Pokémon Sword and Shield (2019)
Best: The Wild Area. Pokémon has always hung its hat on random encounters. You walk through tall grass, in any game, and you’re not totally sure which Pokémon is gonna pop out. Pokémon Sword and Shield, the first games to come out on Nintendo’s Switch console, added a region called the Wild Area, wherein you’d actually see wild Pokémon walking around, and could choose whether or not to engage with them. Whatever your thoughts of the region, it was cool to see the series finally experiment with open-world sensibilities. (This will bear out in this fall’s Scarlet and VIolet versions, which are fully open-world.)
Worst: DLC. Seriously? I can’t evolve my Slowpoke without paying for the expansion?
