After the initial announcement of Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield for Nintendo Switch - the newest game in the franchise initially received a rather high amount of fan backlash. When trainers learned that there would be a limited Pokédex - with only 400 creatures of the near 1000 available - they titled it the Dexit Scandal (an obvious play on Brexit as the game's Galar region is UK inspired) and lashed out, upset that they wouldn't be able to use some of their favorite creatures in the first Nintendo Switch title.
Once the game released however, players quickly began to sing its praises - with only several small complaints ringing out amongst the overwhelmingly positive response. The game not only is the top seller on the Switch this year (as previously reported) but viewing the accolades trailer we included below shows just
how positive the game's reception was - both critical and commercial.
One of the interesting new features in
Pokémon Sword and
Pokémon Shield that the previous games in the franchise didn't employ is that each game has two Gym Leaders that the other one doesn't. This is in spirit with the tradition of leaving certain creatures only available in one version or the other - which dates all the way back to
Pokémon Red and
Pokémon Blue and is still used today as incentive for fans to trade and hopefully battle with their friends.
With the numerous types available in the
Pokémon world and only ten Gym Leaders between the two games - Grass, Water, Fire, Fighting, Ghost, Fairy, Rock, Ice, Dark, Dragon - there are plenty that have been left by the wayside from the newest pair of games. With that in mind, artist, trainer, and twitter user Leopold65107856 tried his hand at contributing to the
Pokémon universe with fan-drawn interpretations of what the other eight types would be like with Gym Leaders to represent them.
The first half consists of Cole (Bug), Sting (Poison), Trish (Psychic), and Greta (Ground). Check out their impressive designs below and you'll note that they seem good enough to fit in with the games themselves.
Of course that still leaves out a few more types - and a second batch of fan-art from the same user takes care of that issue for us. Below you will see Winston (Flying), Tessa (Electric), Nora (Normal), and Cooper (Steel) which round out the remaining four typings.
What do you think of these fan-drawn Gym Leaders? Could we see some inspiration from some of these characters effect gym leaders in a possible third game title? The franchise has often been known to release a third game following the initial release of the main two -
Pokémon Bow anyone?
Which of these fan-drawn Gym Leaders is your favorite? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section and check out the recent accolades trailer for
Pokémon Sword and
Pokémon Shield below!
Your journey to become a Pokémon champion starts here in the Galar region. Meet never-before-seen Pokémon, and embark on an adventure where you can battle gigantic wild Pokémon.
Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are now available on Nintendo Switch.