Pokémon Winds and Waves is coming to the Switch 2 in 2027
What better way to celebrate Pokémon’s 30th birthday than with the launch of the next generation of mainline games? On Friday, The Pokémon Company and Game studio Game Freak unveiled as part of the Presents presentation Pokémon Winds and Waves, the next evolutionary stage of the series. The two games offer brand-new starter Pokémon, new monsters, and a new world to explore. As the names suggest, there is a strong focus on the ocean and the creatures encountered in the air.
Even better: These will be the first major Pokémon games on a Nintendo platform not hampered by the outdated technology of the original Switch. Winds and Waves will be exclusively released for the Nintendo Switch 2 when it comes onto the market in 2027.
Early gameplay videos of Winds and Waves focused on the biomes players would explore, almost giving the impression that fans could dive into the ocean and discover creatures there. While aspects like surfing have appeared in games before, this would be the first time the ocean is a fully explorable terrain. The games appear to be full of tropical islands with resorts and beaches, but also feature harsher areas like lava caves.
New starter Pokémon
And of course, the trailer also introduced the new starter Pokémon: Browt, the Bean Chick Pokémon; Pombon, the Puppy Pokémon; and Gecqua, the Water Gecko Pokémon. “Trainers take on the role of the main character in this adventure and wear different outfits depending on the version,” the official website states.
The Pikachu at the beginning of the new trailer aren’t just decoration, by the way. They’re called Mr. Windychu and Ms. Wavychu and play an important role in the adventure. Based on their names, they might even be version-specific.
Those who played Pokémon Scarlet and Violet from the very beginning might remember that the ninth generation of consoles was plagued by technical problems that Game Freak wasn’t able to fully resolve until the re-release on the Switch 2. Before that, Scarlet and Violet suffered from an unstable frame rate and graphical glitches such as severe texture pop-in and frequent crashes.
All these difficulties made it hard for some fans to appreciate Scarlet and Violet’s attempt to lead the series into an open world. Despite Scarlet and Violet’s numerous problems, this didn’t seem to hinder their success. The two games are among the best-selling titles in the entire series today, second only to the original Pokémon Red and Blue.
Although the cartoonish games were never known for outstanding graphics, the criticism of Game Freak’s depiction of pocket monsters is quite strong since the main series left handheld consoles behind. Given these underdeveloped releases and the apparent reluctance to integrate the entire extensive compendium into every game, some fans fear that Game Freak is not equipped for such a large series.
The executives at the unusually small game studio, however, insist that they would make the teams even smaller if they could. Leaked budgets underscore Game Freak’s modest and conservative approach to the series, foregoing the typical AAA polish that fans expect from major game releases.
Previous leaks suggested that the next main installments in the series would be adventure games with survival elements. However, Game Freak typically works on multiple games simultaneously – and studio development plans rarely go as planned.
