Yesterday, The Pokémon Company announced out of nowhere a new mobile game called Pokémon Duel, which is available now. The game is a Pokémon spinoff, containing mechanics pretty different from the main series games.
In Pokémon Duel, you play the Pokémon Figure Game. This is a whole new way to battle Pokémon, resembling a board game more than a video game. In this game, the two players take turns moving figurines of Pokémon across a board with the goal of trying to get one Pokémon into the goal on the opponent’s side of the board. If two figurines are next to each other, the player whose turn it is can choose to start a battle. In these battles, the players don’t get to choose what attacks they use. Rather, a wheel with each of the Pokémon’s attacks is spun and the attack that is landed on is the attack that is used. Whichever Pokémon uses the stronger attack wins.
There are also no type advantages in this game; instead, attacks take priority by which color they are. Red spaces on the wheel are misses; these have no priority and guarantee you will lose the battle unless your opponent also hits a red space. Normal, damage-dealing attacks are white. These take priority over red spaces and if both Pokémon hit a white space, the stronger attack wins. Purple spaces cause status effects, such as confusion, poison, etc. Purple spaces take priority over white spaces and if both players hit purple spaces, the battle ends with neither Pokémon taking damage or gaining status conditions. Gold spaces are fast attacks, such as Quick Attack, and are damage-dealing attacks like white spaces, except gold spaces take priority over purple. Lastly, there are blue attacks, which are defensive moves like Protect or simply a dodge, which takes priority over everything, allowing the Pokémon to avoid taking damage, but doesn’t harm the opposing Pokémon either. Once a battle is over, the losing figure is removed from the board.
There is a single-player story mode in the game where the player takes part in the Pokémon Figure Game World Championships in a new location called Carmonte Island. There are also two-player modes that allow a player to play with someone online or with someone else with the game nearby.
The game is free to play and has the option for in-app purchases to buy gems, the game’s in-game currency, used to buy new figures and such. It is available for iOS and Android devices.