Following a vision of world peace courtesy of Pokémon Go, it's beyond doubt that the monster collecting series stands as one of the most ubiquitous video games around. The iconic Pikachu is just as identifiable as Disney's mascot, if not more so. The persistent excitement around trading card values guarantees near-daily Pokemon news stories. You'd be difficult to find a pocket monster game that failed to move at least a few million units. Remarkably, fan-made Pokémon games achieve popularity annually.
However despite that ubiquity and fame, some Pokémon games that remain underappreciated. These represent games that didn't get their fair shake, or were buried by the hype of the mainline series. They're Pokémon games stuck on ill-fated consoles or online offerings, or were early forays onto new mediums. Frequently, they are Pokémon games that might have blossomed if they had received sequels or modern remakes. With these criteria in mind, we won't be offering yet another reminder for Pokemon Conquest or the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. We're going beneath the surface.
Nevertheless, these might be these Pokémon games. Therefore, prior to rearranging your glasses and typing 'Actually,' let us just agree that these are Pokémon games for people with refined tastes, shall we?
Pokémon Ranch: The Cozy Precursor
An excessive number of Pokémon games focus on the battling element of the series, and not nearly enough of them focus on the everyday aspects that would come with owning a companion. Sure, there are small features like these in recent entries—players may pet, and feed your monsters in bases. But I am longing for a Pokémon game more in the style of Nintendogs or The Sims.
My Pokémon Ranch (2008) for the Wii isn't it. The downloadable-only title is best seen as the precursor to Pokémon Home; that is, as a storage system to hold monsters from different games. Critical reception from its launch noted Ranch was a poor if not outright hideous game. It's not my goal to argue against these notions, but it behooves me to say Ranch might be the closest we've come to a everyday life Pokémon game.
As the name suggests, the game is set on a farm where your Mii avatars—imagine this—simply hang out with your Pokémon pals. The activities with Pokémon were simple, and a lot of the draw was observing what your monsters might do when they're not being forced into cockfighting. In a just world, Pokémon Ranch would have been the start of a beautiful franchise built on the daily joys of living your life with a small creature. But since The Pokémon Company can charge a subscription for Pokémon Home now, I'm guessing we will not get a Pokémon Ranch game developed to its fullest potential. I'd say 'help us, Pokémon Pokopia!' but it's also known that the upcoming Switch exclusive is as much a puzzle game as it is a life simulation.
Ranch was released well before Stardew Valley sparked the enduring trend of comfort gaming. It was before the rise of passive games, and the Let's Play popularization of watching games you aren't actively controlling. Most people never understood that Ranch's proposal to observe your critters as much as you play with them wasn't to hide a shallow core. In truth, Ranch's attention to detail was so remarkable, a Twitch stream dedicated to running the game 24/7. The streamer who runs the channel maintains that, after almost twenty years of experiencing the game, he even now has not encountered everything that is in it. Justice for Pokémon Ranch: nobody understood you in 2008.
Pokemon Duel: The Strategic Tabletop Game Lost
Are you aware that Pokémon once had an official board game with action figures? Pokémon Duel was the 2016 effort to adapt the tabletop experience in a more approachable format. Duel was also, sadly, one of Pokémon's earliest ventures into the world of free-to-play phone games. Duel had the trappings of a gacha title where players could spend for advantage—and there was motivation to do so, given the slow progression for new pieces.
All of these questionable mechanics obfuscated a sad truth: Pokémon Duel was an superb strategy game with Duel anymore. "I can’t express how much I adored and miss this game," a YouTube comment reads, years after Duel's servers were pulled. "Honestly I think this game was superior to TCG Pocket in terms of complexity, accessibility, design, and content in general," another commenter wrote. "I truly believe if it launched now people would be playing it more than GO and Pocket combined."
Unfortunately, Duel's initial launch was plagued with connectivity problems. Bugs, alongside Duel's predatory business model, gave people few incentives to come back. If, by some miracle, The Pokémon Company decided to revive this franchise, it's unclear things would play out differently. The unusual game board made for a fantastic strategic challenge for the few folks who played Duel, but that board is also a intimidating visual mess.
Pokémon: Magikarp Jump: The Silly Gem
Man, why don't more Pokémon games relax a little and have some fun? Magikarp Jump (2017) was a uncommon case of The Pokémon Company giving its blessing a game with a premise so silly, it was verging on shitpost. And when we're dealing with a franchise where trainers venture forth with a full belt of ineffective monsters who simply cannot do anything, it's surprising we don't have more Pokémon games that laugh at themselves.
Within Magikarp Jump, the player is charged with raising the best possible version of the infamous fish. I'm not talking about a Magikarp that can kick your butt. These are 'karp raised to enter competitions to see who can flop the highest. I'm not a fan is how Magikarp Jump, like many mobile games, requires the player to pause before they can improve their Magikarp further. But it is clear throughout the experience that Select Button appreciated and got the community love around Magikarp.
This was most apparent than in Jump's brutal random occurrences, where your Magikarp was as likely to improve as it was to get eaten by a Pidgeotto. Beyond the great writing, Magikarp Jump also experimented with other things I wish the core series would do, like offering a wide variety of the same type of monster. I know it's not feasible for any Pokémon game to have dozens of colorings and patterns for a compendium of over a thousand creatures, as Magikarp Jump does... but one can dream.
Magikarp Jump was not a particularly sophisticated or profound game, but the seeds of brilliance were there. Sharply written events with unpredictable results that forever alter how you can train a companion also describe the excellent Mewgenics. It's worth noting: Mewgenics will almost certainly be in the conversation when Game of the Year season arrives.
With dozens of core games and derivative titles, it's probable that I didn't mention that one Pokémon game you absolutely adore but argue that not nearly enough people played. I know that some people remember games like Pokémon Ranger or Pokemon Pinball with affection notwithstanding argu
