We’re only two and a half months into the year, and Pokémon Pokopia has already made an incredibly strong case for Game of the Year. The simulation and crafting elements ride the perfect line between easy to grasp and challenging to maximize, the Pokémon themselves are delightful to collect and interact with, and the story is surprisingly prescient and moving. If you weren’t tempted to get a Nintendo Switch 2 before, this game is potentially the strongest argument for it yet.
I’ve loved Pokémon since it debuted in the West in the midst of my early childhood. I’ve played every mainline entry and most of the spin-offs as they were released, and though I’ve certainly had my ups and downs with the series of late, Pokémon Pokopia immediately struck me as an intriguing concept. The franchise has always thrived with creative spin-off concepts, and it’s been a bit since we got such a unique one. I went in excited, and still, my every expectation was somehow surpassed beyond my wildest imagination.
The first surprise for me in Pokémon Pokopia was how mercifully short the tutorial was. The delightful Professor Tangrowth shows you the ropes and gets you to grasp the basics of crafting, building, and navigating, and after building habitats for a few of the most popular Pokémon species, you’re free to wander and do your own thing. Of course, to progress to new areas and unlock new mechanics, you’ll have to complete certain objectives, but you’re not railroaded into doing them in any way. I love being able to mess around and explore at my own pace, so I was thrilled at the game’s pacing.
Speaking of habitats, a main mechanic of Pokémon Pokopia is building those very things to attract the 300+ Pokémon available in the game. These range from simple layouts, like four pieces of grass beside one another, to complex builds involving furnaces, light posts, boat wheels, and birdhouses. You’re constantly unlocking hints about new habitats and the number of unique Pokémon they can attract, leaving you always chasing new items and skills to let you build these tantalizing new spots. Over and over, I’d plan on stopping the game for a while, only to be spurred on to make “one more habitat” – the sign of an incredibly well-designed gameplay loop.
Even though you’re not catching them, attracting all of these different Pokémon – which span all the way from the first generation of games to Scarlet and Violet – is just as satisfying. I was thrilled when Slowking and Mareep showed up, in a way that was different but just as exciting as catching them in the mainline games. Every Pokémon I’ve run into has a fitting personality, and if they’re programmed to fit specific “types” rather than individual personalities, it’s much better hidden than in games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
On that note, Pokémon Pokopia is certainly a game you’ll dig if you’re a fellow Animal Crossing fan. Even beyond the neighborly aspect of bringing Pokémon to your little towns, there’s quite a bit of freedom in how you craft buildings and environments to suit your aesthetic tastes. You can guild different houses based on pre-existing designs, or just wing it with whatever materials you have on hand. You can basically do whatever you want, whenever you want, except that build times for larger templates will take up your time. I actually don’t mind this, as having larger builds require you to wait a day helps you focus on other activities, and is a worthy trade-off for the mechanics that come with real-time tracking, like Pokémon appearing at different times of day and the like.
I really do need to discuss the sheer amount of content in Pokémon Pokopia, which has really impressed me. I kept thinking “there can’t be that much more to this” as each new area unlocked, and I was consistently wrong. New areas, new Pokémon, new abilities for Ditto that open up huge swathes of the world, new secrets, and so on simply kept being unlocked. Throw in the rotating event content that’s already begun with the Hopip line this month, and you’ve got a remarkably robust Pokémon game that seems keen to keep you returning for a good while yet. There’s lots of stuff I’m planning to go back to already, with tons of Pokémon and secrets still left in the base game for me to discover despite putting over 30 hours into the game already.
Pokémon Pokopia‘s story is a surprising highlight.
Possibly the biggest surprise for me within Pokémon Pokopia came in the form of its narrative. I didn’t know anything about it other than the vaguely post-apocalyptic vibe from the trailers, but I was amazed at how emotionally invested I got. Without getting too deeply into spoilers, the Pokémon world did indeed deal with an environmental crisis on a massive scale, leading the monsters themselves to be alone in these very familiar areas. You find notes and journals throughout the game from the perspectives of different characters you’ll likely recognize from the main games, and they hint at some startling developments. The game’s entire theme of rebuilding and persevering in times that seem hopeless and isolating is more relevant than you might have expected, especially for a colorful and silly game where you play as a goofy little Ditto.
Visually, Pokémon Pokopia is exceedingly cute. Ditto looks adorably no matter how you dress them up, and the many different Pokémon and environments are full of color and personality in how they’re presented. The same goes for the music, which frequently takes memorable tracks from the first generation of games and remixes them into cutesy, kiddy versions that fit Ditto’s vibe perfectly. Plus, you can collect CDs to listen to tracks from Pokémon Red and Blue at your leisure, which is a nice little touch. Also, I never had any performance problems with the game, which you simply love to see on the Switch 2.
Excellent
The Final Word
It’s been a long time since I’ve been so pleasantly blown away by a game, but Pokémon Pokopia has continued to surprise and delight me with every step. This is no doubt going to be one of the standout games of the Nintendo Switch 2 and of the year, as the addictive gameplay loop, charming world and characters, and seemingly endless amount of content make it 100% worth playing.
