Underappreciated Pokemon spin-offs?
Everyone praises Mystery Dungeon and the GameCube games, but what are some spin-offs you wish more people talked about? c:
For me it's Pokemon Picross! It's such a simple game but I think it's really charming! I used to play it all the time on my bus commute to university, or between classes lol
I loved the Pokémon Ranger games. They just felt so wild and alive as a world to explore
POKEMON RANGER WAS SO GOOD!! I 100%ed the second game multiple times because I loved it so much, the story and characters were so fun and I really appreciated the gameplay changes from Ranger 1 lol... Like I enjoyed the og Ranger a lot too! But boy it was unforgiving lmao
I actually really want to revisit Guardian Signs! At the time I played it (a few years after launch) I didn't enjoy it, I don't remember it super well but I remember finding the story lacklustre and the backtracking tedious. ;; But I was also at a time in my life where I just wasn't as interested in pokemon, I feel like I'd enjoy it if I replayed it now
shakes fist at claydol maze
I remember there being so much more post-game-end content in Guardian Signs than the others!
I imagine you can still do the Manaphy Egg event using DS's, the original Rangers, and pokemon diamond/pearl/platinum
My fiancé and I really like to play the Pokémon Stadium mini-games regularly. It's like Pokémon Mario Party!
Pokemon Picross was my introduction to the genre, and I fucking loved it. I played that game religiously when it dropped as a kid, and played it like every day. I just hated how money hungry it was, like their other free 3DS games (Shuffle, Rumble World). Basically any free Pokemon 3DS game was peak in terms of gameplay, but dogshit in terms of monetization.
I still really want a Pokepark, Rangers, or Conquest game 😭
In terms of good mobile games, I didn't appreciate Duel enough before they scrapped it. It was fun and the strategies seemed like they could be super interesting. Plus it has a banger menu theme.
At least Pokémon Picross let you have unlimited currency after you spent $35 or so.
Also, in case you're unaware, there was another Pokémon Picross for Game Boy Color, but it was scrapped very late into development. The good thing is that the ROM was part of the Nintendo Gigaleak a few years ago. The game is in Japanese, but there's a translation patch available. I also recommend adding this patch as well because the game's time limits are incredibly unforgiving.
Omg?? I'll have to check that out, thank you for the links!!
That's super interesting, crazy that they scrapped that cause Picross would've been great for GB Color. I'm learning Japanese so I'll probably try it without the language patch, but I do wanna see how rage worthy those time limits are lol.
I totally forgot about Pokemon Shuffle! I remember being really into it for a while, but then hit a wall and it seemed like the only way forwards was to pay so I dropped it. I actually bought the full game for Pokemon Picross because I liked it so much lol
My sister was a Shuffle crackhead and did the daily challenges and got super far into the game while I gave up by like world 3 lol. Some of those stages were fucking ridiculous from what I saw, but she never gave up lol. It was super cute though, and I loved the mega gimmick.
Pokkén. The obvious concept that GF had never tackled, has decent graphics, pretty good cast (Braixen).
Big shout out to Pokémon Close Combat, the fanon sorts-of spiritual successor.