It’s no exaggeration when I say Pokémon Pokopia will absolutely be in my ‘Top 10 Games of the Year’. While that might seem like a premature prediction, there’s one reason the game is a certainty.
Pokopia is incredibly addictive, packed with the Pokémon we love, AND cosy as anything… What’s locked it in, though, is that my six-year-old daughter and I are equally obsessed.
Whether she is watching me play Final Fantasy or I’m letting her win in Mario Kart (shhhhh), we play a decent amount of games together. However, it’s rare for us to find a game that clicks this hard.
The last game that felt this good — that we both equally loved — was Astrobot.
What She Loves About Pokémon Pokopia
There’s a lot to love about Pokémon Pokopia, but the very best bit for my daughter is the anticipation of what Pokémon you’re going to get when investigating a patch of wiggling grass or a shaking bush. Big blind box energy.
“It looked so funny. It was flippy flop flop flop flop and that made it even funnier.”
(After first seeing a Magikarp).
It’s the same feeling I had as a kid in Pokémon Blue — wading through the tall grass getting into random battles, not knowing who would turn up next.
Pokopia swaps battles for base building, training for terraforming, and ‘being the very best’ for ‘being the most relaxed’. It’s the perfect switch for my daughter, who prefers games with minimal stress.
“We searched around for Pidgey’s new home so she can live happily so she can meet new friends that visit there. We built it very, very high, so birds — a lot of weird birds like owls or different kinds of birds — can rest. We found a Hoot Hoot.”
She’s loved hanging out with Pokémon in a more casual setting — building a community with them and for them. Getting Charmander and Bulbasaur to follow her, to light campfires and grow plants, was a delight.
She’s had experience with base building before in other games — moving stuff around or choosing where to build structures — but being able to physically manipulate the land itself has been eye-opening for her.
“We built my very own house made out of leaves and sticks. I could go inside it and put furniture in there. A bed. A dining room. A plate with a Leppa Berry.”
Her excitement was palpable when she figured out that she could literally punch apart mountains! That was quickly followed by a second wave, as one of the broken blocks proceeded to unleash a torrent of water that filled some dry riverbeds — magical!
What I Love About Pokémon Pokopia
Pokémon Pokopia has hit at the perfect time for us. My daughter is in her second year of school and reading books like they’re going out of fashion. The lack of voice acting isn’t an issue at all for the first time.
We’ve played games like Disney Dreamlight Valley in the past — which heavily relied on reading to understand what to do next. It meant that someone had to be with her when she played to read the text to her, so it was hard to get anything else done at the same time. With Pokopia she can happily play by herself for half an hour while I cook dinner.
I also love that her brain is engaged while she reads the conversations out loud, actively reading instead of just listening. I still jump in to add funny voices to some of the Pokémon now and then, especially for the longer conversations — Professor Tangrowth will talk your ear off if you let him.
While the amount of text in the game is manageable for a six-year-old, I still appreciate that Pokopia uses little pictures in speech bubbles — like a Leppa Berry emoji next to the word — which makes it really easy to associate words with specific items or actions.
The sandbox nature of the game also allows my daughter to run wild with her creativity and thinking about what she needs to make her ideas a reality.
Some nights after she is asleep, I’ll go in and terraform part of the landscape, creating new areas for her to expand the town. I also love to build surprises in the game for her — like when I flattened a hillside, covered the field with flowers, and hid a trapdoor down to an ice cave filled with fossils!
I love that these self-set tasks draw on my creativity, give her a happy surprise, and also spark ideas in her own mind.
Should I Play Pokémon Pokopia With My Kids?
Absolutely! While Pokémon Pokopia is excellent on its own merits, the joy I get from watching my daughter explore the world, investigate new mechanics, or squeal with delight when a new Pokémon turns up is priceless.
Sure, progress might be slower, but that just means you get to have this experience for a long time to come… You could also just start your own game under a different Switch 2 profile if you wanted to play ahead!
The game can get quite specific in what it asks of the player — the saga of getting Slowpoke to yawn for example — so it’s probably best enjoyed with kids of reading age… Unless you enjoy reading out loud a lot!
Pokémon Pokopia is out now for Nintendo Switch 2.
Access to Pokémon Pokopia was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this article.
