In the wake of a taste of world peace thanks to Pokémon Go, it's undeniable that the creature-catching series stands as one of the most mainstream gaming titles around. The iconic Pikachu is just as famous as Mickey Mouse, if not more so. The ongoing excitement around card prices guarantees almost daily Pokémon news stories. It would be difficult to find a pocket monster game that didn't sell at least a few million units. Remarkably, fan-made Pokémon games go viral every year.
However despite that pervasiveness and popularity, there are still Pokémon games that are totally overlooked. These are titles that failed to receive their fair shake, or were buried by the excitement of the core series. These are Pokémon games stuck on ill-fated platforms or services, or were early forays onto new mediums. They're often also Pokémon games that might have blossomed if they had received follow-ups or modern remakes. With these criteria in mind, we won't be offering yet another recommendation for Pokemon Conquest or the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. We're digging deep.
Still, you may already know about these Pokémon games. So, before adjusting your spectacles and typing 'Well,' let us just agree that these are Pokémon games for people with refined tastes, shall we?
Pokemon Ranch: The Relaxed Precursor
An excessive number of Pokémon games focus on the battling element of the series, and far too few of them highlight the ordinary aspects that would come with living with a companion. Admittedly, modern titles include small features like these in modern games—you can play with your monsters in bases. However, I'm longing for a Pokémon game more in the vein of Nintendogs or The Sims.
My Pokemon Ranch (2008) for the Wii is not that game. The digital-only title is most accurately viewed as the precursor to Pokémon Home; that is, as a storage system to hold monsters from various titles. Critical reception from its release noted Ranch was a bad if not truly ugly game. It's not my goal to argue against these claims, but it behooves me to say Ranch might be the nearest we've ever gotten to a slice-of-life Pokémon game.
True to its title, the game is set on a ranch where your personal Miis—imagine this—simply hang out with your Pokémon pals. The activities with Pokémon were simple, and a lot of the appeal was watching what your monsters might do when they're not being forced into cockfighting. In a just world, Pokémon Ranch would have been the beginning of a wonderful franchise built on the simple pleasures of coexisting with a small creature. However, because The Pokémon Company can charge a subscription for Pokémon Home now, it's likely we will never see a Pokémon Ranch game realized to its complete potential. One might cry 'help us, Pokémon Pokopia!' but I also know that the upcoming Switch 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 comfort gaming. It was before the proliferation of idle games, and the Let's Play popularization of watching games you aren't actively controlling. Many never realized that Ranch's concept to observe your creatures as much as you play with them didn't mask a shallow core. In truth, Ranch's attention to detail was so remarkable, there's a Twitch stream dedicated to running the game 24/7. The individual who operates the channel states that, after almost twenty years of playing the game, he still has not seen everything that is in it. Recognition for Pokémon Ranch: no one understood you in 2008.
Pokémon Duel: The Strategic Tabletop Game Gone
Did you know that Pokemon once had an official tabletop game with action figures? Pokemon Duel was the 2016 effort to digitize the physical experience in a more accessible format. Duel was also, sadly, one of Pokémon's earliest forays into the world of freemium 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 lengthy grind for new figures.
All of these poor design choices masked a sad truth: Pokémon Duel was an excellent tactical 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 pulled. "Honestly I think this game was better than TCG Pocket in terms of depth, approachability, game design, and features in general," another commenter wrote. "I truly believe if it launched now people would be engaging with it more than GO and Pocket combined."
Regrettably, Duel's initial launch was plagued with connectivity problems. Technical problems, 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 end better. The unusual game board made for a great strategic challenge for the handful of players who played Duel, but that board is also a daunting visual mess.
Pokemon: Magikarp Jump: The Silly Experiment
Wow, why don't more Pokémon games relax a little and have some enjoyment? Magikarp Jump (2017) was a rare instance of The Pokémon Company giving its blessing a game with a premise so absurd, it was bordering on internet meme. Considering we're dealing with a franchise where trainers go out with a team of useless monsters who literally can't do anything, it's surprising we don't have more Pokémon games that poke fun at themselves.
In Magikarp Jump, the player is tasked with breeding the best possible version of the infamous fish. I'm not talking about a Magikarp that can kick your butt. These are 'Magikarp raised to enter contests to see who can jump the highest. One drawback is how Magikarp Jump, like many mobile games, requires the player to wait before they can improve their Magikarp further. But it is evident throughout the experience that Select Button appreciated and got the community love around Magikarp.
Nowhere was this more evident than in Jump's merciless random occurrences, where your Magikarp was as likely to improve as it was to get snatched by a Pidgeotto. Beyond the clever dialogue, Magikarp Jump also tried out other things one might wish the core series would do, like offering a diverse range of the same species 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 especially sophisticated or deep game, but the seeds of brilliance were there. Witty events with outrageous outcomes that forever alter how you can train a companion also describe the excellent Mewgenics. And I'm just saying: Mewgenics will likely be in the conversation when Game of the Year season arrives.
With dozens of core games and derivative titles, chances are that I omitted that particular Pokémon game you totally love but argue that not nearly enough people played. It's acknowledged that some people look back on games like Pokemon Ranger or Pokémon Pinball fondly despite argu
