Pokémon TV Available on Nintendo Switch... Disables Video/Screenshot Capture

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - So... there's really no point...

The big Pokémon announcement of the week is brought to you by The Pokémon Company International: Pokémon TV App Available Now on Nintendo Switch. It's been available on their website for... I dunno, a decade. And for smart devices too. And now it's up on the Nintendo Switch. It's better than when Nintendo had anime episodes on Game Boy Advance cartridges, I guess.

Hoorah, more Pokémon stuff on the Switch! This could be very promising!
(Screenshot from Flea Waltz... more on what that is later in the article.)

Unlike a predetermined finite selection of Pokémon episodes like on the GBA, the Pokémon TV application has always had the first two Pokémon anime seasons (Kanto and the Orange Islands) and then a rotating selection of Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos seasons. It's consistently had the whole Sun & Moon series once that came to exist. Yeah, unfortunately, you can't watch any anime episode at any time, unless you're only interested in Kanto or Alola. ...And you shouldn't be, because the best seasons aren't either of those. (Sinnoh, the best season, is what's available now.)

However, both the Game Boy Advance Video and the Nintendo Switch Pokémon TV application share an identical fatal flaw that makes them... well, useless. Or, at least, inferior.

The Game Boy Advance Video was made incompatible with the Nintendo GameCube's Game Boy Player to prevent you from recording your TV screen with a DVD player (or watching on a decent screen). Likewise, the Pokémon TV app disables one of the Nintendo Switch's most useful features: The Screenshot and Video Capture button. It would've been so incredibly useful to take native-quality screenshots and small clips of the anime episodes.

It's obviously already possible to use the Pokémon TV website today and take screenshots and video captures from it. That's what I've done for screenshots in this article, and in my article with Dr. Roserade vaccinating Chimchar with multiple Poison Jabs doses (plus booster shots) with a screen-recorder for video. I literally use the same monitor for my docked Nintendo Switch as I do for my desktop computer (where it's my second monitor). There's no point in watching on my Switch.

Well, unless you think it's a smart idea to watch anime on an undocked Switch. Maybe if you get a Nintendo Switch (OLED model) later on that's worth considering, but probably not. I'd rather sit on something and be comfortable when watching anime than be “on the go.” Besides, The Pokémon Company International would rather you get a Nintendo Switch Lite with a Dialga and Palkia design than get the Nintendo Switch (OLED model).

Skitty: 24.3 pounds, Glameow: 8.6 pounds, Purrloin: 22.3 pounds.
Purugly: 96.6 pounds.

...Right after the screenshot, the kitties are sent flying, much like my hopes of the Nintendo Switch version of Pokémon TV being useful.

The actual Switch application is the exact same experience as the web version, except with a controller instead of a mouse. Of course, you'll need an active Internet connection to use it.

Also today, TPCi added a Junior section featuring Pokémon Kids TV. This apparently features a bunch of kiddy-friendly music videos of (sometimes public domain) music set to decent (depending on which one... so not Great March of Pokémon) Pokémon animation. ...I'm not really sure if kids would actually enjoy this more than anyone else. Some of that content gets pretty bad, regardless of what platform you're watching it on...


Feel free to think Ludwig is silly for getting his hopes up that Pokémon TV on Nintendo Switch would have video capture enabled. He thinks you should watch the Diamond and Pearl anime content before it gets rotated into the crappy Black and White anime.