Pokemon Legends Z-A Feels Like a Pokemon Theme Park to Go

After going to Universal's Epic Universe theme park earlier this year and its Nintendo World branch, it made me think about the overlap of immersive real-world parks and video games. Would Nintendo ever make a Pokemon park of its own? It's likely, and if it does, it might feel a bit like Pokemon Legends Z-A, the latest Pokemon Switch game I played for about an hour on the Nintendo Switch 2 a few weeks ago.

Legends Z-A comes out Oct. 16, so I'll have deeper thoughts on it then. But in the meantime, what struck me was the real-time nature of the game. Battles are something you have to dart about and be quick-witted for. Pokemon are things you approach carefully, or run from. The city changes from day to night, and new things keep happening all the time. It's a little Pokemon immersive world in the very French Lumiose City.

Pokemon games have gradually become more immersive over time. Pokemon Snap always felt like a theme park ride in game form; Pokemon Go turned neighborhoods into social Pokemon hunting grounds; and the last Legends Pokemon game, Arceus, opened up a sort of Zelda-like open-world feel. Other Pokemon games have also moved toward more open 3D worlds.

I only play Pokemon games occasionally, but my youngest son is now a Pokemon obsessive who's diving through all the recent games. During my little demo, which dropped me into a few quick scenarios at the start of the game, he'd have had a better encyclopedic understanding of which Pokemon I encountered. I ran from Houndors that overwhelmed me. I tried to sneak up on them later and still felt like I wasn't ready. 

You never know where you'll find weird trainers and their Pokemon.

Nintendo

The vibe of Lumiose City feels futuristic, oddly corporate, and I liked it. It actually reminded me a bit of the underrated Detective Pikachu movie, which really got into the fantasy of a city where people and realistic Pokemon live together. Lumiose City is different from that, and Pokemon battles and captures are definitely happening in the city walls because of wild zones where Pokemon live. But I also just saw Pokemon wandering around everywhere, so I wasn't sure.

The real-time battles use timers, and attack actions are triggered from one of four button assignments. You can accumulate other learned moves and just swap the ones you want active at any moment. New Pokemon can be swapped out in a battle on the fly in a similar way.

Expect Mega Evolutions to be a big part of the game.

Nintendo

Battles felt like a waiting game, where actions would slowly recharge and become usable again instead of having a fixed amount of uses before running out. I started button-mashing my moves at times as I danced around to avoid attacks. Big boss battles with Mega Evolved Pokemon felt sort of familiar, like big JRPG battles.

The graphics looked smooth and fun on the Switch 2, but I only got to play on Switch 2 in docked TV mode. As for how it feels played handheld or on an original Switch, I'll have to find out when it's released. Pokemon games have hit performance hiccups on the Nintendo Switch over the last few years.

Yeah, what I really want is a Pokemon theme park, I guess. Or a Pokemon Snap ride. Legends Z-A might offer something more immersive in its own way when it arrives next month, though, although I do miss those open-world Arceus feelings.