'Pokémon Sword and Shield' Controversy Continues With New Bootleg Game Comparisons

The controversy revolving around Pokémon Sword and Shield continues, with fans now bringing in a bootleg Pokémon game for comparison, saying that the fan-made edition is even better than the official upcoming release.

In case you missed it, the controversy began when Game Freak announced that Pokémon Sword and Shield — the latest installment in the franchise — will not be getting the full roster of Pokémon, which left many hardcore fans severely disappointed and frustrated. After all, the whole point of the game is to “catch ‘em all.” The rationale behind the decision was that the Japanese developers wanted to devote the time instead to create higher quality animations and models for core monsters. Unsurprisingly, this led to fans criticizing and nitpicking every new gameplay video released by the company, many even claiming that Game Freak is just recycling character models and animations from previous installments.

The new wave of scrutiny now thrown at Game Freak is based on a bootleg Pokémon game, called Let’s Go Pokémon Mobile. The knockoff mobile game became popular after footage of its own gameplay hit the internet and various social media platforms, and fans were quick to say that the fan-made knockoff had better animations than what Game Freak has so far offered. In one instance, a YouTube comment pointed out that Blastoise’s water attack actually shot out of its cannons (like it should), instead of just spurting out of his general head region in the official game.

However, since this wave of criticism has hit the internet, some commentators have come to the defense of Game Freak, clarifying that actually Let’s Go Pokémon Mobile also did not include the whole compendium of Pokémon in its library. One Twitter user also pointed out that many of the knock-off game’s character models were taken from Game Freak, and many of the animations were stolen or slightly tweaked from the ones in Pokkén Tournament, a Pokémon fighting game revolving around a much smaller selection of characters. The video showcasing this has been linked in the post below.

So far, Game Freak has not made any comment on the new wave of attacks from fans revolving around the bootleg game, so stay tuned as more news rolls in.

For more gaming news, here’s our guide on how to beat Armored Mewtwo on Pokémon GO.

y’all see that “passionate” Chinese knock-off Pokemon game with the “better” animations than Sword and Shield?

not only are the models stolen from Game Freak but the animations are either ripped or slightly tweaked from Pokken Tournament

just wanted to spread awareness pic.twitter.com/gOlicJnD4a

— Lewis (@Lewchube) July 13, 2019