Kotaku: Some Disabled Gamers Can’t Play Pokemon Let’s GO Due To Motion Controls

Kotaku UK has published an interesting article touching on the controls of Pokemon Let’s GO Pikachu/Eevee.

In Pokemon Let’s GO Pikachu/Eevee, in order to catch a Pokemon, players have to rely on motion controls with the Joy-Con or Poke Ball Plus. Motion controls are heavily pushed in Pokemon Let’s GO Pikachu/Eevee, and there’s no way to catch a Pokemon with button controls or play with the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, unless you’re playing with Handheld Mode.

Several disabled gamers told Kotaku UK they’ve decided to skip Pokemon Let’s GO because of its control scheme. Here are what some of these gamers have mentioned:

“I have fibromyalgia and M.E. and I’m autistic, which for gaming means my arms are very fatigued especially with any amount of weight being held. Also, a lot of pain gets caused holding any weight so I shift around a lot to counteract this. I’m usually moving constantly, M.E. and fibromyalgia also cause spasms and twitches which means my hands/fingers and arms and flick when gaming. This wasn’t an issue for Mario Kart 8 when I played it, as I could change settings so the controller was guided by buttons and stick, not gyro. Being autistic means I get sensory issues and I quite frequently play games with the controller under several blankets for pressure. I was under the impression before launch that Pokémon Let’s Go could be played with just the stick and buttons on the controller instead of motion so didn’t think this would be an issue, but it sounds like it may affect my ability to play” — Twitter user @twistthepenguin

“Pokémon was huge to me and got me through really tough things like homelessness and severe mental health struggles in my late teens-early twenties. I wasn’t able to play Go because of my disabilities (I use a manual wheelchair) and I’m also not able to play Let’s Go because my disease means I’m too fragile and lack consistent co-ordination and strength for motion controls” — Cherry Thompson

Hopefully Nintendo and Game Freak will listen to these gamers and add button controls in a future patch. This is something doable and not unreasonable to ask for a mainline Pokemon game.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.