Nexomon review for Nintendo Switch, PS5/4, Xbox Series X/One

I have two main thoughts about Nexomon:

1. I like it a lot.
2. There?s absolutely no reason for anyone to buy it on the Switch.

These two points aren?t as diametrically opposed as they may seem at first glance. See, Nexomon is basically a very well-made Pok?mon clone. On any system except for the Switch, that?s not really a strike against it, since there?s no legal way to get Pok?mon on, say, your PS5. On the Switch, by contrast, there?s quite a few options if you want to hunt down some pocket monsters — which makes Nexomon largely redundant.

Still, for what it is (and, I guess, for what it costs, since it?s a fraction of the price of most Pok?mon games), Nexomon is pretty enjoyable, and I say that as someone who?s never been able to get into Pok?mon all that much. Obviously, given how thoroughly it straight up steals everything from Pok?mon, it should come as no surprise that the game works pretty smoothly — but given how many failed clones I?ve seen before, the developers deserve credit, at the very least, for making such an expert imitation.

I mean that sincerely, too. If you?re just after a game where you wander from village to village, fighting and capturing monsters as you build up your team to take on progressively stronger bosses, Nexomon gives you exactly that. What?s more, it looks fairly nice and polished, and there?s enough threads of a story that you won?t mind sinking a dozen or so hours into it.

Again, there?s literally nothing original going on here, and if you?re going to play Nexomon on the Switch, you should probably only do so after you?ve thoroughly exhausted your Pok?mon options. But if you?re playing it on another system — or even if you just want to return to the days of a top-down Pok?mon — then you could do a lot worse than checking out Nexomon.

PQube provided us with a Nexomon Switch code for review purposes.