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REVIEW: Pokemon Unite – An Easy to Learn MOBA

When Pokemon Unite was revealed back in 2020, the fandom went on a rampage. Fast-forward nearly two years later, and the pocket monsters have their own version of League of Legends.

The gameplay is exceptionally simplistic. Each match contains a fight between two teams of five players, using different fighters. There is an option of either playing randomly or having enough friends to form a squad. During these 10 minutes battles, each team needs to fight wild Pokemon and gather points to throw in the opposing team’s goalposts.

While it is a requirement for every playable character, for characters like Venusaur, Gengar, or Greninja, those players start as the first stage in that evolution line have to work their way up to the final evolution.

While it works perfectly fine when it comes to the online connection, I came across one problem. In each match, every player has to use a different Pokemon. Because of this, the players that are not fast enough to chose who they want to fight with can sometimes be out of luck, forced to use a Pokemon they’re unfamiliar with.

However, the biggest problem is one the majority of free-to-play games struggle with. If you refuse to buy any microtransaction, it can take weeks, if not months depending on how much the player plays each day and what Pokemon they want to unlock.

Granted, you get coins after each match, no matter if you won or lost. But you get 50 coins at max, and that’s if you are the MVP one the team that won. If you are on the winning side but did not become the MVP, your reward is 40. Add that with the factor of some Pokemon being as expensive as 10,000 coins; you see why microtransactions are almost necessary.

Pokemon Unite is an easy entry point for people curious about trying out the popular multiplayer online battle arena [MOBA] genre. It’s easy to learn and is perfect if you want to have something short to kill time. If you’re wondering if it’s worth trying out and MOBAS has never been a thing, it’s not worth your time.

Isak Wolff
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Co-host of the Amateur Otaku Podcast. A writer of many things. Loves everything nerdy from anime/manga to comics and video games. Fire Emblem is the greatest of all time.