First Impressions: POKEMON UNITE Is a Fun and Very Streamlined MOBA

The Pokémon Company and TiMi Studios launched Pokémon Unite this week on the Nintendo Switch. The game is a MOBA-style online multiplayer game that is free-to-play and will be coming to Android and iOS this September. As soon as it launched, I started playing the game, and I wanted to share my first impressions. Please note this is not a formal review of the game and only reflects my experiences.

If you’ve ever played a MOBA like League of Legends, DOTA, or Mobile Legends Bang Bang, then you’ll know the gist of Pokémon Unite. Two teams of five duke it out and fight each other to win. As you play, you’ll level up your character (and evolve your Pokémon) and get stronger and stronger attacks. There are some key differences though.

First, teams do not have minions. It’s just the five Pokémon. Instead, minions and creeps are all around the field for you to slay and get orbs. These orbs are then slam dunked into an enemy’s goal which weakens it. The goals are similar to the towers in most MOBAs although they aren’t offensive in any way. Instead, you can stand on a goal and heal a small amount of health over time. This is a very important mindset switch you’ll need to make if you’re being chased. The good news is that behind your own goals, you are faster and enemies are slower. Another difference is that instead of trying to destroy the enemy’s base, your goal is merely to score the most points in a 10-minute game. You score points by slaying enemies, slam dunking orbs into goals, and more. At the end of 10 minutes, a team is declared the winner and you go back to the lobby.

One aspect I love is that 10-minute timer. It’s very easy for a MOBA match to take 45+ minutes. They can be real time sinks. The 10-minute timer ensures that games are quick. Another great area I mostly enjoy is the extremely streamlined experience. LoL and DOTA are very complex and are hard to just jump into, but Pokémon Unite is extremely easy to immediately start playing and feel like you have some idea of what to do. The item system is extremely bare bone which will turn off more hardcore MOBA fans, but for new players and young players, this is great. You can eventually unlock up to 3 held items and one item to use mid-battle. As you level up your account, you can even upgrade your items and improve them. This is a simple, yet effective way to manage this aspect of gameplay. You don’t have to worry about getting money during the game or making sure you’re buying the right items from the shop during your game. Time is crucial after all.

Something that I hate about Pokémon Unite is that I haven’t found any way to see the scores of the teams. You can find how many kills each team has, but the overall scores seem to be hidden until the game ends. You get messages saying that your team is up or your team is down, but you never know the actual score and that helps the final scores feel very arbitrary even if they aren’t. Also, I’m annoyed that Pikachu can’t evolve. I know he’s the company’s mascot, but let the guy (yes, it’s a male one) evolve like his friends. Heck, start him as a freaking Pichu and let him go to Raichu or Alolan Raichu. My final one is a little minor, I feel like all of the Pokémon move too slow. It just feels like they’re stuck in slow motion movement, and there’s not much you can do to adjust that.

The Pokémon available right now is an interesting group that leans heavily into Gen 1 territory. I know we’re getting Blastoise (another Gen 1, albeit my favorite) and Gardevoir eventually, and I hope they continue to release new Pokémon on a regular basis like other MOBAs. This prevents the game from feeling too stale and will allow them to bring more Pokémon from Gens 2-8 and appeal to even more fans. I imagine that the first batch of new characters will launch with balance updates when the game launches on mobile this September. Who would you like to see added to the roster?

One thing I wanted to mention is that the game starts off with you locked in around 30fps. If you go to settings, you can adjust this and the game plays much better if you can get it to run on High (~60fps) but that will depend on your internet connection. Another tip I have is make sure you read about a Pokémon’s moves before selecting them to use in a game. It’ll make your life a lot better.

Overall, Pokémon Unite is a lot of fun. It is a streamlined MOBA that makes it easier for casual and younger players to get into the game genre. Plus, it has awesome Pokémon and is free-to-play. Yes, there are microtransactions, but they’re all cosmetic. The game has to be monetized somehow, and this is the best way, in my opinion, for the consumer. All Pokémon can be obtained without the use of real money, so that’s a win.