Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is brilliantly ambitious, but possibly too much for the hardware it has to run on.

^ Stay tuned for our extensive video preview with brand new footage!

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet it’s a return to the main series, but it brings in many elements from the Pokemon Legends Arceus spinoff that came out earlier this year, including open-world flourishes that many compared favorably to Breath of the Wild.

Our resident jRPG and Nintendo fan, Alex Donaldson, had an extensive hands-on session with the new game and found an engaging and active world to explore filled with innovations from the series alongside more traditional touches. The classic Pokéball catch returns, as do Pokémon Centers, but these too are dotted around the field in the form of outdoor kiosks. Modern convenience! Read his full trailer here.

It’s an extremely ambitious game and furthers the seemingly constant evolution of Pokémon from handheld RPG to full home console experience, always straddling the two states but slowly expanding towards the latter. Which makes it the quintessential Switch game: a premium handheld experience, with big TV aspirations. But, like Arceus before it, there are performance trade-offs in the preview build that highlight the need for Nintendo to update its hardware, whether that materializes as the mythical Switch Pro or as an entirely new console as old hardware gets lost. he struggles to keep up with Scarlet. /Violet’s ambitious design and smart new features.

Having said that, it’s primarily a portable kid’s game, so performance issues are hardly going to spoil its inevitable success, but we’re middle-aged and write for a gaming website, so it’s the kind of thing that we like to complain. on. Continue.

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet It’s releasing on November 18 exclusively on Nintendo Switch (obviously, I mean, it would be a first if they were sticking it on PS5, huh?)