If you’ve been keeping tabs on Pokémon Sword and Shield, you’ve probably heard about Pokémon Camp.
Pokémon Camp is a fairly typical minigame for the series, where you can interact with the Pokémon in your party, hang out, and maybe whip up a little meal without having to actually battle with them. The concept’s nothing new – Pokémon games almost always feature some kind of non-combat minigame for you and your Poké-pals – and they’re often a little strange, in one way or another, from the odd decorations of Pokémon Amie to chasing herds of Diglett around a pen in Pokémon Let’s Go.
What makes Pokémon Camp strange, though – especially strange – is what you actually do when you go camping. You cook a curry. You cook a curry and then you put sausages in it. And then your Pokémon eat the sausage curry for some special effects.
Now, to me this raises exactly two questions. The first: why? The second: what exactly goes into those rather meaty-looking sausages?
Did someone say “curry on rice”? It’s #NationalCurryWeek in the UK, and #PokemonSwordShield producer @Junichi_Masuda sure is making the most of it! Looks like Grookey, Scorbunny and Sobble want some too! 🍛
More curry here: https://t.co/ASAnKGmB3S pic.twitter.com/XQBb35Gk8I
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) October 10, 2019
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The most obvious answer to the first question is that it’s Game Freak’s attempt at doing British food: Galar, Sword and Shield’s region, is intentionally based on the UK and here in the UK we like sausages and we like curry, so maybe it’s just a bit of culture lost in translation – a bit like the odd character telling you your new trim’s looking “fresh as a mint”.