The recently-releasedPokemon Scarlet and Violettitles have officially been rated as the two weakest mainline titles in the entire series on Metacritic, scoring only a tiny bit lower thanPokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the Generation 4 remakes that launched in November of last year. While they have their strengths in new gameplay features which aim to innovate in the latest generations,Scarlet and Violet’s many bugs and undeniable performance issues have tarnished the games' reviews.
The Generation 9 games have been the focus of much of the gaming community since their launch just over two weeks ago. Fans eager to set out on their journeys around the vast Paldea region have met many new endearing characters andPokemon that have been added to the rich world ofPokemonwith the new games. Many of the games' highlights on social media have involved players sharing moments that are as hilarious as they are ridiculous, often featuring wild glitches that could cause NPCs to vanish or player models to spontaneously mutate into massive monsters. Despite the comedic value in what seems to be the majority of the games' bugs, other common glitches have caused players to fall through the map or clip into an area which they can’t escape.
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Mixed with the seemingly endless list of technical glitches,Scarlet and Violet’s unfortunate lack of polish has also resulted in blatant performance issues that have affected a large portion of players. While some players have been able to see past these issues, as well as the underwhelming graphical fidelity of the titles, there’s no question thatthese many shortcomings have seriously impactedScarlet and Violet’s reviewsin the eyes of most critics. Metacritic has given a metascore of 72 toPokemon Violetand a score of 73 toPokemon Scarlet, interestingly enough. While these scores fall just belowBrilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the previously lowest-ratedPokemontitles,Scarlet and Violet’s 3.0 user rating is by far the lowest the series has ever seen.
Despite these poor ratings, it’s important that Game Freak doesn’t view this as a sign that fans are rejecting the new directions that the franchise is being taken in. In fact, many players have been thoroughly enjoying the new cooperative multiplayer mechanics and trueopen world aspect ofScarlet and Violet, with many players encouraging the developers to continue working on these new gameplay elements in the future.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violethave been some of the best-selling entriesin the series' lengthy history, selling over 10 million copies in three days. While fans are interested to see current mechanics developed further in the future, it’s clear that the poor technical state of these games have been the main factor impacting reviews. If Game Freak aims to retain the attention and respect of its fans, players have made clear that futurePokemontitles must never launch in this state again.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violetare available on Nintendo Switch.
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