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.