You remember the salt. Back in 2017, when Game Freak announced Pokémon Ultra Sun and Moon, the community basically went into a meltdown. People wanted a Switch game. They wanted "Pokémon Stars." Instead, we got what looked like a recycled version of the games we’d just played a year prior on the 3DS.
But here’s the thing.
Time has been surprisingly kind to these games. If you actually sit down and play through Alola again, you realize that while the original Sun and Moon had the "soul," the Ultra versions had the "engine." They’re weird, bloated, and sometimes frustratingly difficult. They are also, arguably, the last time a Pokémon game felt like a complete, polished package before the series made the leap to home consoles and started struggling with draw distances and frame rates.
The Necrozma Problem and the Difficulty Spike
Let's talk about that dragon in the room. Or, well, the crystalline prism monster. Ultra Necrozma is probably the single hardest boss fight in the history of the core series. It’s not even close. If you weren’t prepared for that fight at the top of Megalo Tower, your entire team got swept in about four turns.
Most Pokémon games are a breeze. You click the super-effective move, you win. Ultra Sun and Moon changed the math. The "Totem" Pokémon—essentially the gym leader equivalents of Alola—used actual competitive strategies. Think back to the Totem Ribombee. It wasn't just a bug; it was a buffed-up monster with a partner Pelipper that set up Tailwind. It was brutal.
Honestly, it felt like Game Freak was finally listening to the older fans who complained the games were too easy. They gave the AI better held items and actual EVs. If you didn't use the "Roto-Boost" powers (which were kind of a broken mechanic, let’s be real), you had to actually think about your turn-by-turn strategy.
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What the "Ultra" Upgrade Actually Changed
A lot of people think these are just the same games with a few extra monsters. That’s not quite right. While the first two islands feel almost identical to the originals—which is why the "recycled" criticism stuck so hard—the back half of the game goes off the rails in a good way.
The addition of the Ultra Recon Squad added this strange, sci-fi flavor to a series that usually sticks to fantasy tropes. You’ve got Dulse and Zossie showing up with their weird suits, talking about a world without light. It made the stakes feel cosmic.
Then there’s the Mantine Surf. It’s basically a high-score minigame, but it’s how you earned Battle Points (BP) early on. In the original games, you had to grind the Battle Tree for hours just to get a Life Orb or a Choice Spec. In Ultra Sun and Moon, you could just do some sick flips on a Mantine and buy your competitive gear before you even finished the main story. It was a massive quality-of-life improvement that modern games like Scarlet and Violet have since simplified even further.
The Move Tutor Revolution
One thing the competitive scene loved about these versions was the return of Move Tutors. Alola brought back moves that weren't available in the base Sun and Moon. This shifted the entire meta. Suddenly, your favorite Pokémon could learn Knock Off or Stealth Rock again. It made the 3DS era of VGC (Video Game Championships) incredibly diverse, even if the "Primal Groudon" dominance was starting to get a bit stale by then.
The Rainbow Rocket Post-Game is Pure Fanservice
We need to discuss Team Rainbow Rocket.
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It was ridiculous. It was over-the-top. It was exactly what fans wanted. Seeing Giovanni return and recruit every single previous villain—Archie, Maxie, Cyrus, Ghetsis, and Lysandre—was like a "Greatest Hits" album of Pokémon evil. Each of them had a legendary Pokémon on their team. It wasn't just a cameo; it was a gauntlet.
The coolest detail? They all came from alternate universes where they actually won. Cyrus succeeded in remaking the world. Ghetsis actually took over Unova. It gave the "Multiverse" concept, which Pokémon had been flirting with since Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, a concrete landing spot. It’s the kind of high-effort post-game content that we’ve arguably missed in the generations that followed.
The Performance Gap: 3DS vs. New 3DS
If you played these on an original 2DS or the base 3DS model, you know the pain. Double Battles turned the game into a slideshow. The frame rate would dip into the teens whenever there were more than two Pokémon on screen. It was clear that Game Freak was pushing the hardware way past its breaking point.
On the "New" 3DS hardware, it was better, but not perfect. The 3D effect was almost entirely removed from these games because the processor couldn't handle it. It’s a fascinating look at the "technical debt" Game Freak was dealing with at the end of that decade. They wanted these massive, expressive models with high polygon counts, but they were working on a handheld from 2011.
Why the Fanbase Still Argues About It
The main criticism remains: why wasn't this a DLC?
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In 2017, we didn't have Pokémon DLC. We had "third versions." If you wanted the updated experience, you paid $40 for a new cartridge. For many, the fact that the story beat-for-beat matched the original games for the first 20 hours was a dealbreaker. They felt cheated.
Also, many fans actually prefer the original story of Sun and Moon. In the originals, the focus was on Lillie and her relationship with her mother, Lusamine. It was a grounded, somewhat dark family drama. In the Ultra versions, that plot gets pushed aside to make room for the Necrozma/Ultra Recon Squad stuff. Lusamine goes from being a complex, tragic villain to more of a "misunderstood" hero who was just trying to save the world from a light-eating dragon. It definitely lost some of its emotional punch.
How to Enjoy Ultra Sun and Moon Today
If you’re looking to jump back into Alola, don't just rush through the A-button mashing. There’s a lot of depth hidden in the side quests.
- Check the Beaches. There are literal dozens of tiny side-stories involving the people and Pokémon of Alola that you only find by talking to NPCs.
- Collect the Totem Stickers. Unlike the Zygarde cells in the original games, collecting stickers feels rewarding because you actually get giant-sized Totem Pokémon for your own team.
- Use the Island Scan. You can find non-Alolan starters and rare Pokémon like Aegislash or Haxorus that aren't in the regional Pokédex. It makes your team building way more interesting.
- Actually play the Ultra Warp Ride. Yes, the motion controls are a bit janky (you can switch to the circle pad at the Game Freak office in Hehea City), but it’s the easiest way to find shinies. The shiny rates in the Ultra Wormholes are insanely high—sometimes over 30% if you travel far enough.
Ultra Sun and Moon represent the end of an era. They were the final "traditional" handheld Pokémon games. No open world, no free camera, just top-down(ish) grid-based movement and a focused, linear adventure. They aren't perfect. The tutorials at the start are still agonizingly slow. But as a celebration of everything Pokémon had been for 20 years, they’re a much stronger farewell to the 3DS than most people give them credit for.
If you want the best possible way to experience the Alola region, the Ultra versions are the definitive choice, even if you have to sit through some familiar dialogue to get to the good stuff. Just make sure you bring a Focus Sash for that Necrozma fight. You’re going to need it.
To get the most out of your return trip to Alola, prioritize the Ultra Warp Ride for legendary hunting and shiny collecting early on. It’s a mechanic that hasn't been replicated with the same ease in newer titles. Also, make sure to visit the Game Freak office in-game to toggle your controls for the Warp Ride; the circle pad is infinitely more precise than the default motion settings. Focus on building a diverse team with high base speed or priority moves, as the late-game difficulty spikes will punish any team that relies solely on "brute force" leveling. Alola is a region that rewards preparation over grinding.