After visiting Universal's Epic Universe theme park and its Nintendo World branch earlier this year, I was struck by the overlap between immersive real-world parks and video games.
Would Nintendo ever make a Pokemon park of its own? It's likely. If it does, it might feel a bit like Pokemon Legends: Z-A, the latest Pokemon Switch game. I played it for about an hour on the Nintendo Switch 2 a few weeks ago. Pokemon Legends: Z-A is released Oct. 16, so I'll have deeper thoughts on it then.
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What immediately stood out was the real-time nature of the game. It's a little Pokemon immersive world in the very French Lumiose City. Fighting a battle means being quick and clever. With Pokemon, your only options are to move carefully or run away. The city changes from day to night, and new things keep happening all the time.
Pokemon games have gradually become more immersive over time, and some have moved toward more open 3D worlds. Pokemon Snap always felt like a theme park ride in game form. Pokemon Go turned neighborhoods into social Pokemon hunting grounds. And the last Legends Pokemon game, Arceus, opened up a sort of Zelda-like open-world feel.
Read more: The Leaked Mega Evolutions I'm Most Excited to See in Pokemon Legends: Z-A
I only play Pokemon games occasionally, but my youngest son is now a Pokemon obsessive who's diving through all the recent games. During my brief demo, which dropped me into a few quick scenarios at the start of the game, he'd have had a better encyclopedic understanding of which Pokemon I encountered. I ran from Houndours that overwhelmed me. I tried to sneak up on them later, but I wasn't quite ready.
You never know where you'll find weird trainers and their Pokemon. Nintendo
Lumiose City feels futuristic and oddly corporate, and I liked it. It reminded me a bit of the underrated Detective Pikachu movie, which played on the fantasy of a city where people and realistic Pokemon live together. In Lumiose City, Pokemon battles and captures are happening within the city walls because of the wild zones where Pokemon live. But I also saw Pokemon wandering around everywhere, so I wasn't sure.
The real-time battles use timers, and attack actions are triggered from one of four button assignments. You can accumulate learned moves and swap the ones you want to be active at any moment. New Pokemon can be switched out in a battle on the fly in a similar way.
Expect Mega Evolutions to be a big part of the game. Nintendo
Battles felt like a waiting game, where actions would slowly recharge and become usable again, instead of having a fixed number of uses before running out. I started button-mashing my moves at times as I danced around to avoid attacks. Big boss battles with Mega Evolved Pokemon were also sort of familiar, like huge JRPG battles.
The graphics looked smooth and fun on the Switch 2, but I only got to play in docked TV mode, not on a handheld or original Switch. Pokemon games have hit performance hiccups on the Nintendo Switch over the last few years.
I guess what I really want is a Pokemon theme park. Or a Pokemon Snap ride. Legends Z-A might offer something more immersive in its own way when it arrives next month, though I do miss those open-world Arceus feelings.