Pokemon Sword / Shield: The Isle of Armor

The Isle of Armor breathes new life into Pokémon Sword and Shield by giving players something they wanted from the start: access to more classic Pokémon from previous generations.

DLC is new to the main-series Pokemon games, and it's certainly a great alternative to replaying the same game a year or two later when the souped-up rerelease comes out. But like the traditional third or "Ultra" version, The Isle of Armor does refine much of the experience we had in vanilla Sword and Shield, with a more interesting Wild Area to explore and some small quality-of-life tweaks that further the progress Gen 8 has made in that regard. It doesn't totally change up the game, to be sure, but The Isle of Armor is definitely a delight.

Pokémon Sword and Shield: Isle of Armor also offers competitive features with a wealth of new tools and resources to make your battles even more interesting, and give you a helping hand with building new teams. Through this DLC, the metagame is almost certain to evolve, at least until the Crown Tundra expansion drops later this year. Oooh, I’m excited already.

The Isle of Armor isn’t much, but it’s a nice addition of content for an already great Pokémon game.

Overall, if you're a fan of Pokémon Sword and Shield, you'll probably enjoy The Isle of Armor. It's not perfect and it feels a little skimpy, but the decent amount of postgame content that is there contributes quite well to the main title. It truly feels like an expansion rather than something excised from the main game, which is the best you can hope for when it comes to DLC.

The Pokemon Sword and Shield Isle of Armor DLC is a worthy add-on to the base game, despite being somewhat light on content.

Although it still remains to be discovered what is included in The Tundra Crown, The Island of Armor offers us an interesting growth path that encourages us to discover all the details of the story, as well as an immense environment to explore with Pokémon returning from previous games, different activities to do and a great sound section.

The Isle of Armor is a lovely addition to the base Pokémon Sword & Shield games, bringing in far more new features to tickle hardcore fans than we initially expected. On the downside, it’s a little shy on narrative-driven content and is really all about the isle and its Pokémon inhabitants. Still, while we would certainly have liked to have seen more story-based gameplay, what’s on offer is still excellent, and offers dedicated fans of the series an awful lot to explore and do. If you loved the Wild Area in Sword and Shield and want more of that, we can safely say you’ll get a real kick out of this.

The Isle of Armor gives you a neat little exercise trip with Kubfu, but story and visuals still are a bit bland.

Despite not being the primary DLC for the Pokémon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass, The Isle of Armor has enough quality content to bring us back to the eighth generation. Even if its history is short and shallow.

Isle of Armor won't convince naysayers to try Pokemon Sword and Shield for the first time, but offers fans some lovely new content and bags of charm.

I was freed from Pokemon’s adorable clutches for months, and this DLC release has handily undone all that work. Like the base game, the story is an afterthought. Sword, Shield, and now the DLC are all geared towards non-linear play habits. Rather than being guided towards a story-centered goal, you’re making your own fun. The good news is, there’s quite a lot of this kind of fun to be had here. If you’re in the mood for more of what made Pokemon Sword and Shield so good, Isle of Armor will be just what you need.

A modest expansion to Pokémon Sword and Shield, Isle of Armor doesn’t stray away from the established formula of last year’s blockbuster game. But when the core experience was that good to begin with, more of the same is exactly what the series needs to still stay fun and fresh.