Video Game Blog 006: Pokemon Sportsball!

Welcome to Day 2 of my video game wrap up week! Today I want to talk a little about my game list and where I went wrong with it. For those of you who are new here or haven’t seen me mention my game list, I have been trying to get through some of my back log of games, so I made a list of games I really wanted to finish this year. See, when it comes to video games, my focus is not the best. I could be totally into a game and play it constantly but then get distracted by something unexpected and not play the original game for years. This was something I tried to be better about this year, but I ended up going off the rails again.

Partly this was due to getting hardcore into Pokémon again and working my way through the series. This year I planned to finish Pokémon White 2 and play Pokémon X. Instead of stopping there, I got all the way through Pokémon Y and halfway through Pokémon Omega Ruby. Oops.

Another problem I ran into was games I didn’t expect to focus on. One of those was Pokémon Unite, the subject of today’s post.

Ah, downloading update data. Thrilling. (Credit: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company)

Pokemon Unite is a MOBA, the first of that type of game that I have played. A MOBA is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, which means you team up with other players and try to accomplish objectives. In this case it’s to defeat your opponents, gather their orbs, and score goals using the orbs. That’s the quick version of the game, but there is a lot of strategy that goes into it. I didn’t even hear about this game until a couple of days after it launched, and I downloaded it right away.

Hey, it’s me. (Credit: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company)

There are three types of battle: Standard (where you team up with four other people to face a 5 player opponent squad), Quick (which is a much faster match and 4 on 4), and Ranked, where you can gain rankings and earn prizes at the end of a “season”. (I believe the seasons are three months.)

Other things you can do is maintain a friends list of people you know or meet in matches, customize your character with clothing you purchase or earn as prizes, customize your Trainer card, upgrade your held items, and visit shops. There is also a Battle Pass season where you earn rewards for doing various things in the game like logging in, assisting teammates, making goals, etc. The game is fairly generous to regular players, giving all sorts of log in rewards and many events to earn prizes by completing simple tasks. You also get prizes for leveling up and for being a good sport. There is an option for Energy Rewards, which is a tank that fills up as you play matches and when it’s full you get a prize from that as well.

Pretty fox. (Credit: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company)

There are a lot of Pokémon to choose from. 29 so far, with more being added periodically. (I have 11 as of the writing of this.) To get more, you have to purchase a license in a shop, or get them as a prize. The next Pokémon license I plan to get is Sylveon. When I first saw Sylveon years ago, I thought it looked super weird and kind of dumb… but I used one in my team on Pokémon Y and it grew on me. Fairy type is crazy powerful in the main series games. Plus, I like pink. My favorite Pokémon to use is Alolan Ninetales, but I try the others occasionally.

There are many types of currency. Since this is a mobile title, there are microtransactions. You can purchase currency and upgrade the Battle Pass to earn more prizes. Aeos coins are obtainable through battling as well as received as prizes. Aeos tickets are given as match season rewards and prizes. Aeos gems are rarely obtained as prizes but are mostly purchased with real money. There are also fashion tickets, Holowear tickets, and Item Upgrade tokens. You can get many held items to help you in battle, items that are single use, limited time cards to increase your rewards, and more.

There are three shops: Unite Battle Committee, where you purchase licenses for new Pokémon to use in matches. The Aeos Emporium, where you can purchase clothing and items. And Zirco Trading where you can get Holowear, which are the costumes for your Pokémon. Things can typically be purchase either with coins or tickets or with gems, with different exchange rates depending on the option.

Ninetales arrives on the battleground! (Credit: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company)

The gameplay involves navigating your chosen Pokémon around the arena, attacking opponents and wild Pokémon, protecting your goals, and scoring on opponent’s goals. There are boss Pokémon that spawn which you can defeat to gain team perks or a lot of orbs. There are no type advantages/disadvantages, which is weird for a Pokémon game. In the context of this game, however, it would likely throw off the balance, so I understand why they didn’t include it.

You level up as you defeat Pokémon, and some Pokémon evolve as they level up. Your abilities improve, giving you a choice of increasing the power of an ability you already have or replacing it with a new one. Your abilities have to recharge after use. You also gain a powerful Unite Move as you level up, but this move has a much slower recharge time. You can also carry three held items which can be upgraded. These increase attack, accuracy, speed, and more. There is one battle item you can bring with you which is a consumable item that recharges before you can use it again. These include Potions, X Attack, and more.

Strategies: The best advice I have is to level up fast. Taking out wild Pokémon are the key to this, and also hitting your opponents while they’re low level. If you get a good team matchup, you can swarm your opponents and systematically take out their goals before they can get a foothold. Since you’re on a team, teamwork is key. Protect your allies, work together, and communicate. (As well as the game allows you to.)

Thoughts: I do enjoy this game. I didn’t think I would… even though I love Pokémon, I typically don’t enjoy games were I need to team up with random strangers. After hearing my brothers and a friend talking positively about this game, I gave it a try, and I found it quite enjoyable. I played it every day for a couple of weeks but then burned out on it. (I got a couple days of horrible matchups in a row where every match I just got annihilated.) After that I really didn’t have the time to play it regularly, but I hope to get back into it when things slow down a little. The learning curve on the game is pretty mild and you do improve as you practice. All in all it’s a fun game, being vastly different from other games I play.

Attack, little foxy. (Credit: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company)

Thank you for reading. This was a shorter post than usual, but that’s fine. I didn’t have a lot to say, but I did want to talk about this game. Next up my video game post marathon continues towards the end of the year celebration! See you soon!