Genre: JRPG
Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo

Without exaggeration Pokemon Scarlet looks like a Gamecube release, with no lighting model to speak of, primitive obviously-tiled textures, and huge sheets of completely straight, brightly-colored geometry meeting each other in pronounced, basic geometric angles. Objects and pre-baked shadows load into view mere feet from the player. The framerate is constantly uneven. On top of that, many of the character designs reek of "woke" principles like so-called "body positivity", token black NPCs everywhere, and "female" townspeople who look like musclebound trannies. All of that said, taken for what it is there is a sort of abstract appeal to this Pokemon release, in a similar way to the unreal landscapes of something like Super Mario 64.

A lot of the same composers involved in the other contemporary Pokemon titles worked on this one too, with much of the same result: sort of forgettable techno and light rock motifs adorn the game's various areas, to not much effect. Of course the same battle and Pokemon Center theme tunes, remixed for the billionth time. The trademark Pokemon menu selection sound effect chimes almost constantly during play.

Pokemon Scarlet takes the overall gameplay cycle from Arceus, but with some twists: this time the player captures roaming Pokemon in the traditional way of weakening them in battle, and selecting a menu option to throw a Pokeball. As in most of the series, there are gyms within various towns, along with "titans" and enemy bases which can be raided via a quasi-mini game-- all of these elements can be tackled in any order, as the player can roam the whole map almost right from the get-go. Some shortcuts keep the player in the action, such as three quick button presses to swap to a different lead Pokemon.

This latest Pokemon entry is almost fun in spite of itself: it's a technical disaster, and doesn't have much going for it from an aesthetic sensibility standpoint either. It suffers from some of the wokeness creeping into Nintendo, slowly rotting it from the inside out. But the core gameplay loop is on to something: there is always some new Pokemon to see and catch or town to explore, just over the horizon.