Game Review: Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu!

Pokémon has always been a series which struggled with its identity. It’s hard to justify new iterations and ideas when the core formula already brings in enough of an audience.  It’s arguable that the biggest shift in identity the franchise ever faced as of recently was when Pokémon Go came out in 2016 for mobile devices.  It was a mega hit and consumed the social-sphere during it’s release and brought Pokémon to a large-scale audience not seen since the 90’s. The main allure of the gameplay behind Pokémon Go was its simple catch mechanic.  You would explore the real world and encounter Pokémon on your map.  You’d then need to use the touch controls to flick a pokeball to catch the monster, it was simple and accessible for anyone to easily grasp. It makes sense that Game Freak and Nintendo would capitalize on that new-found popularity by adapting the Pokémon Go gameplay into their first major release on the Nintendo Switch. 

Developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo, Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu! and Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee! were two version exclusive games released for the Nintendo Switch on November 16th 2018.  The core basis of these games is they served as modern day remakes of the original Pokémon Yellow title released in 1998.  While fundamentally similar to the original title, these new iterations touted a number of revisions and quality of life changes to help bring the game into the modern day.  One of the most fundamental shifts these games took was the decision to do away with the conventional wild Pokémon encounter system from all prior games.  As mentioned earlier, the key feature was the Pokémon Go catch mechanic which replaced the need to battle wild Pokémon. Let’s Go received substantial success upon it’s release, accruing a respectable 81 on Opencritic and totaling over 15 million sales as of November 2022, marking it as one of the Switch’s highest selling games of all time.

The narrative of Pokemon Let’s Go takes place in the Kanto region.  You are a rookie trainer, who along your friend/rival Trace soon venture out on a quest to catch Pokémon and become a champion of the region’s Pokémon League.  To do this you visit Professor Oak, the region’s resident scientific researcher and he helps you catch your first Pokémon, a Pikachu or Eevee dependent on your game version. Together with your new trusty partner, you venture forth across the land, exploring the many towns and facing their respective gym leaders.  During your travels you’ll come across members of the nefarious Team Rocket who you will learn are the regions resident crime organization. There’s no core narrative in reality as the game juggles a lot of these plot threads around as you make your way towards facing the Pokémon League.

As a remake, Let’s Go doesn’t really offer all that much of an improvement upon the original narrative from Pokémon Yellow all those decades ago.  It does a solid job at adapting it fairly well but it’s attempts at varying up the story feels barely noticeable in all honesty.  I know there’s the saying that if it’s not broke, don’t fix it but I feel there was clearly an intent to do something different here and it just feels like Game Freak didn’t dare take the full risk at the fear of alienating original fans. The reality is there’s not really any consistent storyline here.  The plot threads all kind of pop up when and wherever necessary but they’re better attributed to set dressing than actual compelling reasons to push the game forward.  My biggest criticism is your rival Trace.  Blue was and arguably still is the best rival in any Pokémon game, because he was always one step ahead of you and actually antagonized you on every encounter.  Trace is a reflection of modern day Pokémon’s incessant requirement to dilute the rival characters into a more friendly personality.  I get the idea of it, but it just doesn’t work for me, the rival should be written in a way to actually annoy and frustrate you, so you feel vindication when you beat them.

From a gameplay angle, the game’s core formula doesn’t deviate all that much from the other games.  The combat system especially reflects the strong and diverse balance between Pokémon typing and move tactics.  It’s nice to see the new fairy typing and additional move sets shift the difficulty of the battle encounters of the original generation 1 to be a little more forgiving.  I can’t fault much about the combat in all honesty, it really reflects the best of the modern tactical formula the series has refined itself to present.  A new feature that stems with the removal of wild Pokémon encounters is the Candy mechanic. Every Pokémon you catch, you can choose to send to Professor Oak as part of his research. In return for sending the Pokémon to him, he’ll give you a candy which increases the respective stat type of that Pokémon.  It’s a system which helps you easily power your Pokémon up to become sweeping machines.  There’s no requirement to use it, but I would be remised if I didn’t acknowledge how while I appreciate it’s intent, it does end up making the game way too easy in the long run. My biggest detractor when it comes to the gameplay though is the decision to implement the Pokémon Go mechanic in place of the wild Pokémon encounters.  It’s a very simple and arguably less engaging system because you’re just pressing a button and hoping your pokeball will catch it.  It’s a gimmick in all honesty and I never really got on with it.

The game at least has a strong visual presentation to tout as one of it’s pros. The game does a great job in recreating the original games in a detailed 3-D environment.  Animations are slick and smooth especially with the Pokémon and trainers you encounter.  This really set the benchmark when it came to the potential of remakes on the Switch, so it’s even more of a shame when they dropped the ball so hard with Brilliant Diamond and Shining Peal.  The original soundtrack is also given a nice overhaul by the game’s composer Shota Kageyama.

Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu! and Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee! had all the core aspects nailed down to serve as a solid remake of the original game. I think where as a game that it falters is it’s attempts to do something new.  I don’t fault the intent but the execution is poorly considered with the forced inclusion of the Pokémon Go catch mechanic and the half-hearted attempt to revise elements of the narrative.  It’s still a notably enjoyable experience despite its flaws, it just doesn’t scratch the itch I’m looking for when I play Pokémon titles.