Gachamon Masters: The Biggest Disappointment of 2019

The history of gambling in Japan is a fairly interesting subject. Even today, the Land of the Rising Sun’s gambling laws are some of the strictest in the world. So strict… it’s simple just to say gambling is banned. There are exceptions, usually in the form of races or the prize-for-cash exchange in stores next to pachinko parlors with both businesses usually being owned by the same people. But nothing has taken over the world of mechanisms of chance like Gacha games. Gacha games are types of games where special features and options are locked behind a mechanic similar to the western designed lootbox. But it’s been noted for its heavily addictive results. In August of 2012, Wired published a piece reporting that 60% of users regret their purchases, with 70% of players saying that they hadn’t changed their spending habits at all.  

It’s quite surprising that one of the most addictive formats in mobile gaming has caught on that even Nintendo properties like Fire Emblem, or Mario are cashing in on this cow. But if there was an idol I would have thought to be kept from this, it was Pokemon. When Pokemon Masters was announced last May, it got me excited. A cool mobile game that let you play as one of the Pokemon Gym Leaders, or team up with them as I was able to go through their selection of possible Pokemon? Was it going to be a straight fighting game? Have a story mode? So many questions that would end up being answered on August 29, 2019. Instead, my hopes were deflated. You get locked into a Pikachu as your Pokemon. A. God. Damned. Pikachu. Sure, it makes sense on paper. Nobody really hates Pikachu, as even a person who has soured on the electric rat still has warm feelings towards it. Especially the chonky version of Pikachu. 

But the different Pokemon are clearly limited to who you sync-pair with, a mechanic where you team up with the different Gym Leaders of the series to defeat opponents. And while some of these gym leaders are recruitable in the story mode of the game, the majority must be obtained through the game’s gacha mechanic. Driving sales for the currency needed to partake in the gacha requirement, limited time or edition high rated result. 

There is a lot of what could be a phenomenal mobile game that is so, unfortunately, bogged down by four different currencies, that just feels completely out of place in the Pokemon universe. While other versions of the Gacha mechanic begin to infest the mobile platform wearing the cold dead carcasses of Dr. Mario, Mario Kart, and more, this army of the dead shuffles on.

This also introduces further the serious implications of the morality of these games. Nintendo is the face of family-friendly gaming experiences. There is an inherent trust many parents give when it comes to everyone’s favorite plumber who wasn’t my brother-in-law back when he was a plumber, cir. 2001-2006. And that was all before Mario started telling kids to dip into Mommy’s iTunes account because he needs more coins for Big Daddy DeNA to keep the ‘Shrooms coming in. And now he has Brock and Misty out shaking down minors as well.

Hyperbole aside, the health of the Mobile Gaming Market has been bouncing between renaissance and flaming garbage pile for what seems like the dawn of time. But if you were to tell me a few years ago that Nintendo would go this route? Never would have believed it. Tell me that GameFreak would let Pokemon get involved, and waste an awesome scenario and incredibly diverse cast of characters like the Pokemon Gym Leaders? Forget about it.

To say I was disappointed in Pokemon Masters is an incredible understatement. It is, without a doubt, my most disappointing game of 2019.