Pokémon Pokopia (2026)

I am someone who grew up playing Pokémon Red on the school bus. Since then I have gone out of my way to play every mainline game and most of the spinoffs. Pokopia is one of the, if not THE best game I’ve ever played in the franchise. Not to mention I think it’s a new high water mark for Nintendo cozy games. It’s consumed my life for the past month.

Gameplay wise, it’s great, sure. It’s an obscenely addictive blend of Pokémon and Omega Force’s previous work on the Dragon Quest Builders series, polished to near perfection. The essential loop is that you are "catching 'em all", so to speak, but instead of doing it through battles, you are doing it by building little habitats for them to live in. You then try to improve their comfort by fulfilling little requests. It's simple, but more fun that you'd think.

But what sets it over the edge for me is just its achingly bittersweet atmosphere, dialogue and story, which are filled with the longing of missing someone you really care about. No other Pokémon game has gotten me to care this much about these precious little angels, who must be protected at all costs. They are cute and hilarious, but most of all they are just little babies trying to make sense of the mysterious catastrophe that has left the world in disrepair. Kotaku summed it up in their review better than I ever could.

Pokémon Pokopia, while billed as a cozy life sim for those who like cute vibes and wholesome interactions between their favorite critters, is tinged with the grief of Pokémon missing the humans they once stood beside, and hoping that if they can recreate the world they once knew from memory, humans might come back.

I know a lot of people don’t have access to a Switch 2 right now and gaming is getting more expensive, but if you ever get a chance to play this, don’t miss it.

PS. The ending made me tear up.

Pokopia is the most fun I've had playing a Pokemon game in 12 years. I genuinely was ready to not get this game in protest as its status as the first Nintendo key-card-physical-only game is offensive. Then I saw the glowing previews, and I saw the ecstatic early reviews, and I got a bonus at work, and my kids were asking for it, and the stars aligned, and I got it, and boy, I'm happy I did. There is some synergy occuring making the whole thing sing. Like stirring some Minecraft into your Animal Crossing isn't revolutionary, but the special seasoning of Pokemon pushes it into euphoria. There's just such a nice feeling to playing something knowing you're going to be playing it for at least another hundred hours.

Was not planning on getting this but a friend won't let up on me, so I ended up ordering a copy last minute. Took a while for the game to click but have reached a good groove now.

My town is a mess with habitats and furniture all over, and I want to tidy up but I also want to finished Octopath Traveler 0 first before sinking more time into this game. The Pokémon center is already being rebuilt, so in the meantime, will be putting this game down.

Nintendo wants $100 CAD for Pokopia. The physical edition is a game key cart, and both that and the digital copy are $100. So it's another Nintendo game for Switch 2 I'm skipping because we know the best deal we'll ever see for this game is 30% off, and that won't be for years.

If Nintendo had been willing to release an actual physical edition for $100 I'd bite, but there is no reality where I'm paying $100 for a digital file with DRM.