After Pokémon Go gave us a glimpse of world peace, there’s no question that the monster collecting franchise is about as mainstream as video games get. Pikachu is just as recognizable as Mickey Mouse, if not more so. The continued pandemonium around card prices has ensured near-daily Pokémon headlines. You’d be hard-pressed to find any pocket monster game that didn’t sell at least a couple million copies. Even Pokémon fan games go viral every year.
Yet despite that ubiquity and popularity, there are still Pokémon games that are totally underappreciated. These are games that didn’t get their fair shake, or games that were buried under the hype of the mainline series. They’re Pokémon games that were stuck on doomed platforms or services, or were early forays onto new mediums. They’re often also Pokémon games that probably would have blossomed if they ever got sequels or modern remakes. With these criteria in mind, this list will not be yet another reminder that Pokémon Conquest or any of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games slap. We’re pulling an Excadrill and digging deeper.
Still, these might be Pokémon games you already know about or played back in the day. So, before you rearrange your glasses and start typing ‘Actually,’ let us just agree that these are Pokémon games for people with refined tastes, shall we?
Pokémon Ranch
Too many Pokémon games focus on the battling aspect of the series, and not nearly enough of them focus on the ordinary aspects that would come with living with a pet. Sure, there are minor mechanics like these in modern games — you can play with, pet, and feed your monsters in camps, for example. But I am dying for a Pokémon game that is more in the vein of Nintendogs or The Sims.
My Pokémon Ranch (2008) for the Nintendo Wii is not that game. The downloadable-only title is best seen as the precursor to Pokémon Home; that is, as a repository to hold monsters from different games. Reviews from its release say Ranch was a bad if not outright hideous game, too. I’m not here to argue against these notions, 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 farm where your Mii avatars — get this — simply hang out with your pals. The interactions with Pokémon were simple, and a lot of the draw 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 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 to Pokémon Home now, I’m guessing we will never see a Pokémon Ranch game developed to its fullest potential. I’d say save us, ‘Pokémon Pokopia!’ but I also know that the Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive is just as much a puzzle game as it is a life sim.
