Latest Pokemon games lowest-rated ever

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have become the worst-reviewed games in the series’ 25-year history, due to bugs, glitches, and performance issues

The latest pair of Pokemon games, subtitled Scarlet and Violet, have become the worst-reviewed main series games in the series’ history, which spans over 25 years.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are currently sitting on a Metacritic score of 72 and 73, respectively, the lowest scores of any Pokemon game. The next-lowest, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, were remakes of the DS classics Diamond and Pearl, and were criticised for being too faithful to the source material compared to previous remakes.

Scarlet and Violet have been praised by critics and fans for their approach to open world game design, which is a first for the series, as well as excellent storytelling and characterisation. But the games have also been criticised heavily for technical issues, including poor performance and bugs.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are the first fully open world games in the series. Picture: Nintendo

The new Pokemon games arrived “buggy and broken”, with fans sharing hundreds of clips showcasing bugs, glitches, and performance issues. Some clips showed the game’s camera clipping through the environment, which is a common occurrence when playing, and others have shown themselves getting stuck in scenery such as trees and cliffs.

The games also frequently drop below 30 frames per second, widely considered to be the minimum for comfortable gaming. Games running at below that frame rate often appear jittery and can slow down, which can cause disruptive gameplay and even motion sickness and eye strain in some players.

Previous Pokemon games on the Nintendo Switch have been criticised for similar performance issues, with Sword and Shield’s open zones suffering a similar fate. However, the performance in those games was mostly fine when playing offline, while the issues are constant in Scarlet and Violet.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet offer four-player online and local multiplayer. Picture: Nintendo

That didn’t stop the games from selling like hot cakes, though. The buggy Pokemon games sold 10 million copies in their first three days on sale, making it the biggest opening weekend for any Pokemon game, any Switch game, and even any Nintendo game ever.

Roughly 4 million copies were sold within Japan, while the remaining 6 million were sold elsewhere throughout the world. Since then, the games have consistently been at the top of the Nintendo eShop’s bestsellers list in most regions, and physical copy sales in Japan show no signs of slowing.

Thankfully, Nintendo has promised to fix Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, in a statement made alongside a recent update to the games. While the update didn’t address the performance issues, it did fix some smaller bugs, and Nintendo said that the company is taking feedback from players seriously and working on improvements.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.