Did You Know Little Town Hero Released? Here's Some Gigantamax Pokémon Instead

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This wasn't even a joke.

Remember Little Town Hero by GAME FREAK? I don't think Nintendo did. There's no word from them about it. It's out, with no release trailer love or anything, and the game has sub-standard scores from reviewers who find it too confusing and mysterious and don't understand and don't want to understand the battle system. I don't either, but I also haven't played or really gone much into the game since my last article about Little Town Hero. I haven't given it a try. Maybe we'll get a demo.

With any luck, the battle system is complicated but also immensely satisfying, much like GAME FREAK's masterpiece, Pocket Card Jockey. Little Town Hero is a short pseudo-RPG that is meant to be replayed over and over, much like how Pocket Card Jockey is supposed to be replayed over and over.

You know what we're also seeing over and over? GAME FREAK glorifying Charizard. Take a look at this new Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield trailer featuring Gigantamaxing, again:

You don't see it in the thumbnail, but one of the five Gigantamax-compatible Pokémon in that trailer is Charizard, obtainable through rare Max Raid battles. The others are Pikachu (obtainable if you own Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu!), Eevee (obtainable if you own Pokémon Let's Go, Eevee!, Meowth (obtainable if you own the game early enough and use Mystery Gift), and Butterfree (also obtainable through Max Raid Battles).

Here's what I wrote back in July when they announced Gigantamaxing:

“Wait, Gigantamaxing? I know we discussed Dynamaxing a month ago, but what's Gigantamaxing? Well, while every Pokémon found in Galar (which is to say, every Pokémon coded in the game) can become huge with Dynamax and get access to stat buffs and special Z-like moves, only certain Pokémon species (likely Galar-introduced final-evolution-stage Pokémon... and maybe Charizard) can Gigantamax. In fact, you gotta be a special snowflake within that species to Gigantamax. Gigantamax Pokémon have access to a special species-unique “G-Max Move”, which is basically a species-exclusive Z-Move. (Which is already a concept that existed with moves like Mimikyu's Let's Snuggle Forever.) They also change forms, instead of just becoming resized. (Which is already a concept that existed with Mega Evolution.)” [Emphasis added]

I CALLED IT. BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY'D GIVE CHARIZARD (more) SPECIAL TREATMENT. In fact, just that mere trailer for a sliver of a Pokémon game's content, unlike the entirety of Little Town Hero, got a whole press release from Nintendo.

Gigantamax Charizard's G-Max Move is G-Max Wildfire, which gives non-Fire types like Duraludon bad posture.
Seriously, what an underwhelming visual effect. I expect nothing more from Charizard, though.

It's disgusting. And notice how these special Gigantamax-compatible Pokémon are all from Kanto and Generation 1.

Pikachu, Eevee, and Meowth are all limited-distribution, and Charizard and Butterfree will basically be low-percent drops. I can tell you that I won't use up hours and hours of my time trying to obtain them. Screw that.

I'd have more fun playing Little Town Hero.


It's actually very plausible that the last sentence there isn't meant to be a diss at all and Little Town Hero is great, but Ludwig isn't going near it unless it gets a demo much like GAME FREAK's other titles HarmoKnight and Pocket Card Jockey both got on the 3DS. What do you think about Little Town Hero now that it's released but wasn't important enough to even get a picture in this article? Are you happy to see yet another Charizard form?


Blastoise and Venusaur also get into the Gigantamax action as DLC.