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I miss the days of frequent Pokémon spin-off games on Nintendo consoles

Archaic

Archaic

黒い王様
Archaic - Webmaster Scorbunny Fan Sprigatito Fan
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See title.

Sure, we've had the occasional Pokémon spin-off title on Switch, most notably with the recent release of Pokopia (and what a great game that's been), but we don't seem to see anywhere near as many of these as we used to. Budget titles and kid-focused titles in particular have been especially lacking. Just to name a few:
  • We haven't had a story-driven Pokémon TCG game since the Game Boy Color, and the last one never even came out in English.
  • Pokémon Pinball hasn't had a proper release since the GBA.
  • Pokémon Puzzle League/Challenge never got followed up.
  • New Pokémon Snap was great, but did it really need to take so many generations for them to make a new one? Will we have to wait multiple generations to get another?
  • Pokémon Ranger was big enough to get 3 games on DS, but hasn't been seen since other than Wii U virtual console re-releases.
  • I loved Pokémon Conquest, but we never got anything after the one DS game.
  • The PokéPark series is very much a kids thing.... but with a franchise focused on kids, it's amazing this hasn't got any new titles since the Wii, since it seems like an easy budget release (both in development budget, and in a lower price point for players).
  • The Pokémon Trozei series hasn't been seen since the 3DS.
  • New Picross games with licensed IP come out all the time, but we haven't had a Pokémon Picross since the one title on the 3DS.
I know that mobile is often viewed as taking the wind out of the sails of the budget end of the market, and it's certainly true that some of these experiences do overlap a bit with mobile at times. But others here are absolutely the kinds of titles which would work best on a proper console, and it frustrates me that we're not seeing more effort being made here. Like, we know GameFreak has been a bit burned out at times working on Pokémon main series titles, which has resulted in several experimental titles of mixed success (Beast of Reincarnation is due out later this year for everything but Nintendo). But if the issue there is the specific game genre and gameplay loops rather than Pokémon itself, why not use the Pokémon IP as part of those creative experiments?

What are all your thoughts on this? Would you be interested in seeing more Pokémon Spin-off games again? What sort of spin-off games would you want to play?
 
Prior to the release of Pokopia, the non free to start spinoff games on console were:

Detective Pikachu Returns (2023)
New Pokemon Snap (2021)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX (2020)

The decline of Pokemon releasing new spinoff games that aren't mobile games is just...honestly depressing, especially since the ones that were got are not even really all that great and can be shutdown at any given time. I, too, miss the time period when we'd get a spinoff game that was a full experience and not a free to start game with a million microtransactions.

Also, if I may on the Trozei part. Let's be honest, Pokemon Shuffle and Pokemon Cafe Remix may as well have been a part of the Pokemon Trozei series considering they're by the same company and are pretty close to being the same kind of format just played differently. Not saying they were good, but even still.
 
I hope the success of Pokopia means that we get more Pokemon spin-offs that are exclusive to consoles.

I miss Mystery Dungeon. It has already been more then 10 years since the last original game on 3DS.
 
I have been very vocal on this topic on the past, but honestly the data doesn't lie. We got 4 spin-off games in total, an average of one every two years, a lower average than main series'! Two of them buried their subfranchises with them (Pokken and Detective Pikachu) and one didn't lead to obvious new installments despite decent sales (MDDX). The only clear success was New Snap, and even then it doesn't feel like people talk a lot about it nowadays or are asking for more. In the meantime, mobile games get all the attention and non-stop updates, so it's not hard to see the correlation.

But this year, Pokopia launched and it was completely different to what came before. It used a genre unexplored in Pokemon, partnered them with a new company, had a vibrant artstyle and had lots of references to main series. It made me realize something, nowadays the franchise is only going with things that are sure hits, and this time it apparenly worked. It remains to be seen how it impacts the rest of the games, but I still wouldn't expect anything after WIWA are released.
 
i genuienly wonder who the audience is for games like pokemon cafe remix. i can see pokemon go still being popular as a social activity, i can see pokemon unite to an extent... i can somewhat see masters though i wonder if that's falling in popularity. i kind of forget about pokemon tcgpocket sometimes. but cafe remix? who is it really for?

i dunno. i suppose you can say the same thing about old school console spin off games like pokemon channel or maybe pokepark or something that flew way more under the radar than games like pokemon colosseum and XD.
 
I gotta say, sometimes I get retroactive FOMO (if that makes sense) thinking about how people grew up with Pokemon games and got to play the old ones as they were coming out, meanwhile I didn't even know about the games until way later since my country didn't have them - just the anime, and even that had a limited run (to this day anime/manga in general is pretty niche here). And while I did catch up with some of the older mainline games I wonder which spinoffs would hold up the best these days (especially for someone who has no nostalgia/would have to try them as an adult).
 
I do agree that having more Pokemon spin-offs on Nintendo consoles would be cool. Not to throw shade at the mobile and/or live service games too much, they seem fine for the most part. But it would be cool if we had more games like Pokken Tournament (both the original and DX versions), New Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX and the new kid on the block Pokemon Pokopia too. And on the topic of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon remakes, please remake Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky for the Switch 2! I have fond memories of playing Explorers of Time and I've heard Sky is even better than Time and Darkness, but never got the chance to try that one. A remake of those games would be wonderful!
 
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colours said:
i genuienly wonder who the audience is for games like pokemon cafe remix. i can see pokemon go still being popular as a social activity, i can see pokemon unite to an extent... i can somewhat see masters though i wonder if that's falling in popularity. i kind of forget about pokemon tcgpocket sometimes. but cafe remix? who is it really for?
Click to expand...
The answer is always the Japanese. They thrive and live the cute side of Pokemon.
 
I honestly wouldn't mind another game set in Orre, like Pokemon Colosseum. Any chance of that happening, or does that not count as a spin-off?
 
what i miss the most with spinoffs is the creativity of them! there's so many different kinds to try, and it's not limited to colo/XD, or pokemon mystery dungeon! pokemon conquest is a really decent one that (for some reason) never got a chance on the switch consoles, pokemon ranger is a fun time for those craving a little bit of adventure a bit different from the main series games, and there's even pokemon snap, too! there's lots of variety which means lots of different ways to play and experience things.

there's love to be found in spinoffs without resorting to mobile game gacha that they've been focusing on for the past couple of years. s: i think that's what i miss the most...
 
The fact that there hasn't been a real Pokemon TCG video game since the 8-bit days is genuinely insane, although I suppose the TCG's current popularity is mostly as a vessel for speculation rather than for actually playing the game, and of course there's the mobile game, but I don't count mobile games.
 
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