Following a vision of world peace thanks to Pokemon Go, it's beyond doubt that the creature-catching franchise stands as one of the most mainstream video games around. The iconic Pikachu is just as famous as Mickey Mouse, if not more so. The persistent excitement surrounding card prices guarantees near-daily Pokemon news stories. You'd be difficult to find a pocket monster game that failed to move at least a couple million copies. Even, fan-made Pokémon games achieve popularity annually.
However despite that pervasiveness and fame, there are still Pokémon games that are totally overlooked. These represent titles that didn't get their fair shake, or were overshadowed by the excitement of the core series. These are Pokémon games released on doomed platforms or online offerings, or were pioneering attempts onto new mediums. They're often also Pokémon games that might have flourished if they had received sequels or modern remakes. With these criteria in mind, we won't be offering yet another recommendation for Pokémon Conquest or the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. We're going beneath the surface.
Still, these might be these Pokémon games. So, before rearranging your glasses and typing 'Well,' let us just agree that these are Pokémon games for those possessing refined tastes, agreed?
Pokémon Ranch: The Chill Forerunner
An excessive number of Pokémon games emphasize the battling aspect of the series, and not nearly enough of them focus on the everyday realities that would come with owning a pet. Admittedly, modern titles include small features like these in recent entries—you can play with your monsters in bases. But I am dying for a Pokémon game more in the vein of Nintendogs or The Sims.
My Pokemon Ranch (2008) for the Nintendo Wii isn't it. The digital-only title is most accurately viewed as the antecedent to Pokemon Home; that is, as a storage system to store monsters from different games. Critical reception from its launch said Ranch was a bad if not truly ugly game. I'm not here to dispute these claims, but it behooves me to say Ranch might be the closest we've ever gotten to a slice-of-life Pokémon game.
As the name suggests, the game takes place on a ranch where your Mii avatars—imagine this—just relax with your Pokémon pals. The interactions with Pokémon were basic, and a lot of the appeal was watching what your monsters might do when not forced into battle. Ideally, Pokémon Ranch would have been the beginning of a beautiful franchise built on the simple pleasures of living your life with a small creature. However, because The Pokémon Company can collect a fee for Pokémon Home now, it's likely we will not get a Pokémon Ranch game developed to its complete potential. One might cry 'save us, Pokémon Pokopia!' but it's also known that the upcoming Switch exclusive is just as much a puzzler as it is a life sim.
Ranch was released well before Stardew Valley kicked off the lasting craze of cozy games. It was before the proliferation of passive games, and the Let's Play normalization of viewing games you aren't playing. Most people never understood that Ranch's proposal to observe your critters as much as you interact with them didn't mask a shallow core. In actuality, Ranch's meticulous design was so extraordinary, a live stream dedicated to running the game 24/7. The streamer who runs the channel states that, after nearly two decades of playing the game, he even now has not seen all that is in it. Justice for Pokémon Ranch: no one understood you in 2008.
Pokémon Duel: The Tactical Board Game Gone
Are you aware that Pokemon once had an licensed tabletop game with action figures? Pokémon Duel was the 2016 effort to digitize the physical experience in a more approachable format. Duel was also, sadly, one of Pokémon's earliest ventures into the world of freemium mobile gaming. Duel had the trappings of a gacha game where players could spend for advantage—and there was motivation to do so, given the slow progression for new figures.
These questionable mechanics masked a sad truth: Pokémon Duel was an superb strategy game with Duel today. "Words cannot describe how much I adored and miss this game," one YouTube comment states, years after Duel's servers were shut down. "Honestly I think this game was superior to TCG Pocket in terms of complexity, accessibility, design, and features in general," a user declared. "I truly believe if it came out now people would be engaging with it more than GO and Pocket combined."
Unfortunately, Duel's initial launch was plagued with connectivity problems. Technical problems, alongside Duel's predatory monetization model, gave people little reason to come back. Should a revival occur, The Pokémon Company decided to revive this franchise, it's unclear things would play out differently. The unusual board structure made for a fantastic tactical experience for the few folks who played Duel, but that playing field is also a intimidating eyesore.
Pokemon: Magikarp Jump: The Whimsical Experiment
Man, why don't more Pokémon games loosen up a little and have some fun? Magikarp Jump (2017) was a uncommon case of The Pokémon Company approving a game with a premise so absurd, it was bordering on shitpost. Considering we're dealing with a franchise where trainers go out with a full belt of useless monsters who simply cannot do anything, I'm shocked we don't have more Pokémon games that poke fun at themselves.
Within Magikarp Jump, the player is charged with raising the best possible version of the notorious fish. This isn't about a Magikarp that can win battles. These are 'Magikarp raised to enter competitions to see who can flop the highest. I'm not a fan is how Magikarp Jump, like many phone games, forces the player to pause before they can improve their Magikarp further. But it is evident throughout the experience that the developers appreciated and got the community love around Magikarp.
Nowhere was this more evident than in Jump's merciless random occurrences, where your Magikarp was just as likely to improve as it was to get eaten by a Pidgeotto. Apart from the clever dialogue, Magikarp Jump also experimented with other things one might wish the mainline games would do, like offering a diverse range of the same type of monster. It's understood 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 one can dream.
Magikarp Jump was not a particularly complex or deep game, but the kernels of genius were there. Witty events with unpredictable results that permanently influence how you can raise a pet also describe the excellent Mewgenics. It's worth noting: Mewgenics will almost certainly be in the conversation when Game of the Year season rolls around.
With numerous mainline entries and derivative titles, chances are that I omitted that one Pokémon game you absolutely adore but contend that too few people played. I know that some people remember games like Pokémon Ranger or Pokémon Pinball with affection notwithstanding argu
