After a highly successful launch for Nintendo Switch two months ago, Pokemon Unite is finally playable on mobile. While this alone is noteworthy, there are also quite a few other reasons for today being significant: Mamoswine and Sylveon are being added to the roster (add them any time now, Timi...); the game’s ostensibly-but-not-actually pay-to-win mechanics have been generously reworked; and, perhaps most importantly of all, Unite has rounded out its inaugural season by revamping… Well, everything, really.
Today’s patch highlights a bunch of issues with Unite I never even noticed were problems until they were resolved. The UI has changed so drastically that I initially thought my game was broken when I booted it up, whereas, actually, it had just been tidied with such finesse that navigating menus is now so breezy it feels effortless. The in-game announcer commentates with more punch and pizazz, while animations for kills and scoring are way more stylish. Knowledge is also more limited now in that you can no longer see your enemy’s health bars. Individually, all of these changes are minor enough to seem unnecessary, if not entirely unimportant. Together, however, they contribute to a game-spanning overhaul that has taken every facet of an already excellent MOBA and improved on it.
There are, of course, a load of new goodies in the game as well. While I usually don’t care for skins - or any cosmetic cash grabs, if I’m honest - I can absolutely get behind astronaut Gengar. On that note, I actually reckon Gengar being a spaceman now could point to some very, very intriguing stuff down the line, but that’s a topic for another article.
Anyway! Perhaps the most impactful addition is the introduction of more powerful item enhancers, which instantly increase a held item of your choosing to level 30. Also, you’ll regain any ordinary enhancers you’ve already invested in that item - within 20 minutes of logging in this morning, I’d gone from one max level item to almost four. Maybe dreams do come true.
Speaking of items, you’re now also able to earn seven-day trials for maxed out held items, which means you can try out a bunch of different builds before investing your hard-earned Super Item Enhancers in them. I’ve already discussed why Pokemon Unite isn’t pay-to-win at length, and this new feature proves that sentiment almost irrefutably.
The only annoying things about the new season are that a) Mamoswine and Sylveon still aren’t here at the time of writing, and b) there’s quite a bit of jargon involved. I don’t necessarily mean that there are literal pretentious words all over the place as much as I feel this patch features the video game equivalent of gratuitous silliness. There’s a trailer that automatically plays when you access the new Battle Pass that feels sort of pointless, and the influx of new challenge types confuses what exactly you’re supposed to do outside of just playing the game like normal. On top of that, the UI reshuffle - despite being impressive in some ways - is similarly strange in others. The home screen looks better and the clunky left-screen menus are easier to navigate, but it’s just a bit… weird. I don’t know. Maybe I need to get used to it.
These are minor complaints, though, right? That two Pokemon who are definitely coming are slightly late and the mostly better UI requires a little bit of adjusting to. Aside from that, Unite has improved on itself in every way on the exact same day it becomes available on mobile, which is a pretty huge feat. Let’s just hope this revamp is a testament to Unite’s longevity and that enough people pick it up on mobile for it to become even half as enduringly ubiquitous as Pokemon Go.
After all, despite potentially being the game of the century, Go is admittedly suffering from factors like research rewards becoming stale and wild Pokemon no longer mattering. Unite, on the other hand, has taken the world by Leaf Storm - which actually isn’t part of any of the current mons’ movesets, so it doesn’t quite work as a pun, but… I’m not sorry.
Basically, Pokemon Unite's latest update is good and you should play it. By which I mean, please play it. Let’s make sure the devs are given a reason to keep adding to the roster and experimenting with the game’s formula in new and fascinating ways. I mean, provided they finally add another Gen 2 Pokemon, eh? O Heracross, Heracross, wherefore art thou Heracross? Deny thy father and refuse thy name, please Megahorn your way into this Pokemon game.
Okay, now I’m sorry.