YvoCaro Plays: Lots of Pokémon Pokopia

As always, these blurbs are mainly about the video games I’m currently playing. And it won’t surprise you that what I’m playing with a vengeance currently is Pokémon Pokopia! What a game….I don’t often experience pain and discomfort in my hands from too much gaming. Plus, it’s a bit of a surprise hit as well.

By the way, if you like these bits of gaming thoughts, you can find the previous ones here.

How to Entice the Casual Gamer

If you look back over Nintendo’s hardware history, you can see a pretty clear pattern in the past decades: casual players aren’t tempted to buy the newest gen of gaming console as the raw power or specs of the new device doesn’t really interest them. They want something fun to play before shelling out for a new toy.

Up until the DS, the Nintendo titles that its home consoles and handhelds launched with were the ones people expected, often Mario related games. But the DS had Nintendogs which released a few months after the DS Phat was released, and it was a novelty that had kids clambering to have their own copy. After that, the Nintendo console that was an instant draw to people who had never played a video game in their life was the Wii. That one was tailored to be fun for all with launch titles like Wii Sports, so much so that for a long while it was hard to even buy one at all, as it was sold out everywhere.

I still remember how the launch titles of the 3DS were meagre pickings for a casual player. There was Nintendogs + Cats, but was that different enough from the DS title? Fortunately, later on, it was made up to us by titles like Tomodachi Life, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Style Savvy: Trendsetters (New Style Boutique in Europe) and Brain Age: Concentration Training. At least Nintendo understood that the casual market wasn’t to be neglected.

The Nintendo Switch was quite something, being a combination of console and handheld gaming. But when it released the only title Nintendo lead with for casual gamers was 1‑2‑Switch, and I don’t think it appealed to a large audience. Casual gamers flocked to the Switch en masse in March 2020, 3 years after the hardware came to market, drawn in by Animal Crossing: New Horizons. A success I don’t think even Nintendo had foreseen, spurred on by the misery of COVID and lock-downs.

Bringing the Casual Gamer to Switch 2

So I’m sure marketeers at Nintendo try to plot carefully how to market a new device. Sure, hardcore gamers and Nintendo enthusiasts are always happy with Mario or Zelda to make a gaming device a day one buy. Others are drawn by third party titles that benefit from the often special novelties Nintendo brings us with each new console or handheld. But these days they have to take the growing population of casual gamers into account too. So how do you persuade them to buy? The answer is simple: give them the right casual and cozy game.

Which brings us to the Nintendo Switch 2: as the number 2 tacked to it shows us, it’s an upgrade, with special features that bring extra fun. But it’s a steep price for the extras that are offered, and I think a lot of people are pretty happy with gaming on their first edition Switch. Mario Kart World was a draw of course.

I do wonder though if even Nintendo foresaw that Pokémon Pokopia would be the one that is bringing the casual gamer in. What better time to buy the upgrade to Switch 2 if you were on the fence before? Especially against the backdrop of a world that seems to grow more scary by the day.

The Cozy World of Pokémon

The world of Pokémon has seen earlier forays into casual gaming, with titles like Pokémon Ranch, Pokémon Art Academy and Pokémon Café. But there have always been fans of the series that argue that “Gotta Catch Them All” should be taken literally, so they stick to what they know from the main games. As a result, the more casual games never got big success. Still, Pokémon Pokopia is not the niche cozy game a lot of people expected it to be, it’s a big hit!

First of all, it got the highest review scores of any Pokémon game before it. The combined Metacritic score is 89, while thus far the highest scoring game was Pokémon Y on the 3DS with 88. We gave it our highest score of Two Thumbs Up, though I do feel the storage system should be better.

Also, the Switch 2 gained new momentum in sales and Nintendo shares have surged. And within days of its release, we saw screenshots of people on social media who had built the most brilliant areas for their Pokémon (which always has me wondering if these people ever sleep?). But it caught people’s attention that this game had more to offer than the 50+ hours of main storyline.

All in all, where I had resigned myself that we would have to wait for a new Animal Crossing to get casual audiences interested in the Switch 2, it seems Pokémon Pokopia already did the job!