After spending some time with Pokémon Let's Go! Pikachu and Eevee, I now understand why The Pokémon Company was at pains to break tradition and mention its plans for a separate, full RPG game in 2019. If it wasn't clear from the brief snippets of footage shown in Pikachu and Eevee's reveal trailer, a few minutes of hands-on gameplay confirms these Pokémon games are very different from the ones you are used to - even more than I was expecting.
Pokémon: Let's Go! Pikachu
Key events
You'll need to use motion controls to catch Pokémon in Pokémon: Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee, regardless of whether or not your Switch is docked, and they're compulsory throughout.
Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee needs an online subscription for key features
To battle and trade online.
You need to buy a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to trade Pokémon or enter online battles in Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee.
For a long time, Pokémon has been playing it safe. In two decades the main series really hasn't changed that much, instead retreating into a kind of calculable routine. New, main series Pokémon RPGs come out every couple of years: each time there's two of them, each time there's probably an enhanced version - either a third, or another pair - and each time Game Freak will add roughly one thing new and take roughly one other thing away, which was probably the new thing they'd just added last time.
"I'm always concerned that we take Pokémon too far, that it's no longer approachable."
Pick out a feature from most Pokémon games and, chances are, Junichi Masuda probably had something to do with it. The long-time director, producer, designer and composer has done everything from designing the intricacies of breeding shiny Pokémon in the main series, to writing the music for Pokémon Go.
20 years later, fans uncover never-before-seen Pokémon left on the cutting room floor
From a demo version of Gold and Silver.
An early version of Pokémon Gold and Silver, featuring dozens of Pokémon cut from the final release, has been found by fans and posted online.