Pokémon Unite is so easy that you don’t even have to hold your hand.
This is not a dig – on the contrary. The new free MOBA from The Pokémon Company and Tencent Games distills the genre formula into an incredibly accessible package. The initial tutorial, which lasts around two minutes, is enough to get the game under control and learn how to dive in as the Pokémon of your choice.
The general premise is simple. You play in one of two teams of five and earn points by defeating wild Pokémon scattered across the area or by hitting members of the opposing team. Once you’ve accumulated points, head to specific zones on the opposing team’s side to add points to your team’s total score. You score by collecting the points into a glowing ball of energy and then slamming into a basketball hoop-like goal.
I was surprised that I enjoyed the game as MOBAs always intimidated me. In League of Legends, There are 150+ champions, tons of knowledge, and a fully pre-existing community – it can be a lot to break into. The league Community, while not a monolith, has also long dealt with hate speech and toxicity cases. In contrast, Unite Pokémon does not have a full chat like league. And while that may be a disadvantage for some, for me it is a protection from a bad experience.
In the face of all League of Legends: Wild Rift – a spin-off league Game for mobile, that should be that accessible entry point for new ones league Player – was an exciting prospect for me. However, the touch controls just didn’t work and even the tutorial felt a bit fidgety. When jumping in Unite, I appreciated having the Switch console and constantly reminding me how to play. (It doesn’t hurt that most of my friends have switches, either, and I’d be hard pressed to find someone to play with Wild crack.)
There is just so much to it Unite’s Design that makes it accessible. For one thing, while you can dig deeper into the game, you can as good as start after the first tutorial. (I did that and won a few games.) You can learn in the game in no time as all attacks and orders are marked with the button to press. Even common activities like scoring will result in a little icon that tells you which key to press. Plus, each game lasts ten minutes or less, so you’ll know exactly what you’re getting into every time.
You can go into more of this and create a custom character with items and a skin if you want. However, if you don’t want to get into it, you can just play. Each standard base character doesn’t (yet) have a huge impact on the game, and I had no problem winning matches with the included Pokémon.
There’s a trend that developers like simpler MOBAs Heroes of the Storm and League of Legends: Wild Rift, and Unite Pokémon continues in this sense. It hits its disarmingly red cheeks on what was once a hard-to-break genre and does it on a hugely popular console. Now it just has to come to the mobile platforms in autumn.
