Pokémon: Let's Go trailer offers taste of adventure

Players start with Pikachu (pictured) or Eevee depending on whether they have Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! or Let's Go, Eevee! — AFP Relaxnews

Two of the Pokémon compendium's most adorable creatures head up a new trailer for November's double Nintendo Switch release Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! that shows off travel, gym trainers, and some skill-based tussles.

A new look at the Switch's first paired Pokémon release, Pokémon: Let's Go, shows some of the creatures, environments, and mentors that players can expect to encounter when they set out on a tour of the fictional Kanto region.

Yet in among the broad strokes of a minute-and-a-half reel there are glimpses of some franchise innovations, with custom skin and hair colour seen on the game's lead characters in the trailer's opening moments.

The energetic introduction also shows how the game's soft look and bright colours combine, as well as more on the smaller, cuter style given to its human characters.

After the success of iOS and Android hit Pokémon Go, Pokémon: Let's Go on the Nintendo Switch is integrating some aspects of the mobile game, including movement-based Pokémon capture, plus the transferability of certain items from Pokémon Go to Pokémon: Let's Go.

That should ease the process of moving onto a console game for relative newcomers to the franchise.

At the same time, there's the promise of a more conventional title in 2019, one which will mark the beginning of an eighth generation of Pokémon.

The Nov 16 launch of the two Pokémon: Let's Go games is sandwiched between several important Nintendo titles towards the end of the year, with multiplayer mini-game fest Super Mario Party having launched on Oct 5, and Super Smash Bros Ultimate due on Dec 7. – AFP Relaxnews