Nintendo has announced that Pokemon Champions will officially launch for Switch 2 and Switch 1 consoles on April 8. The competitive battling game is free to start, but Nintendo and The Pokemon Company will also release a Starter Pack bundle on launch day that includes additional Pokemon storage space, an extra battle song, and more. Switch 2 players will also be able to download a free upgrade for the game that improves its visuals on the hybrid console.
In case you missed it, Pokemon Champions focuses purely on the battle aspect of the franchise. Familiar gameplay mechanics like turn-based combat and each Pokemon having four moves to use in battle will be present, and like the main games, strategies will revolve around type affinities and abilities.
The new overview trailer also revealed three different modes of Pokemon battles–Ranked Battles, Casual Battles, and Private Battles–and how they can be tackled in both Singles and Doubles formats.