Gaming Influence: Thoughts - Pokémon Presents | 7.22.2025

Hello everyone, 

Welcome to Gaming Influence, a reboot of the same name I created in WrestleCorp. However, I will not only share my thoughts on certain video games and video game series, but also on video game movies, anime, digital presentations, and more.

For this edition of Gaming Influence, I'll share my thoughts on the Pokémon Presents on July 22, 2025.

Anyway, let's get started!

For those who are wondering, what is Pokémon Presents? You can check out what it is through my thoughts on the Pokémon Presents earlier this year here: Gaming Influence: Thoughts - Pokémon Presents 2.27.2025

Anyway, let's get to it!

Pokémon Champions is a strategy game developed by Pokémon Works and published by Nintendo. The game is set to be released on Switch, Android, and iOS in 2026.

I've been wanting to see more of this game, and we finally got it, as it definitely looks interesting. The game definitely has that battle simulation vibe to it, where you get to pick your team of Pokémon on what moves you want your Pokémon to have and what stats you want your Pokémon to have as well. However, it's quite interesting that you have to unlock Pokémon to add them to your team, which is quite unusual. Regardless, this game has a lot of potential, and I hope to see more of it once it's released next year.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is an action role-playing game developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. The game is set to be released on Switch and Switch 2 on October 16, 2025.

I knew that we're going to get more of this game, and I continue to get hyped for it from what they've shown here. It's great to see that we finally got to see a new Mega Evolution Pokémon, and it's great that it's Dragonite because I feel like Dragonite should be one of those Pokémon that should have a Mega Evolution already to begin with. However, I didn't expect the Mega Evolution of Dragonite to have High Entia wings and a Dragonair tail, which caught me off guard. I don't hate the design at all, but I was expecting something else. Regardless, great to see Dragonite being featured here in this game. We also got to see new characters, including members of Team MZ  like Naveen and Lida, as well as the leader of the Rust Syndicate in Corbeau. We also got returning characters, too, with Emma and Mable from Pokémon X/Y, so great to see them again. There'll also be side quests to do in the game if you want to take a break from the main story, which is nice, and the story of this game seems to be the rampage of Pokémon suddenly Mega Evolving around Luminose City. We'll see how the whole game turns out, and I can't wait to play it once it's released in three months. 

Overall, this was a solid presentation from Pokémon Company. At this point, I kind of know what to expect with these presentations and for this one, I had a feeling it was mainly going to be based on Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Pokémon Champions which I'm glad we got it, but I was hoping for more surprises and while we did get some, they weren't as huge as they could have been. I like that Pokémon Concierge will have new episodes on September 4 this year, so that's nice. We got a new Pokémon animated series in Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirftech'd & Pichu, which looks great, but we won't see it until 2027, so that'll be a while. They also have a new spin-off Pokémon game, with Pokémon Friends being a nice puzzle game. The news that surprised me the most is the announcement of PokéPark Kanto, which will be a theme park located in Tokyo, Japan, which is totally awesome as it'll open in early 2026. Other than that, we also got our usual Pokémon mobile game updates, so no surprise there. Granted, it was what I expected, which isn't bad, but I was hoping for more.

You can catch the whole presentation of the Pokémon Presents yourself with the link below:

What are your thoughts on the Pokémon Presents?

What were your highlights, and what games do you really want?

Let me know in the comments below, and thank you for reading.