Pokémon Masters is a damn good pocket monsters experience, blending casual and hardcore battling into one attractive product. And a financially successful one as well!

With just a month and some change to go until Nintendo throws a new Pokémon at your face, there’s still plenty that the Big N is keeping hidden from fans who are hungry for details. No amount of Chansey steak is going to squash that appetite, but maybe some new tidbits of information can keep the hunger pangs under control.

For more than two decades now, Farfetch’d has been nothing more than a notch in a pokedex that merely exists to be marked, an occasionally a homicidal duck who almost bludgeoned Ash to death with a leek once. In Pokémon Sword and Shield, one of the OG pocket monsters of the classic era of being superior like certain people never were before you, is finally getting some much needed love when players head to the Galar region.

In a quick top ten, raise a glass and salute the work of audio wizards who came up with the following bits of sound so good, we can’t help but smile every time we hear them.

During last night’s Nintendo Direct, two more of the Galar region’s Pokémon were revealed. I never thought I’d say this before, but never in my life have I ever wanted to drink a Pokémon so bad.

Pokémon Masters is the bridge between casual and hardcore Pokemon, a two-way link that is aimed at being deep, addictive and easy to grasp. Sweet pokeballs, does it do that brilliantly.

In some ways, Pokémon is a lot like FIFA. Come the end of days or when Half-Life 3 is made, it will still be with us. And we’ll have pocket monsters based off of garden furniture. In all seriousness, Pokémon Sword and Shield has something big to show off in terms of gameplay development. More on that in a sec. …

Pokémon Sword and Shield will be axing the Global Link website, folding the core functionality of that service into the Battle Stadium feature instead.