In the wake of a taste of world peace courtesy of Pokemon Go, there's no question that the monster collecting series stands as one of the most popular video games around. The iconic Pikachu is just as famous as Mickey Mouse, perhaps even more. The continued frenzy surrounding trading card values guarantees near-daily Pokemon news stories. You'd be hard-pressed to find a pocket monster game that didn't sell at least a couple million copies. Remarkably, unofficial Pokémon games go viral every year.
Yet in spite of that ubiquity and popularity, some Pokémon games that are totally overlooked. These are games that failed to receive their proper due, or were buried by the excitement of the mainline series. These are Pokémon games stuck on doomed platforms or online offerings, or were early forays onto different formats. They're often also Pokémon games that probably would have flourished if they ever got sequels or modern remakes. With these criteria in mind, this list will not be just one more reminder for Pokemon Conquest or the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. We're pulling an Excadrill.
Nevertheless, these might be these Pokémon games. Therefore, prior to rearranging your glasses and writing 'Well,' we can all acknowledge that these are Pokémon games for people with refined tastes, shall we?
Pokémon Ranch: The Chill Forerunner
An excessive number of Pokémon games emphasize the combat aspect of the series, and far too few of them focus on the ordinary realities that would come with owning a pet. Sure, modern titles include small features like these in recent entries—you can play with your monsters in camps. But I am longing for a Pokémon game more in the vein of Nintendogs or The Sims.
My Pokemon Ranch (2008) for the Wii isn't it. The downloadable-only title is most accurately viewed as the precursor to Pokémon Home; that is, as a repository to store monsters from different games. Reviews from its launch said Ranch was a bad if not truly ugly game. It's not my goal to dispute these claims, but it compels me to say Ranch might be the nearest we've come to a slice-of-life Pokémon game.
As the name suggests, the game takes place on a ranch where your personal Miis—imagine this—simply hang out with your pals. The interactions with Pokémon were basic, and a lot of the appeal was observing what your monsters might do when they're not being forced into cockfighting. Ideally, 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 collect a fee for Pokémon Home now, it's likely we will never see a Pokémon Ranch game developed to its complete potential. I'd say 'help us, Pokémon Pokopia!' but I also know that the Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive is just as much a puzzler as it is a life sim.
Ranch was released well before Stardew Valley sparked the lasting craze of cozy games. It was before the rise of passive games, and the Let's Play normalization of watching games you aren't playing. Many never understood that Ranch's concept to observe your critters as much as you play with them wasn't to hide a lack of substance. In truth, Ranch's meticulous design was so extraordinary, there's a Twitch stream dedicated to running the game 24/7. The individual who runs the channel states that, after almost twenty years of experiencing the game, he even now has not encountered everything that is in it. Justice for Pokémon Ranch: no one knew what to do with you in 2008.
Pokémon Duel: The Strategic Board Game Gone
Did you know that Pokemon once had an official board game with miniatures? Pokémon Duel was the 2016 attempt to adapt the tabletop experience in a more accessible form. Duel was also, sadly, one of Pokémon's earliest forays into the world of freemium mobile gaming. Duel had the trappings of a gacha game where players could pay to win—and there was incentive to do so, given the lengthy grind for new figures.
These poor design choices masked a tragic reality: Pokémon Duel was an superb strategy game with Duel anymore. "Words cannot describe how much I loved and miss this game," a YouTube comment states, seven years after Duel's servers were pulled. "Truly I think this game was superior to TCG Pocket in terms of depth, accessibility, design, and content in general," another commenter wrote. "I truly believe if it launched now people would be engaging with 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. Should a revival occur, The Pokémon Company decided to revive this franchise, I'm still not certain things would play out differently. The unusual game board made for a great strategic challenge for the handful of players who played Duel, but that playing field is also a daunting visual mess.
Pokémon: Magikarp Jump: The Whimsical Gem
Wow, why don't more Pokémon games loosen up a little and have some fun? Magikarp Jump (2017) was a rare instance of The Pokémon Company approving a game with a premise so silly, it was verging on shitpost. And when we're dealing with a franchise where trainers go out with a team of ineffective monsters who literally can't do anything, it's surprising we don't have more Pokémon games that laugh at themselves.
Within Magikarp Jump, the player is tasked with breeding the ultimate version of the infamous fish. I'm not talking about a Magikarp that can kick your butt. These are 'Magikarp raised to enter competitions to see who can jump the highest. I'm not a fan is how Magikarp Jump, like many mobile games, forces the player to wait before they can train their Magikarp further. But it is evident throughout the experience that Select Button appreciated and got the fan culture around Magikarp.
This was most apparent than in Jump's merciless random occurrences, where your Magikarp was as likely to raise its stats as it was to get snatched by a Pidgeotto. Apart from the clever dialogue, Magikarp Jump also tried out other things I wish the core series would do, like offering a wide variety of the same species of monster. I know it's not practical for any Pokémon game to have dozens of variations for a compendium of over a thousand creatures, as Magikarp Jump does... but we can hope.
Magikarp Jump was not a particularly complex or deep game, but the seeds of brilliance were there. Sharply written events with unpredictable results that forever alter how you can raise a pet also describe the excellent Mewgenics. And I'm just saying: Mewgenics will likely be in the running when Game of the Year season rolls around.
With dozens of mainline entries and derivative titles, chances are that I omitted that one Pokémon game you totally love but contend that not nearly enough people played. I know that some people look back on games like Pokemon Ranger or Pokemon Pinball with affection despite argu
