Pokémon Sword and Shield sell sports star mystique better than any Madden game – The A.V. Club

There’s no shortage of video games falling all over themselves to tell you how special you are. As a medium built, like no other, on direct audience participation, gaming has a vested interest in making you, the consumer, feel like the Special Chosen One Person Of Destiny, a hybrid of Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, and Tony Stark—a humble superhero genius who just happens to hold the fate of billions in their hands. There are exceptions, of course, with “Video games that want you to know what a huge piece of shit you are” having been a fairly recent addition to the medium’s artistic repertoire. But for the most part, it’s the rule, even when it descends into absurdity with massively multiplayer games like World Of Warcraft, which constantly reassure you that you’re very special, just like all your thousands of friends.The Pokémon games have always had a weird relationship with this sort of baked-in power fantasy. It’s the rare franchise that (almost) always starts with the player as an actual child, a direct stand-in for either the person holding the controller, or at least their former, more innocent selves. Under their players’ ball-chucking guidance, these obsessive youths slowly embark on quests that typically culminate in becoming both the savior of the planet, and its most celebrated sporting star. And yet, despite the fact that you typically end each game as tween LeBron Jesus, most of the games in the Pokémon series fail to fully acknowledge your newfound superstar status, even though they exist in a universe where the people who do not mention the ubiquitous magical creatures every time you talk to them could exist on the fingers of one extremely out of touch hand.The franchise’s latest installments, Sword and Shield, come equipped with the usual slate of refinements to the series’ well-tested formula, complete with ever-more convenient fast-travel options, numerous quality of life improvements across the board, and even a wilderness zone that slaps a dollop of trendy roguelike mechanics on top of the series’ classic fare. Combined with the usual addition of almost criminally charming new monsters (and adorable, Britished-up versions of some of the classics), it does pretty much exactly what you might want out of a new main series Pokémon game: More of the same—but now on Nintendo’s endlessly convenient Switch.Image: The Pokémon CompanyBut the most interesting thing about this latest duology is how it plays into the series’ long-present sports star metaphor, amping it up to the point where it can actually hit you square in the feelings, like a soccer ball aimed directly at the gut. Sword and Shield’s version of Pokémon battle fandom is transparently lifted from British football culture, complete with rowdy hooligans, cheering crowds, and lush green playing fields that somehow remain pristine even as lightning-powered rats and flame-wielding rabbits battle it out on top of them. Your main character’s rival is even the little brother of the Galar region’s absurdly cape-wearing champion, the equivalent of growing up next door to
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