It didn't go under the radar, they refused to send review copies to many outlets due to the leaks over the last few games.

No Spoilers first impressions:

I've played a little over 3 hours so far, and my first impressions are that this is a simpler and easier pokemon game. The world and route layouts are definitely much more basic so far, and shorter. The distance between pokemon centres is tiny, and with the ease of avoiding any wild encounters you're basically never going to be in a  situation where you're wondering if you can make it to heals or if you're going to white out. Every pokemon in your party levelling at first seems great, but then you realise you've only been using one pokemon and crushing, meanwhile pokemon you've never used are getting stronger and stronger too. I'm only 3 hours in so it may suddenly ramp up the difficulty, but at this stage I've never met a trainer I couldn't beat with just my starter pokemon, and unlike other games in the series I also have another 5 pokemon in my party that while they haven't been used much at all, can easily take on other trainers.

Another little annoyance with the whole party levelling is the "X wants to learn this move" spam that sometimes occurs at the end of battles. You will regularly finish battles and get asked that question 3+ times which is a little grating when you just want to carry on. Streamlined in some aspects, but that doesn't feel like one of them.

Graphically the game is good, it feels nice and polished, except perhaps the wild area which looks a little ropy. I've only been playing in handheld mode.

Oh and you also start with an obscene amount of money and get given an obscene amount of pokeballs to being with, so money will never be an issue except for buying the expensive clothes. 

So yeah, it's much easier and seems to hold your hand more than previous pokemon games I've played. They really want you to have access to free full heals in various locations. A person before a cave, you talk to them and get your party fully healed. Sure previous pokemon games had centres before dungeons, but in this game the routes are shorter, the dungeons aren't really dungeons and it's easy to avoid all fights, I even managed to run past a trainer (accidentally, I went back and did the battle) so you can avoid trainer fights too if you're in a tight spot, though you'll NEVER be in a tight spot.

So my impressions so far, a nice looking game but too "streamlined" and easy. Pokemon games for a long time have been criticised for not being difficult, but this one really takes the cake.

If you're a pokemon fan you'll enjoy the game and have fun, it's a good experience, but is it a great game? Not so far.

Edit: Oh also the GTS missing is a real bummer, especially considering the online trading that IS there, which is terrible!?!?! As far as I can tell you press the button to do an online trade, then you're put in matchmaking. Like... what? You randomly connect to each other and then see if you both have pokemon to trade the other one wants? You don't enter what you want to trade/get before being matched and connected to someone? It seems like a really stupid system, one that's completely unnecessary because they already had the vastly superior GTS.

It didn't go under the radar, Nintendo only gave review copies to 19 outlets. The rest are playing from release day.

Been playing it for about 3 days now. It's okay, really lacking polish in parts though. Almost feels a little rushed. There are so many buildings you can't even enter, which is something I hadn't experienced in a Pokemon game before.

It does feel rushed in some areas. Something I noticed in the first city.

There's only about 8 buildings in the whole city, yet they copy and paste the same shop. They're literally right next to each other. It's not something that really matters, but damn... xD. 

And above in the first clothes shop, the two people working there being identical in every way, using the exact same model. Clothing, bracelet and all identical. Reusing the same character model in the same building, it just feels weird. It's classic pokemon, but as it transitions to 3D/HD these things just start to feel rushed/lazy and weird. Again it's nit picky and it doesn't matter, but it does make the game feel rushed and just strange.

Gamefreak should use the millions their games make to hire more people and diversify the content. It might not seem like much, but variety in models/visuals really does add to a polish of a game without you even realising it sometimes.

Yeah i noticed that too, it gets worse tho. Without spoiling anything but there's one particular city that feels super rushed. 

May or may not be what you're referring to... but just arrived at this town/city... six houses... all identical except the people.

The shoes, the paintings, the clothes hanging, everything! They couldn't even do a simple recolour of a rug or something. All six of the houses here are exactly the same! When the world is 2d you get away with it, when the world is 3d it's jarring.

The more detail you add, the more noticeable it is when it's just copy and pasted.

So those 35 extra Pokemon found to be in the game's data but not in the Pokedex are transferable, meaning the game's total is indeed 435. Obviously that's still way less than Sun/Moon's 800 and still doesn't include all Kanto Pokemon despite them already being in Let's Go. Therefore this doesn't change anything, but gotta be fair and accurate.

Guess a lot of Pokemon fans aren't actually Pokemon fans. xD

Appreciate the critical write up, a breath of fresh air after hearing from others playing the game saying they don't see any flaws with it.

I really wonder what the development budget for these games is - it's probably dwarfed by the advertising budget

Yeah compared to you i'm just looking from a distance at it without being a real fan of the series but i understand those customizable options are important for the longevity of enjoyment for others yes.

As for the "improvement" part i talked about earlier i'm beginning to doubt that early statement of me was fully correct when i see people posting ingame screenshot of some houses and places that look indentical to eachother,that is either lazy or rushed but not excusable for such an premium priced console game.

One question, have I forgotten to add someone to the betting board? If I have, please tell me so I can add you.