One Day Before Its Release, The Biggest Controversy In 'Pokémon Scarlet and Violet' Is A Sandwich

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have a footlong-sized problem, according to those who've seen a recent clip of the game circulating on Twitter.

Two days ago, Nintendo released an overview trailer for the games. The trailer offered no significant new information, but it did show previously unseen footage of what the game's new cooking minigame, in which players will craft a sandwich for their team, will look like.

Suffice it to say, many were not impressed.

This is the tackiest animation I have ever seen… the off kilter sandwich, whilst the trainer bites the air with no easing on the tweens…. the floating Pokemon in their idle animation staring at nothing😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/NFdclx8spT

— Starjeti (@Starjeti) November 16, 2022

As Twitter user @starjeti pointed out, the player character seems to enter the frame over a JPEG of a sandwich and mimes taking a bite. The scene then hard cuts to the player character burying their head to "chew" while their Pokémon chill around their head like sandwich specters. Without putting too fine a point on it, this is not exactly a spectacular eating animation.

The Pokémon games released on the Switch have had varying degrees of performance, animation and art direction jank, a problem bemoaned by the series' fanbase. Sword and Shield had plenty of glaring instances that made it appear as though the animation team did not have the time or budget to bring Galar up to modern standards, most notably the region's trees, which many compared to those of N64 titles.

In the minds of many, the sandwich clip seemed to portend that Scarlet and Violet, already ambitious titles attempting to bring open-world gameplay to the Pokémon franchise, would suffer from similar cut corners.

This is an over 100 billion dollar franchise. They literally could have animated it to look like Disney and not even left a dent in their fortune. https://t.co/O5Hexcocne

— Doobus Goobus (@DoobusGoobus) November 17, 2022

Game Freak is a joke 💀💀💀 https://t.co/IqXrBSG4eY pic.twitter.com/LKJiRsnT1B

— 🌸DreMeMoTo (@DreMeMoTo) November 17, 2022

I love Pokemon but even I can’t defend this one…. it’s been said heaps of times now but even swsh had better eating animations than this 💀 https://t.co/Ymw5fW9wam

— Touya! ★ POKEMON S&V HYPEE (@Touyarokii) November 17, 2022

While the clip took a drubbing on social media, some brought up the Pokémon franchise's tight schedule, which appears to mandate the series release new mainline titles every three years. Considering there has been a global pandemic, two other big titles released for the Switch (Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends Arceus) and a slew of side Pokémon games since the release of Sword and Shield, some argued that the games simply need more time to match developers' ambitions and meet fan expectations — at least in the animation department.

People are calling Game Freak lazy, but the real problem is they went from making a handheld RPG to making an open-world home console game meant to be put next to games like BOTW and Mario Odyssey while still keeping their three year development cycle during a pandemic. https://t.co/nBZRKiSrGt

— Tredlocity (@tredlocity) November 17, 2022

beginning to think having GameFreak pump these out once a year with what seems to be increasing scope each time isn't actually the best idea https://t.co/S1IC4PG2h9

— when the SHARK is SPOOKY (🎃birthday TODAY!🎃) (@sharkydaemoness) November 16, 2022

This is the only time I’ll comment on this. Time constraints are what is holding Pokémon back. I’d gladly give up having a new mainline game every year if it meant the games we get are better overall. It’s not an issue of laziness, it’s an issue of development time https://t.co/Y6VdFG50jp

— Rayan “Rain” Bounab ✨∞✨ (@RayanBounab1) November 17, 2022

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet release tomorrow, and while early reviews are generally positive, it appears all of them, from the most adulatory to the most critical, concede that the game has technical problems.