Pokemon's Next Gym Gimmick Could Come From its Card Game Spin

Pokemon Trading Card Game introduced a concept that could be put to good use when designing gyms in future Pokemon generations.

Pokemon's gyms are a cornerstone of the series, and a great gimmick for future gyms can be found in one of its spin-off titles. After nine generations, Pokemon needs to keep finding new ways to innovate its many features, including the iconic gyms, even as their role largely remains the same. Since players have to visit every gym in order to beat the games, it's best to make sure that they're memorable in some way, lest they become time-fillers rather than special encounters. Thankfully, a new idea to change gyms has already been tested in another game - Pokemon Trading Card Game.

Longtime players can cite Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's gyms as proof that the series' gyms have been evolving over the years. In the days of Pokemon Red and Blue, most gyms either had simple puzzles or just a series of battles before a fight against their respective leader. In recent generations, every gym has a task that players need to accomplish before challenging the leader, and the variety adds more flavor to the gyms and leaders themselves. In fact, Sun and Moon didn't even have gyms, although the Trials served the same role, and one could argue that gyms have gone from progress checkpoints to spectacles in their own right.

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Pokemon Trading Card Game is one of the Pokemon titles recently added to Nintendo Switch Online, and it has its own gym equivalents in the form of clubs. Each club is named after and focuses on one specific Pokemon type, and the player needs to defeat all 8 club masters to reach the endgame. There is one exception in the group, though. The Science Club is the only one not named after a specific type, instead working off of the gimmick of all the members being scientists. While it's mechanically the same as any other club, its gimmick makes it more memorable than most.

The Science Club represents an idea that could be used to add more personality to Pokemon's gyms. While most of the members do use Grass cards based on Poison-type Pokemon, the gym itself has nothing to do with the type. While some gyms in Pokemon are more based on the leader than their type, the next game could take cues from the Science Club by not having a chosen type at all. Instead, the trainers and leader could have a theme that their Pokemon are based around. It would be a big departure from the series' tradition, but future generations could make it work.

Creating gyms based on themes rather than typing could be one of the biggest ways that Pokemon Generation 10 could break tradition. For example, a space-themed gym could feature Pokemon like Minior, Clefable, and Beheeyem, all of whom have connections to space and aliens. Likewise, a gym based on music could feature Pokemon like Exploud and Noivern due to their sound-based powers. These types of gyms could provide a different kind of challenge for players, while also being a fun way to come up with more themes for leaders and their teams without relying on a chosen type as previous gyms have.

The gyms of Pokemon are one of the biggest constants in the series, and changing their formula wouldn't be done lightly. However, it could be a missed opportunity for Pokemon's gyms not to try something new for the next generation. In the previous three generations, gyms have gone from island trials to grand arenas, and then to specialized tests followed by a big battle. The next generation of Pokemon games is due for another gimmick for its gyms, and Pokemon Trading Card Game's Science Club could be the inspiration for it.

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