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Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Where Was Town At E3 2019? The True GAME FREAK Controversy

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - No home if there's no town.

The Nintendo world is very unhappy right now over the state of Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield: Specifically that not every Pokémon will be coded into the game. Traditionally, even if a Pokémon isn't natively found in, say, Alola, you could still transfer/ship a Pokémon from a faraway region to an Alolan trainer. The Pokédex would recognise it. It'd work. Trainers could use any Pokémon discovered up to that point.

Galar is different. If it's not in the Pokédex, that's it. It's not allowed in the region.

I blame the Rotom Pokédex taking form as a smartphone instead of a real Pokédex—which in prior games have been designed based off of Nintendo handhelds. It's obviously a commentary on the superiority of a dedicated handheld gaming device versus the inferior experience offered by smartphones. Other people think it's a commentary on Brexit-inspired immigration efforts, but I'll leave the Brexit interpretations to Ubisoft and Watch Dogs: Legion.

I'll also leave further discussion about this to another article. (Or maybe I'll dodge it entirely and never write about it.)

I want to actually dedicate this article to discussing GAME FREAK's other Nintendo Switch title.


We really don't know much about Town for Nintendo Switch (not even its real name)... but what little we knew is probably no longer relevant anyway.

Town, according to the Nintendo Direct from September 2018, is supposed to release in 2019.

Nintendo's E3 2019 Direct was supposed to focus on 2019 releases. ...And it spilled over into some 2020.

But Town wasn't there.

Observe this graphic (to the left) that Nintendo produced after their Direct aired that summarised Nintendo's near-future release schedule:

Nintendo E3 2019 release schedule where is Town GAME FREAK Nintendo Switch 2020
Left-half: Nintendo's infographic of releases covering all of 2019 and some of 2020.
Top right: Town is supposed to be available in 2019.
Bottom right: Town is unrepresented on Nintendo's website, despite the infographic's disclaimer.

You'll notice the bottom of the graphic mentions about checking for full details because the graphic doesn't show EVERYTHING. Specifically,
 “These are just some of the games releasing on the Nintendo Switch system in 2019 and 2020. Please visit for a complete overview and more information on release timings.”
Well, doesn't have any page on Town. Sure, it doesn't have a page on Metroid Prime 4 either, but at least that's still mentioned in Nintendo's financial statements as at least coming sometime in the future. Town isn't on there. Town isn't on some E3 write-up.

It's totally disappeared.

So while GAME FREAK is worried about Pokémon Sleep in your Pokémon Home, let's not forget that it all should be taking place in the (non-Pokémon-affiliated) Town.

Seeing as how GAME FREAK apparently can't handle competent design decisions for their flagship release of 2019, I suppose it's quite likely that Town may slip into another year... or out of existence entirely.

But you think they should've planned for that eventuality ahead of time.

...Well, GAME FREAK and planning might not really go together, either.

Poor Town.

Well, KoopaTV won't forget about it. Even if Nintendo did and E3 2019 went without it

You could say that the fact there was no news about Town is, in itself, news about Town. And that's bad news. 

One reason that KoopaTV cares about Town is that GAME FREAK's non-Pokémon games have the capability of being really inventive and really, really good, such as Pocket Card Jockey. Another is that it's a very KoopaTV characteristic to care about things that no one else does.

Ludwig wrote about the National Dex controversy in a dedicated article, though he still thinks Town is more scandalous.


  1. It’s kind of an accomplishment to write a complete article about a game that isn’t even shown off. I actually expected the article to be about a different game that ISN’T on a Nintendo platform (or at least... the actual Pokémon news). The footer actually captures my thoughts perfectly, you simply caring about things that no one else does.

    Anyway, I’m here to submit a correction to the Corrections Corner:

    “There are just some of the games releasing on the Nintendo Switch system inn 2019 and 2020.”

    This quote is clearly a falsehood, a Nintendo Switch system inn would be a Japanese exclusive (much like certain games, events, and the Pokémon Center, since we’re talking about GAME FREAK), and would garner no attention in the Western world, not even on Nintendo’s own infographic.

    Alternatively, it could just be a typo.

    1. (For the record, I’m referring to two parts: “There are...” and “...Nintendo Switch system inn...”)

    2. I was thinking the same thing, in terms of “Ha, this is what an article about nothing happening looks like.”

      In my defence, the disclaimer text at the bottom of the infographic is really small, and it's white font on red, which isn't contrasting. Both of these are reoccurring Nintendo issues that we've written about.

      You should've also considered the possibility of “inn” referring to a premium version of Pokémon Home. Of course, Town may also have an inn in it.

  2. Let's Go Johto games are starting to look more and more appealing because let's face it, Girafarig is not popular enough to get on the Galar dex.

    1. Alright, I have a thought on that, so maybe I should just dedicate an actual article to that situation.



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