Spencer Stanley

Pokemon is an older series of games, all things considered, so I'm glad they're trying new things. This series has always been targeted towards children around the ages of 8-16ish, with of course plenty of adults playing them (rightfully so, the old ones were awesome!). With that said, with the release of Pokemon X and Y starting to introduce newer, more complex mechanics, these games have become convoluted in playstyle, and far more childish in dialogue/gameplay. Mechanics such as mega evolution feel as though they are drag-and-dropped in and then had cheap storylines placed around them to fit into canon. While having hundreds of Pokemon makes it difficult to create new Pokemon, that's not an excuse for the number of immature attempts at new creatures, like Quaxly. A 10 year old might find an afro duck amusing, but for slightly older folks it's hard to take a game seriously where half of the creatures you fight with look like childrens drawings. Take the stories of Scarlet and Violet or Sword and Shield, with a macro scale story that in all honesty is average, not too bad. The individual dialogues and conversations, however, could have come from a show like Blue's Clues or the Wiggles. They tell the game's story as if it were to a 5 year old, teaching very basic life principles like don't bully, treat your pets nicely, and listen to your elders. All good principles that are present in TONS of story-driven games, but they are presented in the most uncreative, childlike ways possible. While these games might still speak to a large audience of children and some adults who don't mind a relaxing with silly dialogue, they have missed a good portion of fans who find Scarlet and Violet ridiculous, lazy, and full of rushed content to make Nintendo another quick buck, which is the only thing that they're focused on now. New Pokemon games are a spit in the face of original fans, and every new release is Nintendo taking their big fat boot and rubbing it in harder and harder. TLDR: Trash company. Trash game. (Fun for kids though!)