Pokemon battles rule. Unfortunately, in the games they mostly suck. I’m sure you remember some epic battle, maybe with Cynthia or someone, that was really honestly genuinely fantastic. I hate to break it to you, but no it wasn’t. You’ve watched enough of the anime to think it was epic, because you were able to project what you thought was happening onto what was actually happening - and what was actually happening was two sprites vaguely jumping up and down until a health bar dropped. Thankfully, in Detective Pikachu, newly added to Netflix, they actually rule.
The disconnect between how good Pokemon battles should be and how good Pokemon battles are has always annoyed me. Even as a kid, I understood that concessions needed to be made for the Game Boy Colour. However, the move to the Nintendo Switch, a console powerful enough to credibly run The Witcher 3, has brought further disappointment. When I use Surf as Poliwrath in Let’s Go, I expect my buff, boxing frog to raise its arms out in glory, to summon the waves from beneath the turf, and to stand there, legs rooted to the ground like mighty redwoods, while the tide crashes around it and sends my rival Marowak careening backwards.
Instead, either waves come from nowhere, Poliwrath does a pathetic ‘Poochie returns to his home planet’ jump, water hits Marowak (who stands there and rapidly flashes invisible), then it disappears into nothingness as Marowak faints. If I change tack to Thunder Punch, Poliwrath doesn’t swing a Mayweather-style haymaker, cracking my rival Scyther’s mandible with an electric fist - we just get a 3D version of ‘sprite up, health down’. Big ol’ meh.
It’s bad enough that our trainer is always boring, and in Sword & Shield, it’s even worse. More character models and more moves means more phoning it in. New Pokemon Snap, admittedly with no battles at all, has some amazingly detailed interactions between individual Pokemon, so it is possible. Unfortunately, the main series is still trying to catch up.
I’ve written about this before, when highlighting the clash between Magmar and Charizard in the anime in 1998. That’s still the best fight Pokemon has ever done (you can read more about why in the article conveniently linked for your reading pleasure above), but Detective Pikachu has the second best ever - so you should definitely go watch it now that it’s on Netflix.
The battle starts as Charizard vs Pikachu, but also, not really. Charizard approaches a cowering Pikachu, ready to Blast Burn it to hell, before Justice Smith’s Tim Goodman - really on the nose name, huh? - interrupts to save Pikachu. For a little while afterwards, it’s not really a Pokemon battle at all, instead it’s Charizard chasing Tim while Pikachu tries to steer it away.
Unlike the Magmar battle, this is not an archetype for what in-game battles should be like. It is, however, an extremely fun interpretation, and it would serve the games better to enjoy themselves more. I’d also like to point out that the fact both battles include Charizard is either entirely coincidental or proof that Charizard is the best equipped for battle or that, because of its popularity, the writers enjoy writing for Charizard. Personally, Charizard is my least favourite Kanto starter, but you can’t argue with the results.
The battle gets really interesting around halfway through when Charizard’s trainer intervenes, and the vials of Pokemon steroids - more complicated, but let’s go with that - shatter. The gas leaks out into the arena, and all the Pokemon watching become hyperactive. It starts with a gang of Exploud inhaling it and blasting out dubstep, and it only gets better from there.
At this point, all of the Pokemon become frenzied, running across the battlefield and causing carnage. This leads into the final set-piece of the whole affair - Magikarp evolving into the mighty Gyarados. With a mighty jet of water from its mouth - I guess Hydro Pump, but the games are so useless at showcasing the moves I can’t really tell - Gyarados washes Tim and Pikachu to safety.
Obviously, the base game battles cannot be this chaotic. It would be extremely annoying if, in the middle of an Elite Four showdown, some dude ran into the fight to kick your Charizard, give all the Pokemon drugs, and everything descended into chaos. Unlike Magmar vs Charizard, I don’t want Detective Pikachu’s clash to be the blueprint for the games. But you have to admit - it’s fun. Why aren’t all Pokemon battles like this? For a series built around battling, we really should be beyond sprites jumping up and down after 25 years.