The Game the Switch 2 Desperately Needs

I had every reason to write pokemon pokopiya That was before I demoed it for the first time last month. Now, with the opportunity to test the entire game, I spent 20 hours in a single weekend in this thought-provoking, entertaining, and surprisingly thorough remodeling of the Pokémon formula. This could be the surprise hit the Switch 2 desperately needs in early 2026.

Pokopia It’s heavily borrowed from games I’m not interested in. It takes many of the same design elements animal CrossingWhere I generally can’t stand the stakes or the lack of achievable goals in that series. This also inspires me minecraftA game I abandoned a long time ago when I realized I didn’t care for a world empty of any creatures that felt like it was inhabited (without adding Jack Black into the mix). Now I am writing this review with a sudden pang of excitement. I wish I was back on my Switch 2, and helping my Poké-pals revive a destroyed landscape ravaged by humans. I wish I were back on a healing land, exploring more creatures and creatures and helping them not only survive but thrive.

Whereas pokemon winds And pokemon waves Lion (Pyroar) received the attention of Pokémon fans during last week’s game showcase, Pokopia This is a game that devotees and critics alike can enjoy. Instead of capturing creatures from their native environments with the intention of running around, knocking each other unconscious, you are creating their habitat so they can live in beautiful harmony with nature.

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A Poké-Paradise is being built

Players enter a desolate world Pokopia Ditto with the pudgy face. Unlike other creatures of its kind, this Ditto has somehow managed to assume the guise of a human. Your button-eyed, slack-mouthed human simulacrum then arrives in a world where all humans and Pokémon have mysteriously disappeared. The area is a barren land of dead trees and dry grass. The remains of human civilization give a sense of post-apocalyptic desolation in the surrounding landscapes. The only creature left is the single Tangrowth, a creature who knows so much about humans that he is called “The Professor”, even though he has no idea how a human PC works.

Through your actions, as you bring life back to destroyed environments, you slowly begin to recreate habitats where Pokémon can thrive. Certain sections of grass can spawn Bulbasaur or Piplup. Less common Pokémon require more specific habitats, like a stack of boxes next to a pile of wooden block toys, which can give rise to a cute, bouncy Azurill. It’s the reverse Pokémon, and it feels a lot more fun because of it.

Pokopia The game is full of little references to the games, from Pokédex entries for each creature to bits of the soundtrack reminiscent of the Pokécenter theme. What’s even more evocative is how each creature speaks with the screams you remember from the games, and each has its own distinct personality. For example, Magikarp found me on a beach next to an abandoned Team Rocket base whose every sentence started with “u”.

Throughout the game, you also gain various powers that help you alter the environment to your liking. Your Ditto can mimic abilities that will help you water dead trees, bushes, and other things that can help you till soil or shuffle around large stones or heavy objects. The most important move is the “Rock Smash”, which enables players to demolish the blocks that make up the world.

The game wears its influences on its sleeve. pokemon pokopiyaDeveloped by Koei Tecmo and published by The Pokémon Company, shows a sense of community building and real-life time scale Animal Crossing: New Horizons. this is the crib of minecraft Block-breaking and building mechanics (thankfully) discard all living elements. It’s all in service of becoming a Pokémon ecologist. And once you accept the flow of the game, the minute-by-minute activities become meditative. There’s a subtle joy in watching your Poké-pals smile as you add more lights, decorations or toys to their favorite habitats.

One problem with borrowing so heavily from these two different games is that the developers had to create a control scheme that lets you move around and befriend Pokémon and create your own environment. The game almost minimizes the worst problems due to clever use of mouse controls. This just doesn’t go far enough.

We should stop sleeping on mouse control

We’re more than eight months into the Switch 2 life cycle. So far, we’ve seen some first- and third-party developers willing to make use of the Switch 2’s major hardware upgrades compared to the original Switch. Both Joy-Con 2 controllers include an optical sensor that enables mouse-like controls in menus and games. This top-down strategy was useful in titles such as civilization seventh. This was one of the additional control schemes in the excellent cyberpunk 2077 port.

In PokopiaMouse controls work for two scenarios. When bashing blocks with the Rock Smash power, you can use the mouse to select blocks in a wide sweep, rather than just whatever is right in front of your ditto. Without mouse controls, I was struggling to get two blocks over my character’s head. This was necessary in certain parts of the game, such as when I had to dig up an Onyx that was stuck behind a large pile of dirt.

The game generally centers block selection based on the character’s orientation and the center of the screen. since pokemon pokopiya Lacking a reticle, this can lead to some situations where you think you are pointing at the right block, but then you end up placing your decoration or plant in the wrong place. This lack of finer controls may bother some players less. Inevitably, the most creative gamers will want extra fine controls for building grand structures. And to do this you will need mouse control.

Still, these mouse controls aren’t seamless. It takes about half a second for the mouse cursor to appear on the screen after you set the Joy-Con 2 down on your couch or pant leg. Again, mouse controls don’t work for every power you acquire throughout the game. If I want to use moves like “Leaf” to dig grass for my next Pokémon’s habitat or “Rototiller” to plow fields, I have to get my character in exactly the right position. Given the controls available on the Switch 2, this is more of a pain than it should be.

Otherwise, recent titles like Resident Evil Requiem Abandoned mouse control completely. Despite the game running well in handheld and docked modes, you’re limited to thumbsticks or gyro-based controls for shooting in first- or third-person. The game’s producer, Masato Kumazawa, told Press Start that adding mouse controls “made the gameplay confusing and complicated.” However, we have seen how mouse controls can be seamlessly integrated into first-person games, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Return of Retro Studio Metroid The franchise didn’t need a mouse aiming much further than the initial mission. I think there’s even more room to utilize the handheld’s most unique feature.

A crafting game done right

Despite control problems, Pokopia I don’t think Switch 2 owners should play one game. I came into the game fully expecting to lose. I spent my Saturday night after playing Pokopia Running a bunch of demos for Steam Next Fest with a friend. Practically all the co-op games we tried had some variation of survival crafting mechanics in a different setting—pirates, floating islands, an idealized mountain hiking path. We performed well each game after another. Many of these games enter with similar mechanics. You light the fire; You build a crafting bench; You build a shelter; You kill a crab until its meat falls out.

And somehow, Pokopia Stands above them all. The game presents you with constant, clear goals. In an area, players need to increase the humidity of the environment by watering plants and trees. In another area, you need to brighten up the area by connecting the remaining lights to renewable energy sources – or simply ask your friend Mariup to shine some lamp posts. Through the gameplay loop, you slowly create an environment where the world’s creatures can live in peace.

Throughout the game, you pick up lost magazines and news clippings left by the humans who live there. There is a subtle feeling that something has gone wrong, whether it’s an environmental disaster or something else man-made. When I turn to real life, I am forced to understand a world that is being impacted by human activities and an American government that has effectively ended any and all hope of environmental improvement. I’m not really interested in finding out where the humans went pokemon pokopiya. I would love to hide in the grass and flowers with my Pokémon friends as we work to clean up the mess left by the so-called caretakers of the world.

pokemon pokopiya Launches March 5 on Switch 2 for $70.