Mega Evolutions are Pokémon’s most annoying battle gimmick

On Feb. 27, during the 30th-anniversary Pokémon Presents stream, Game Freak revealed a new Mega Evolution for Pokémon Legends: Z-A: Mega Garchomp Z. May this be the final one.

Mega Evolutions have been part of the Pokémon combat dance for a while, having been introduced in 2013 with Pokémon X and Y. The idea is that certain Pokémon can hold a corresponding key item (i.e., Venusaur holds Venusaurite) to evolve in battle beyond its typical final-stage evolution (i.e., Venusaur becomes Mega Venusaur). The Pokémon will take on a new look and see its base stats increase significantly, typically by around 100 points across the board.

The Mega Evolution gimmick skipped a few games — neither it nor the similarly paradigm-shifting Z-Moves were present in 2019’s Sword and Shield or 2022’s Scarlet and Violet — but returned again for Pokémon Legends: Z-A. As of this writing, according to Serebii, around 90 Pokémon can Mega Evolve, though some, like Charizard and Tastugiri, have multiple forms.

It’s funny. Sometimes you think back on a thing you hated as a kid — olives, for instance — and wonder if it’s really as offensive as you remember, if you’ve matured, if your memory is clouding an otherwise innocuous thing. Then reality sets in.

Mega Evolutions were dumb in 2013. They’re still dumb now. And olives still aren’t great.

For 30 years, Pokémon has built its battles around an advanced version of Rock Paper Scissors — 18 various types, each one with its own strengths and weaknesses against other types. Though Game Freak has implemented various quality-of-life changes over the years, that core concept has remained the same. You attack the water-type Pokémon with electric- or grass-type moves. You swap out your electric-type Pokémon when a ground-type Pokémon appears. The challenge comes from knowing the type(s) of the Pokémon you’re facing (with more than 1,000 these days, it’s harder than you’d think) so you can know whether to attack or escape.

Mega Evolution does away with all of that strategy, reducing single-player Pokémon battles to a mere numbers game. The competitive advantage of Mega Evolution’s stat boosts means, in most cases, you no longer have to think about the type-matching chart, provided both Pokémon are around the same levels. I’ve been playing Legends: Z-A on and off since its October 2025 release. Whenever I find myself in a pinch, I simply Mega Evolve whatever Pokémon is on the field, and boom — we’re safe.

Since the items needed for Mega Evolutions must be held by Pokémon, the gimmick also trivializes another core component of Pokémon battles. Pokémon only can hold one item at any given time. Give a Pokémon a Charcoal, and it’ll increase the damage its fire-type moves deal — terrific for fire-type Pokémon, who already get the same-type attack bonus for fire-type moves. Let another Pokémon hold Leftovers and they’ll regain some health each turn. There are hundreds of held items, allowing countless possibilities for trainers to flex their strategic chops. But what’re you gonna do, give your Pokémon a marginal advantage that could help in specific circumstances? Or go for the item that instantly changes the tide? Come on.

Image: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo

The obvious solution sounds straightforward: just…don’t engage with the mechanic. But the issue with Legends: Z-A is that it effectively forces you to do so. For most of the game, you battle opposing trainers or wild Pokémon. Every so often, though, you’re required to defeat a few “Rogue Mega Evolutions,” high-level Pokémon who’ve Mega Evolved without a trainer and pose a threat to nearby citizens in PokéParis. Defeating these Pokémon all but requires you to use Mega Evolutions of your own in tedious boss fights where you spam the same attacks repeatedly while rolling around a bland, round battlefield. It’s why I keep hitting a wall in the game. Every time I come up against one of these boss fights, I groan and put the game down, letting my attention get captured by a different game for a few weeks.

Mega Garchomp Z’s arrival in Legends: Z-A — as one of Pokémon’s big 30th birthday presents, no less — suggests The Pokémon Company isn’t shying away from Mega Evolutions. If anything, given that December 2025’s Mega Dimension expansion added a bunch of new Mega Evolutions, Mega Garchomp Z is likely far from the last one. The gimmick is the only one that keeps coming back, after all. To my chagrin, it’s probably not going anywhere.

But hey, at least we got Mega Dragonite out of it.