Pokémon Quest is a simple Switch game with lame free-to-play mechanics

Surprise! A new Pokémon game came out for the Switch today! But don’t get too excited. Pokémon Quest is a free-to-play digital title that’s more like a mobile spinoff. It actually is coming to mobile in late June. But for now, it’s a Switch title … and it’s not a great one.

Pokémon Quest is simple. You have a team of three Pokémon that you take out on expeditions, where they attack waves of enemies. Your Pokémon fight automatically, although each one has one or two cooldown abilities that you activate. So your contribution is really just pushing those buttons as often as you can. You can even have your Pokémon use those cooldowns automatically. Then the game is completely playing itself.