I was having a cup of tea in my kitchen last night when my Nintendo Switch had the audacity to tell me it was low on battery. Given that I was in the middle of a pretty good Max Raid run, I wasn’t in the mood to leave it on charge. Technically speaking, I could have used this time to a) exercise, b) clean, or c) work on personal projects, but I inevitably did none of those things and instead chose to whack my Switch iꦆn the dock and continue my Galarian adventures on a telly. This, I now know, was a grave mistake.
Before I get into why playing Pokemon on TV is sacrilegious, allow me to preface my argument by acknowledging some exceptions to the rule. I predominantly played 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:New Pokemon Snap in docked mode because it’s objectively better that way. A photography game all about the intricate interactions between Pokemon in distinct environments rendered with stunning visual fidelity﷽ deserves a bigger scre🍃en than the one built into the Switch. Obviously.
TheGamer’s editor-in-chief Stacey Henley also pointed out that Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee are more suited to docked play, largely thanks to them boasting a different - a🎉nd better - aesthetic to most other Pokemon games. They also makeꩲ clever use of motion capture controls to create a unique catching mechanic. Essentially, Let’s Go joins Snap in the ranks of “Rare Pokemon games that are better on TV.” I have no intention to refute that claim. I agree.
What I mean to argue is that mainline Pokemon games - the conventional RPGs tied to numbered generations - just aren’t built for entertainment centres. Call me an overly nostalgic genwunner, but the magic of these games is best captured on a small screen that quite liter🍎ally places the world at your fingertips. It might sound pretentious to suggest this, but there’s a sort of experiential quality imbued in this mode of play that ma🌃kes the entire phenomenon both more cohesive and more contained. Whether it’s Pokemon Blue or Pokemon Sword, playing in handheld just feels right.
Note that I’ve said “feels” there, and that the headline also clearly states that “playing Pokemon on a TV feels wrong.” I’m not interested in touting prescriptive ideals or telling anyone that the way they personally like playing a specific game is inherently incorrect. My argument is just that when I play Pokemon on♛ a telly instead of on a little device in my hands, I feel as if the whole experience is missing something irreplaceable. Pokemon doesn’t need the spectacle of a 50-inch OLED or fancy soundbar. It needs to be played on the couch, in the car, or in bed. It needs to be the only thing you’re focusing on but also sufficiently non-intrusive for you to involuntarily look around and see what’s happening offscreen. It needs to be handheld - otherwise, it’s just not the same.
I know this is a point of contention now. Both Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl and Pokemon Legends: Arceus are Switch exclusives, meaning that a lot of people will probably play them docked. That’s fine! If that’s how you prefer to play, be my guest. All I would say is that bigger isn’t always better, and if you’re playing on your telly just because you’ve been conditioned to believe it will automatically offer an enhanced experience, I’d p🅷robably devote some time to prꦓactically reexamining that stance by playing handheld and really drinking in what that means. From the looks of Sword & Shield, Gen 9 is going to be even more geared towards the kind of massive, sprawling worlds we see other consoles realise on massive, sprawling screens. That just doesn’t sound appealing to me.
When it comes to ꦛgames like Snap and Let’s Go, sure, televisions and Pokemon are a match made in heaven. For the real Pokemon games though - the mainline ones that sell millions of copies and automatically ingrain themselves in our collective cultural memory - nothing beats turning off the lights, chilling out with a cup of tea, and losing yourself in a small screen with a big heart.
It’s how Pokemon started, after all - it would be a shame to see it lose the magic it still holds over all the other games aimlessly searching for a spark in worlds withou🍷t lightning.