^Stay tuned for our intensive video preview with model new footage!

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a return to the mainline sequence, nevertheless it brings over plenty of parts from the Pokémon Legends Arceus spin-off which got here out firstly of this 12 months, together with the open-world prospers that many in contrast favourably to Breath of the Wild.

Our resident jRPG and Nintendo fanatic Alex Donaldson had an in depth hands-on session with the brand new sport and located a compelling, lively world to discover filled with sequence improvements alongside extra conventional touches. Classic Pokéball catching makes a return, and so do Pokémon Centres, however these are additionally dotted arouind within the discipline within the type of exterior kiosks. Modern comfort! Read his full preview right here.

It’s an especially bold sport and furthers Pokémon’s seemingly fixed evolution from handheld RPG into fully-fledged house console expertise, without end straddling the 2 states however increasing slowly towards the latter. Which makes it the quintessential Switch sport: a premium handheld expertise, with aspirations for the Big TV. But, like Arceus earlier than it, there are efficiency concessions within the preview construct which spotlight the necessity for Nintendo to refresh their {hardware}, whether or not that materialises because the legendary Switch Pro or a brand new console solely, as the previous {hardware} strains to maintain up with Scarlet/Violet’s bold design and intelligent new options.

Having stated that, it is primarily a handheld sport for teenagers, so the efficiency points are hardly going to scupper its inevitable success, however we’re middle-aged and we write for a video games web site, so it is the type of factor we prefer to moan about. Carry on.

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet will launch on November 18th solely on Nintendo Switch (clearly, I imply, it’d a be a little bit of a scoop in the event that they had been sticking it on PS5 eh?)