#pokemon switch

Because if this I didn’t know what any of the characters looked like.

This year's gonna be a big one. Presumably Gen 10 is gonna make its debut this year, marking officially 10 generations of Pokemon by the end of 2026.

But that also means the Switch era of Pokemon is coming to an end. Woah, time sure does fly. Gen 10 is gonna be Pokemon's big proper debut on Switch 2 as a Switch 2 exclusive that really takes advantage of what the Switch 2 is capable of.

Aside from the Switch 2's enhanced graphics and the capability for an even bigger scale Pokemon game than before, this makes Gen 10 have a lot of potential in other aspects. Namely, there's potential for the Gen 10 games to use the Switch 2 Joy-con's mouse and click features for any quirky features in its signature paired debut games, which is something Game Freak loves doing. Diamond and Pearl in Gen 4 really took advantage of the DS's dual-screen interface and bottom touch screen both for battle UI and for quirky minigames like the Underground, and it also took advantage of wireless play and Wi-Fi, which was a first for Nintendo handhelds at the time. X and Y in Gen 6 also took advantage of the 3DS, both with the autostereoscopic 3D and the stronger hardware leading to 3D models, and quirky little things like 8-directional movement, Pokemon Amie, roller skates to use the Circle Pad in fun ways, and the PSS. And then Sword and Shield in Gen 8 took advantage of the motion controls of the Switch Joy-Cons, namely in Pokemon Camp, and its special HD rumble for Dynamax and certain Gym puzzles, though motion controls carried over from Let's Go, albeit in less contexts. So Gen 10's big debut games are gonna take advantage of the Switch 2's quirks in a fun way for sure.

Of course, I'm looking forward to things like the new starter trio, the new boxart legendary pair, and the new pseudo-legendary as well as a brand new roster of Pokemon because that's always exciting. We're already past the 1000 Pokemon mark so no need to think about that, but we will have 10 trios of starters by this year, and a full 11 pseudo-legendaries. I wonder what type the new pseudo will be.

Looking back at the Switch era, it definitely wasn't the best era, as it had a lot of shortcomings and the games were pretty meh compared to first party titles on the Switch like from Mario, Zelda, and Metroid, much less third party titles, and the gap between them and full blown console games on the Switch is more glaring than before, but it was definitely the most interesting era imo. The generations from Gen 3 to Gen 7 followed a fairly recognizable and predictable format and were a lot of fun but they generally played it safe with changes and improvements being incremental. The Switch era has been different throughout each game and there's increasing potential along the way. Sword and Shield, Legends: Arceus, Scarlet and Violet, and Legends: Z-A all have some promising aspects in spite of their individual shortcomings, and altogether point to Gen 10 having the potential to be really cool and a big step forward if it integrates the strongest aspects of every game from Gen 8 and 9. Every game in the Switch era was pretty different and brought some new potential to the table, and while not one of them has reached an "ideal" for what a console-scale Pokemon game "should" be, they do showcase the potential.