When you’ve had thirty years of fantastic games of all shapes and sizes, it’s hard to find a fresh way to break out.

Between holiday resorts where you snap pictures, to colosseum battles of epic proportions and isometric dungeon crawlers, there’s a bit of something for everyone. Almost.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of Pokémon Pokopia is the franchise has yet to really dabble in its own form of cozy. Technically we’ve had titles like Pokémon Cafe but Pokopia really is on a plain of its own.

Lending elements of classic staples like Animal Crossing, as well as the brilliant Dragon Quest Builders, Stardew Valley, and even Terraria and Minecraft, Pokopia finally gives those gamers something they’ve been desperately looking for, but also reinvigorates a franchise with new, delightful charms of its own.

And, sure, a lot of this comes down to the cute and beautifully rendered models, and the fresh environment, the starstruck music that soothes and the lack of throwing your creatures into battle every five seconds and effectively catching mons to add to your collection. The way Pokopia approaches the franchise in a smart way but does it so that it removes that edge that exists in the series is simply masterful.

It begins with the writing. Truly, for me, the best part of Pokopia. I haven’t laughed quite so much at a game in ages but also been so incredibly impressed with how creatures I’ve known and seen for decades have suddenly been transformed but also maintained in the same way.

Take Bulbasaur, for instance. He’s always been that delightful green bundle of joy with the heart-melting eyes and the cute little chirps. But in Pokopia he goes beyond that with full lines of dialogue wanting to impress you and shout about how much he loves livin with you.

And then you get little quips from Charmander about how he helped you build your residence but really didn’t do a whole lot of anything. And it just goes further the more mons you meet, like the hyper active and jittery Hitmonchan and the ‘on a schedule’ Timburr.

Every character feels correct and says things you can actually imagine these Pokémon saying or acting precisely as you’d expect. It blew my mind a little bit, sort of changed the way I look at these characters and also gave me a totally new appreciation for them.

Then there’s the terraforming and world building itself and the mechanic used to engineer all of that is just…genius. Of course it would be a Ditto that can take on and do everything, the one mon that can assume any form, even that of a human. And by encountering new species so you learn new attributes that help you sculpt the land, plant and sow, as well as gather and feed. But that’s just the start.

It’s a game that can run as deeply as you want it to, letting you really influence and affect the change around you, but also just letting you run through the story and collecting as many Mons as you can. Learning about why the world has been so affected, where the humans have gone and why folks have selective memories.

The thing that impressed me most was how good the game actually is. I have to be honest, when I was watching trailers or seeing material for this, I wasn’t quite feeling it. Something wasn’t clicking, but from the moment I put hands to controller, I was sucked in for hours. Truly, I haven’t felt quite so held or compelled to be in a game as Pokopia for so long, but that’s also partly why this review took so long!

Donkey Kong Bananza remains my favourite Switch 2 title, for sure, but Pokopia is right up there with it. There’s something so special and precious about the way they have handled this IP, but even reinvigorated Pokémon and restored my love of the franchise ahead of Winds and Waves next year.

Pokopia feels as important and significant to this system as Animal Crossing was to the Switch – but even the Pokémon brand as a whole. From the inevitable sales of millions of Ditto esque plushies, to the vast, expansive potential this game is sure to have, Pokopia has veered away from the familiarity the franchise generally offers and blows expectations out of the water.

Like, bringing new Pokémon to your biomes, for instance. You still use land to discover them, but this time you find traces and get clues to the types of Pokémon nearby and how you’d catch them. The journal will tell you where the mystery Pokémon would hang out and it’s up to you to essentially build that environment to draw them out then wait for them to show up. Then you’ll just hang out and be besties rather than have to do battle or get caught in a ball.

From there, it’s just about preserving and building a friendship, from giving their living environment new toys or perhaps a bed to sleep on or foliage to admire. You’ll also take on quests together to uncover more of the map or to see if you can find a more attractive place for them to live. It’s quite wonderful.

Even as mentioned in the article before, the fact the pictures you take when playing the game show up on the menu screen, just really adds so much value to the game’s overall presentation!

The Mouse Controls are also pretty great and yet another great advert for the JoyCon 2, certainly Nintendo’s best effort so far to make use of the creative functionality.

It’s not all perfect, of course. Inventory management is a bit of a frustration here as you feel you have limited options and are reliant on stuffing ingredients and resources in crates and boxes all over the different biomes. And so you’ll often find your resources are all over the place as the map opens up and up. I feel more could have been done to use the in-game PC to make it easier to access your materials as sometimes it’s just easier to regather ingredients from the place you are to use them, rather than backtrack.

There’s also extended loading screens to contend with at times, which makes for a bit of a slog at times.

Hopefully a new patch or update will impove the viability of this as it’s definitely one of the weaker, more confusing components of Pokopia.

The multiplayer does really help with this of course, as you and your friends can share things out neatly and really speed up the process. And it’ll just keep prolonging the game, along with the fun events we’ve already seen, such as the debut of Hoppip and surely more to come.

But the truth is, I just can’t stop thinking about Pokopia and just how big this game could be. What could still be done, and how it may even be – when all’s said and done – the biggest, most important Pokémon game in years. We’re all hyped for Winds and Waves, of course we are, but what’s been achieved here has dared to be so very different and for the most part, is a massive success for it!

Verdict

Pokémon Pokopia has absolutely blown me away! In the best possible way! I didn’t have this on my bingo card to be the game I most love in 2026 – considering the year we’ve already had and what’s still to come – but it’s a game I’m infatuated with. That I can’t stop playing or thinking about. That has the right blend of everything and feels the perfect remedy for my soul. This is the shot in the arm the franchise has needed, and may just be the single most important game for the creatures since Pokémon Go itself! While inventory management could be better and there is some slowdown with sloggish loading at points, none of it really quells my enjoyment or diminishes the excellent work that’s been done here. This is Pokémon at its best and I cannot wait for them to keep giving me more and more! Switch 2 just got another must-have and I never saw it coming.

Pros

+ An absolutely sensational reinvigoration of the franchise and characters
+ Compelling gameplay loop that just keeps you invested
+ Great variety in modes and things to do with huge potential for growth and expansion
+ Beautiful world with smart mechanics I never want to put down