There are basically four platforms that games can live on; console, PC, handheld, and mobile. Different games are best suited to each one. For example, though FIFA is available on console, PC, and handheld, it’s a console game. So are console exclusives Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us. Breath of the Wild can be played handheld, but it’s a console game. Likewise, Animal Crossing can be played docked - and therefore is a console title - but it’s a handheld game. Minecraft might also be on console, handheld, and mobile, but it’s a PC game at heart. Pokemon Unite is a conundrum.
Pokemon Unite is a free-to-play Pokemon game. Immediately, it sounds like an ideal mobile game, or possibly handheld a la Pokemon Cafe. Great news! It is a handheld game, currently exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, but is coming to mobile next month. Since the Switch is both handheld and a traditional console, Unite is therefore also a console game, but much like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it seems most people go handheld with it. Since the game was designed with mobile in mind, you need the screen relatively close to your face to ensure the text is legible.
That makes Pokemon Unite a handheld game, a console game, and within a few weeks, a mobile game. Here’s the thing though - Pokemon Unite is a PC game… it’s just not available on PC. Pokemon Unite isn’t Baby League of Legends, as it avoids a lot of that game’s pitfalls. The Champions - the ‘mons, in this case - are less overwhelming, using Pokemon’s 900 strong roster to offer just a handful of choices to keep everything streamlined. Arguably too streamlined, since it launched with a grand total of zero Gen 2 ‘mons, despite it being Pokemon’s best generation. Blissey, an actual factual Healer, has since been added.
It’s not League, and it’s hard to say what it is. It’s a MOBA that’s not quite a MOBA, a Pokemon game that’s not quite a Pokemon game, a sports title that’s not quite a sports title, and now, it’s a PC game that’s not on PC.
It’s not as simple as ‘it’s a MOBA, so it should be on PC’, but like, it’s a MOBA innit? Probably should be on PC, like. While it doesn’t need the intricate controls of a PC exclusive like Valorant, JoyCon drift is very annoying, and with different abilities and maneuvers, you can see where a keyboard and mouse would come in handy. Personally, I prefer a controller for most games, even ones where the keyboard is probably optimal, but it feels strange that Pokemon’s first big leap into one of the few genres it has never explored is coming away from the platform that has the genre’s built-in audience. As a free-to-play mobile game with Pikachu in it, Unite will fly off the shelf - or virtual store - like hot Ultra Balls, but avoiding PC feels like a missed opportunity.
Pokemon Unite is not the only game to suffer in this way. Persona 5, for example, feels like it straddles the line between a PC game and a console game - yet it’s only available on console. Stranger still, Persona 5 Strikers, the sequel to Persona 5 and clearly a console game, is available on PC and Switch. Persona 4 Golden is also on PC, so maybe it’s just a matter of time for Joker and co - although it should be Ann and co - to be playable with a mouse and keyboard in their central adventure.
While Persona 5 may yet come to PC - there are several Persona projects set to be announced this year - with Pokemon Unite, it’s unlikely. Super Mario Maker is another game that feels like a PC game, but never will be.
Nintendo feels as though it operates in a different sphere to Microsoft and Sony. While all three sell video games and video game machines, it’s like Microsoft and Sony are fighting over who gets the biggest slice of the pie while Nintendo has cake. Every move Microsoft or Sony makes, the discussion revolves around how it will affect the other. What does Game Pass and Bethesda mean for Sony? What do Horizon, God of War, Spider-Man, and the string of other exclusives mean for Microsoft? Nintendo is deliberately excluded from these conversations, and for good reason.
Few people use the Switch as their main console. There are those that own a Switch alone, but they’re probably not absorbed in games enough to understand the concept of a ‘main console’. You might as well ask them what their main fridge is. The Switch is incredibly popular. It’s not an insult to call it a secondary console, but more a way to highlight how versatile it is. Even with a PlayStation, Xbox, or gaming PC, there’s room in your life for a Switch.
But it’s still weird that it’s the only place you can play Pokemon Unite, and that the next place in the queue is your mobile phone.