Nintendo's Switch is getting three new Pokémon games in 2018

Japanese gaming giant Nintendo has finally revealed the first new Pokemon games coming to its popular Switch gaming console (Pokken Tournament doesn't count as it came out on Wii U first) — and one's available to download for free right now. The video game company announced the three new Switch titles at a press event in Tokyo, and all of them are coming in 2018.

The first of those to be available is Pokémon Quest — a non-traditional series’ entry where, instead of playing as a pocket-monster trainer, you directly control a group of cube-shaped Pokémon called Pokéxel. Developed by series-creator Game Freak, Quest’s described as a "rambunctious action RPG" and its blocky low-fi graphics are somewhat akin to mobile hit Crossy Road... so it’s perhaps no surprise that the game is scheduled to be released on both Android and iOS at the end of June this year.

Pokémon Quest is already available on the Switch's eShop digital store. It’s being described as a 'free-to-start’ game, with a range of optional DLC packs that provide in-game items and power-ups.

More ‘mon coming

Alongside Quest, Nintendo also revealed two other incoming Pokémon games, which are being released in the series' traditional 'paired' format, and like Pokémon Quest, are also being developed by Japanese studio Game Freak.

Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! are reportedly inspired by earlier series-entry Pokémon Yellow, which was the last Pokémon game released for the Game Boy way back in 1998.

The ‘Go’ in that title is a non-subtle hint that Nintendo and Game Freak are hoping to cash in on some of the popularity that 2016’s Pokémon GO — the series first mobile entry — has since generated. They say these new games are "designed for players taking their first steps into the Pokémon video game world”, which includes the many thousands of players whose only interaction with Pokémon has been through the augmented-reality mobile game.

There’ll also be some interactivity between Let’s Go and GO, with select creatures captured in the mobile game able to be transferred to the upcoming Switch titles.

Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! are both due to be released on November 16, 2018.