and shield is a bad take, personally the game didn't advance in any metric, and the graphics and Pokemon designs were made by elementary students

[seamarie]

I thoroughly enjoy all the games I have -- Sword, then I got Arceus, then Brilliant Diamond, then Violet. They're all amazing in their own ways! Well technically I have access to the other halves too, Shield, Shining Pearl, and Scarlet, but they're technically my much younger sister's. Since I'm partially blind, I was never able to play handhelds before the Switch, which I often have docked. However, Pokemon games are in the small number of games I can play on my Switch screen. I have a regular Switch, not an OLED. Being a 90s kid/original Pokemon generation era, I missed out on a lot. I saw the show once and just didn't get it. All I knew was Pikachu, who I thought was adorable. I remember when my school had "Pikachu pizza" and talking to my friends about how it'd have little pepperoni cheeks and olive eyes, then being super bummed it was just regular pizza with a Pikachu Froot By The Foot.

Anyway, I digress. Since I was never able to get into Pokemon as a kid/teen, I've thoroughly enjoyed playing the adorable Brilliant Diamond because I never did back then. I've still not finished it, as the newer games admittedly have sucked more of my time, but I've still thoroughly enjoyed it.
Pokemon Sword was my first game in the series, which I got when my little sis got Shield. I loved it instantly, and it's one of the few mainstream games I can say I've not 100 percented, but at least beaten.
Legends: Arceus was an impulse buy and my only digital Pokemon game. I do very much enjoy it and have gotten fairly far. However, there are a few things I visually struggle with in the game, so it's below Sword and Violet.
As for Violet, that's taking all my attention right now. Unfortunately, I put it down for awhile after I got it, but I've been playing it like mad for the last couple weeks. I love that with the gym challenges, titans, and Team Star every type of pokemon is represented and gives me a LOT more to do. However, even I have noticed some of the visual issues, like lighting differing depending on camera angle when in shade and some pop-in/tearing. However, that's not dampened my enthusiasm/enjoyment of the game at all.
Also, I have a special, silly fondness for Violet and Scarlet because they happened to be released the same day my poodle had SIX puppies ... like a whole Pokemon team, LOL! I also found her spirit pokemon in form of Pawmi/Pawmo, LOL!

WOW! That was LONG! TL:DR -- In short, having entered the fandom late in the game, I'm very pleased and having a great time with Pokemon games on Switch!

[SchoolofRockNRoll]

Swordshield and scarletviolet feel like 3ds games with 1 or 2 steps better graphics. Pokemon has become a franchise where you say "the next one they'll nail" but they never do

[CoolHilcieni]

as someone who played the original diamond and pearl games, i liked the remakes. i think the argument is gonna be about faithful vs changing too much and honestly i think that's where most of the hate is coming from. i genuinely liked it since i could play through these games again but with updated graphics and gameplay features.

[MajoraZ]

I play Pokken competitively and do community outreach, so I figured i'd explain more about the game and what makes it good for both Pokemon fans, fighting game players, and i'll list useful resources for people interested in learning more. TL;DR I think it does a really good job adapting Pokemon moves with references to the main series games, as well as giving each Pokemon a personality through their animations;, and from a fighting game perspective, the game is extremely well balanced, has a lot of playstyle variety and room for player expression, and has a big emphasis on neutral play as well as fundamentals and adaptation due to some of it's unique mechanics.

As I said, firstly, the game does an amazing job fleshing out normal pokemon moves into very well animated attacks and sequences: A lot of people wish the mainline titles had better animations, and I think this can scratch that itch: You see things like Suicuine using it's trendrils for attacks, or Chandfelure unfurling it's arms, and blatoise dynamically pulling it's limbs into it's shell or firing water out of them like a jetpack to move around. This is all often done in a way so in a way that calls back to the official games: Mewtwo's Hyper beam, for example, has a long recovery (or "endlag" if you're a Smash player) period where he catches his breath afterward to mimic the 1 turn recovery period the mainline games have. Chandelure's hex is adapted into a command grab that does more damage the more debuffs the enemy had, mirroring it doing more damage to status'd enemies in the main games. There's even callbacks to pokedex entries and the anime: Gardevoir's super here fires a black hole like in her dex entries, while Lucario's bone rush appears as it does in the anime, for example. Even the stages have a lot of neat details and references: one of my favorites is that the mirror in the Haunted House stage sometimes flashes and you can see Giratina and the Distortion World inside of it!

By extension, this also means each Pokemon has a super distinct personality expressed through their animations, which also fills in different fighting game archetypes: Sceptile is animated and characterized like a Ninja, and fittingly has leech side and seed bomb traps, leaf blade acts like a iaijutsu katana slash, he can use a substitute wooden log, he has leaf shurikens he can throw out that float in midair as space control moves, and leaf storm is an anti-air command grab that leads into an izuna drop, all of which are common move types for Ninjas in fighting games, and gives him a mid range lockdown toolkit where he limits the enemies mobility with his traps and shuriken, can catch the enemy at a distance as they're navigating around those hazards with leaf blade or giga drain (a variable range command grab), and if they try to jump you can go for leaf storm. Some other fun examples is that Weavile tries to act edgy and cool, but secretly is really cute and will laugh or dance around and then try to hide it. Scizor is animated like a mecha, with some of his intro animations calling back to the classic gundam launch sequence, he gets jet boosters out of his wings in his run/hover stance, can charge up hiw claws like cannons, etc.

This discussion of character archetypes segues nicely into talking about Pokken as an actual fighting game!

To be clear, Pokken IS a competitive, traditional fighter: Characters have completely unique movelists with different inputs (though most of them are just a direction and a button, there's no quarter circles and the like, which keeps them approachable when starting out), there is an attack height system (tho it works differently from in most FG's), you have things like cancels, just-frames (moves getting better when timed just right), even street fighter IV focus attacks and FADC, concepts like oki (the mindgames around when a player is getting back up), footsies, corner pressure, etc is all still applicable, and so on.

As a fighting game, as I said, the game is very well balanced: For a long time, the community never bothered with making tier lists, simply because it wasn't needed, and while people do have them and we've made a few community voted lists, overall tiers aren't a major part of the scene: Even characters widely agreed to be in the bottom 5 or bottom 3 in the game like Blastoise or Empoleon or Blaziken still show up in the top 8's of major events and tournaments with some frequency, while other low tier characters like Gardevoir, Suicuine, Charizard, etc show up very, very often: Almost the entire cast is viable even at high levels of play.

Playing each character also feels very unique as well: This is, of course, something every good fighting game does well, but Pokken especially gives it's characters a lot of wildly different tools that make the fundamental gameplan and options each character has totally distinct, even compared to other great fighting games. There's also enough versatility in their movesets and options that two high level players using the same character often use them in totally different ways (Player expression), something added by the game's phase shift mechanic, which i'll touch on below. Characters also have distinct mechanics and systems: This can be as basic as Weavile's fastfall or Charizard's double jump, moedrate complexity abilities like Braixen's ability to support/assist cancel and build her support gauge and having stacks of enhancements; or as complex as, say, Darkrai, whose moveset actually allows for full combos even inside the 3d field phase and his normals place traps, and can enter a special buffed install state if he enters the 2d/duel phase with a specific move, . Or Aegislash, who is a stance character that changes his entire moveset to be zoning based and gains super armor in his shield form, but also gains more buffs which enable extra just-frames in his sword form the more he switches between stances, alongside having a unique parry.

Pokken's most unique gameplay elements are it's phase shift mechanic and the way it handles attack heights, which both add depth, but in a way arguably helps approachability, as long as you know how they work (sadly, the game never explains either well): Firstly, wheras in other games, height exists as a way for an offensive player to bypass and punish blocking to open up a defensive player by sweeping a standing enemy or using an overhead or a crouching one, In Pokken blocking is height universal, and attack heights are used to allow moves to bypass and punish each other, even during their active frames. This means that height is most often a tool to get a reversal: For a defensive player to predict or react to what the offensive player is doing, and to turn the tables and then start a combo or break back to a neutral state (the state of the match when niether player is under pressure and both are trying to get a hit in). This means less time is spent with one player stuck in the corner, and there's more chances for both players to act. This also means there's not quite as much to keep track of when blocking as a new player, but there ARE still height mixups (If Player 1 expects Player 2 will use a move on X height, P1 can go for a move on Y height to punish it, but P2 can predict P1 knows that and go for a move of Z height instead, etc)

As far as phase shifting: People obviously already know that Pokken switches between a 2d and a 3d phase, but 2d to 3d shifts actually happens based on a hidden guage/meter, the PSP guage, which fills up the more successful hits land: Different moves add more or less points. On the flip side, 3d to 2d shifts happen off of any heavy hit or most specials. What this means is that on a basic level, it acts as a system to prevent infinite combos in the 2d phase, and knocks you back to the 3d phase, resetting the state of the match back to a neutral situation where neither player is pressuring the other (with some exceptions). But it also means that at a high level of play (New players, don't worry about this!), players can actually manipulate when shifts occur based on altering up their combo routes and move choices: If you're just going for high damage, you'll want to alter your combos to end right on the shift so the shift doesn't interupt it before your high damage ender (sorta like how you'd change your combo route based on the scaling of what your starter was, except Pokken has that, PLUS you're changing it based on what the PSP guage value is WHEN you landed your starter). But you can also do things like go for a weaker or less safe combo that builds less PSP to keep the enemy in the corner under pressure longer, or as a combo reset; or you can go for a combo that shifts faster if YOU want to get back to the 3d phase either due to the matchup or to escape pressure if you convert off a reversal, or if you simply want the health regen/meter causing a shift brings. Some moves also reduce or reset the PSP guage, so there's a resource management aspect as well

As you can see, both of those systems do a lot to allow the match to return to and to emphasize the "neutral state" of the game, when niether player is locked down and both are trying to get a hit in, and also to promote wider use of moves beyond just what does optimal damage.

All that said, if the game seems cool or that explanation made it sound interesting, I hope people check the game out! You can find more competitive resources on the game's supercombo page, while the main community disk0rd can be found just by googling that chat service plus pokken: it's still active, as is the game's online, even if it's not as big a scene as some other fighting games. It runs some regular online tournaments, as do other community figures like Devlin, Shadow_MewtwoX, as well as one by Road to Greatness, etc.