It’s no secret, I LOVE Pokémon. I have loved Pokémon from its very beginning in the 90s, and I even loved it through the questionable years when the new Pokémon in each generation got weirder and lame. I got super excited when Pokémon came to Nintendo Switch with Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee (it’s what actually prompted me to finally buy a Switch) and couldn’t wait to relive my favourite adventure in a new way.

THEN Pokémon Sword and Shield were announced and we were set to experience Pokémon in a way we had never experienced before and I was BEYOND excited. The more information that came out, the more excited I got; and when I FINALLY got to play, it very quickly became my favourite Pokémon game since the original.

Now, 2 years on – and a day from the release of Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl – I’m reflecting on my favourite things about Sword / Shield that made the game just so darn fun to play.

I absolutely LOVED the Galarian Pokédex! The thing I loved most about it was that not only was there a bunch of existing Pokémon, but there were a whole bunch of new Galarian specific Pokémon AND Galarian variants (much better than the stupid Alolan variants – I HATED those). In my opinion, Pokémon started getting weird after like Generation 2, and if I’m completely honest recent ‘dexes were just absolute crap (have I mentioned that I hated the Alolan Pokémon??)… and even though the Galarian ‘dex had some weirdos, they kinda actually worked and I wasn’t mad about their existence. This ‘dex is by far my favourite since the original Kanto Pokédex.

Notable Galarian Pokédex favourites:

• Galarian Farfetch’d and its evolution Sirfetch’d
• Galarian Ponyta and Galarian Rapidash
• Morpeko
• Wooloo (still searching for my shiny Wooloo and growing my Wooloo army)

I haven’t been a fan of starter Pokémon for a while… yeah, some of them have been cute over the years but their evolutions haven’t sparked a lot of joy for me… until we got the Galarian starters. I genuinely had a hard time choosing a starter because I loved them all so much (a problem I hadn’t had since the original game), AND each of their evolutions and final form evolutions are pretty boss. I eventually got all 3 starters in my Pokédex, but there is a special place in my heart for my partner Scorbunny. He’s cute and sassy and powerful – he’s just got it all and I love him almost as much as I loved my Squirtle in Pokémon Blue.

The legendary Pokémon are always something special in each generation… but there is just something extra special about the Galarian legendaries. If I’m honest, Zamazenta and Zacian are probably my favourite legendaries of all the legendary Pokémon. I mean, they are doggos, what’s not to love about them?!

The wild area is one of my absolute favourite additions to the game. The different weather patterns, the day/night cycles, all the different Pokémon appearing, the raid battles, seeing all the other players running around and joining them in their campsites and raid battles… It made Pokémon hunting super fun. I just absolutely loved this feature. It also gave a good insight into what a Pokémon MMO would be like, which personally I think would be AMAZING!

How much fun is dynamaxing?! It was basically an enhanced version of mega evolution, but it wasn’t limited to certain Pokémon holding a stone. Any Pokémon could dynamax and I loved making my Pokémon huge, but the gigantamax forms of some Pokémon were amazing!

Notable favourite gigantamax forms:

• Pikachu (or Chonkachu as I like to call him)
• Snorlax
• Meowth (or SlenderCat as I like to call him)
• Charizard

The raid battles were so much fun. They not only gave a chance to get stronger Pokémon, but also a chance to get some super useful items and candies. I also loved how you could team up with your friends – or even strangers – to battle together.

This was just a game that kept on giving. The end game adventure was really fun. I really enjoyed the extra story and the objectives. It made running around getting my legendary and filling my Pokédex a lot more fun.

I LOVED THE DLCS!!! Previously, if there was extra content for a game, an updated version of the game would be released and you would have to play the entire game again just for a little bit of new content, and I absolutely HATED that to the point I started losing interest in the games. BUT with the addition of the DLCs, I was able to enjoy extra content without needing to play the whole game over again AND for a cheaper price! I still haven’t finished Crown Tundra, but I am having so much fun continuing my Pokémon journey with these DLCs and I really hope it is something they continue to do in future games.

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There’s so much to love about Sword / Shield. Let me know in the comments what some of your favourite things about the game were.

Until next time…

– MuffinBear

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