Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are out now, and the reception to both highly anticipated titles has been mixed to say the least. Multiple reviews, including our own at GameSpot, mention that while the open world is an excellent step forward for the franchise, the games are held back by technical issues such as pop in, frame rate drops, and muddy textures.
As such, the current score at GameSpot sister site Metacritic sits at a 77, which is the lowest score for a new mainline Pokemon game ever. Before these entries, no new generation of Pokemon has scored below an 80 before.
I should note, that neither Pokemon Red/Blue or Gold/Silver have ratings on the site, but their remakes Fire Red/Leaf Green and Heart Gold/SoulSilver are also rated highly. Which of course they are, cus those are some of the greatest games of all time.
Despite the mixed reception to the new games, it seems to not have had any affect on sales, as Scarlet and Violet are the most preordered Pokemon games in the series’ history.
The Pokemon Company’s chief operating officer Takato Utsunomiya announced the news at a launch event for the pair of Pokemon games, though didn’t specify how many preorders the games had received. He did note that 440 million units of Pokemon-related games have been sold since the launch of the very first titles in Japan, Pokemon Red and Green.
The chief operating officer also revealed that because of the new elements Scarlet and Violet has introduced, for first-time players, playtimes could go all the way up to 60 hours, which is quite a bit longer than the typical Pokemon adventure.
If you are picking up either of the new games, make sure to grab your free, rare Pikachu. Once you unlock the Poke Portal in the game, which requires you to to start the Treasure Hunt activity early on in the game, you’ll be able to access Mystery Gifts like in previous entries in the series. Select “Get Via Internet” and the Pikachu will be awarded to you.
What makes this Pikachu worth obtaining? Besides the adorability factor, this particular electric rat knows the move Fly, which Pikachu are usually incapable of learning. Usually reserved for Flying-type Pokemon, Fly is a useful two-turn attack that can demolish Fighting and Grass-type Pokemon on the field, adding some extra utility to this particular Pikachu. This Pikachu will also change its typing from Electric to Flying when it is terastalized, the new power up mechanic in the game.
Make sure to head to GameSpot dot come for a ton, and I do mean a ton, more content around Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
If you’re still in too deep with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 to care about pocket monsters, and you also have Xfinity internet, I hope you haven’t paid for your battle pass yet, as you can pick it up for free.