In this episode of THE BURN, hosts Aviv Icel Manoach and Omer Timetwister Kaplan talk about the latest game in the Pokémon series, Sword and Shield, the 2020 Game Awards and Nintendo's Indie Games Showcase.

Original recording date - December 13th, 2019.

Pokémon Sword and Shield

Published by Game Freak, MSRP $60, Buy on Nintendo Game Store.

Aviv has been playing the Pokémon series from the very beginning, from Red/Blue on a PC emulator, to Platinum and UltraMoon on the 3DS.

There is no question this generation of Pokémon is a leap forward, especially since it's the first time we get to watch the series on a big screen with the Switch. They've also made great strides in making the championship process move immersive: the series always had a slight issue with standing in the shadow of its anime adaptation, making us imagine the Pokémon world a lot larger and grander than it is, and with this game, we're finally getting close to how it was realised in the show.

Mechanically, the game is basically the same with some great quality of life improvements, such as having fast-travel almost from the beginning and getting to see what wild pokémon are running around - that makes a huge difference, especially in caves which were a nightmare in previous games.

The other awesome new feature is the Dynamax battles, in which your pokémon become huge, Godzilla-like monsters with moves that act like nukes. The feeling of blasting your opponent in a Dynamax battle is just amazing.

Omer is not a huge fan of Pokemon. When everyone was playing the card game he was playing MTG.

The Game Awards & Nintendo Indie Showcase

The Game Awards- WHY WOULD ANYONE CARE ABOUT GAME AWARDS CEREMONY IN 2019? Well, maybe for discounts on the nominees the day after but seriously. I’m actually going to watch some of it tonight so we’ll see if it’s worth it.

The Game Awards 2019: All the Winners

Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase -  So Nintendo had their thing dedicated for Indie titles and we got some cool announcements: Dauntless on the switch, super excited about that. A sequel for Golf Story (!!!) called Sports Story - Woohoo! I haven’t played the Talos Principle but people like this game so maybe I’ll give it a spin.

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