Pokemon Sword / Shield Dual Pack

Another great game in the Pokémon series. It holds back when it comes to technical design and it doesn´t offer the opportunity to catch the old familiar faces, but fortunately most of the new additions are more than satisfactory for many hours of gameplay. [Issue#300]

Pokemon Sword and Shield's single-player experience is filled with neat characters and a new region that's brimming with personality, but running around the Wild Area with other players offers a special kind of fun. Quality of life improvements to the metagame, including the ability to change your Pokemon's nature and rent teams for fights, gives you good reason to stick with the game after you're crowned the new champion of the Galar region. Despite the controversy, Sword and Shield offers a great time.

Pokémon Sword and Shield represent an exciting new beginning for the saga. Some ideas aren't perfectly developed, but overall the work from Gamefreak is convincing.

Sword & Shield is a really tricky Pokémon entry to pigeonhole. It retains the old Pokémon charm, but it's not without flaws.

While the game is just as fun and addicting as ever, the awkward dialogue feels shoe-horned in and the stark difficulty drop off in the mid-game is unfortunate to say the least, making the latter half of the experience a breeze. It’s still an enjoyable experience and a treat to explore the Galar region. It may not be perfect, but it is a strong step in the right direction to giving us the ultimate Pokemon experience.

Pokemon Sword & Shield doesn't take enough risks or attempt anything really new and important. The overwhelming amount of re-used assets and shortcuts leads to one of the biggest missed opportunities on the Switch to date. Newcomers will find a lot to love here, with no previous games to measure it against, but longtime series fans will likely be left wanting in almost every area.

Everything in the game is unpolished and once again there is absolutely nothing interesting storywise; no mystery and no lead concept that would let the players explore the world by themselves. It’s the same level design, same designers’ tricks and the same sub-par balance which I know all too well form the previous games. [01/2020, p.76]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I actually really like Sword and Shield. I liked the return to the classic gym format that we drifted from with Sun and Moon but the problem with it is that these games just kinda ****! Like they're good but they're very bland. Nothing interesting about them at all. I like it but it's just quite basic.

It's a Pokémon game alright, you already know if you'll enjoy it. They still refuse to update their formula for the mainline series. I feel they can get away with it here because it is the first one on a new platform. I didn't care for any of the after credits stuff, just wasn't very appealing. The multiplayer stuff was also rather dull.

This is probably my first time ever i have been not enjoying collecting the pokedex. Game feels quite stale and dynamaxing is not something i quite like.

The graphics are poor, the story is poor and insipid, it has good characters that are poorly used, the mechanics are still those of 10 years ago, and it came out full of bugs like New Vegas but without being a good video game.