The first Pokemon RPG on the Switch takes cues from Niantic's Pokemon Go

The next Pokemon game to arrive on Switch might look familiar to the now 800 million people that have downloaded Niantic’s Pokemon Go since it released in 2016.

Two upcoming games announced last night for the Nintendo Switch, Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee, feature Pokemon Go’s pokeball-lobbing Pokemon catching mechanic and even allow players to transfer some in-game creatures from the Switch game to Niantic’s mobile app. 

While the Pokemon series itself debuted on the Switch last night through the blocky free-to-play game Pokemon Quest, the Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee duo of games look to offer a more traditional Pokemon RPG while using familiar Pokemon Go mechanics to introduce new mobile players to the core series. 

Most noticeably, the Let's Go games abandon the usual wild creature battles and instead adapt Pokemon Go’s non-combative pokemon capturing method for the Switch’s motion-controls. Players can transfer pokemon from the original roster between the Let's Go games and Pokemon Go as well.

The game is also compatible with the Pokeball Plus, an upcoming device that can work with Pokemon Go as a replacement for the Pokemon Go Plus peripheral, be used to house and "walk" a single pokemon from the Let's Go games, or even be used as a controller while playing Let's Go Pikachu or Let's Go Eevee on the Switch.