New game Pokmon Champions revealed for Switch & mobile on Pokmon DayGameCentralPublished February 27, 2025 3:16pmUpdated February 27, 2025 3:24pm Pokmon Champions the legacy of Pokmon Stadium lives on (The Pokmon Company)The annual Pokmon Day showcase has unveiled a brand new Pokmon game that focuses on the series old school turn-based battles.Many of the entertainment worlds biggest franchises now have their own celebratory day, whether its Star Wars and May The 4th Be With You or Alien Day on April 26 (as in the planet LV-426). Pokmon Days origins arent quite so contrived though, as February 27 is simple the day the original Pokmon Red and Green games were released in Japan, in 1996.That means its only the 29th anniversary this year and yet we still got two significant announcements during Thursdays Pokmon Presents showcase: the first proper look at Pokmon Legends: Z-A and a brand new game called Pokmon Champions.Champions will be released for both Switch and iOS/Android and will focus on the old school turn-based battles of the series, in what seems to be essentially a modern update of the Pokmon Stadium titles.Although there was a nice reveal trailer, showing Pokmon battles through the ages, from Game Boy to Switch, it wasnt super clear what the game is.Its implied the battles will work the same as the mainline games but how exactly you obtain the pokmon you fight with wasnt mentioned.In Pokmon Stadium you basically just got loaners, with generic stats, but you could also upload and use your own pokmon from the mainline games. It seems Champions might work in a similar manner, with the reveal trailer boasting of access to Pokmon Home, which in turn gives you the ability to use critters youve caught in Pokmon Go and Scarlet/Violet.There was no mention of the Nintendo Switch 2 at all during the Pokmon Presents but since its backwards compatible with the original Switch, Pokmon Champions and Z-A should work on it anyway even if the games arent necessarily enhanced in any way.The showcase was just shy of 20 minutes long but the other announcements were merely minor updates to the various other ongoing games.This included Pokmon Go, Pokmon Caf Remix, Pokmon Sleep, Pokmon Unite, and Pokmon Trading Card Game Pocket, most of which had special promotions or free gifts for Pokmon Day.More TrendingPokmon Scarlet and Violet does too, even if its just a Rotom phone case, while the physical trading card game was announced as getting mega evolutions.There was also a spot for Pokmon Concierge, whose stop motion animation continues to make it the most visually interesting of the Pokmon cartoons.The show will be getting new episodes on Netflix in September, with the addition of pokmon Shinx, Growlithe, and Corphish. If youve not seen the show, then the first four episodes will be free on the Pokmon Company YouTube channel until March 9.There was no hint of a tenth generation mainline Pokmon game, but given the criticism that developer Game Freak has faced over the technical failings of the last two games they seem to be taking their time with the next one, which will likely be a Switch 2 exclusive. Its not clear how far away Gen 10 is (The Pokmon Company)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy