Thank you Nintendo for sending us a review code!

The Pokémon franchise been around since the 90s and is famous for the many creatures, called Pokémon, that players can catch. As of this writing, there are over one thousand base Pokémon species.  Pokémon Pokopia features over three hundred Pokémon with your character playing as the versatile Ditto who can transform into anything or anyone it sees.  Ditto can also squeeze into tight spaces and learn various abilities like spraying water, tilling soil, smashing rocks, gliding, rolling around as a boulder, and cutting/sprouting plants.  

It’s uncertain how long Ditto has been asleep, but Pokémon Pokopia begins with Ditto waking up from a nap to find themselves alone with no nearby Pokémon or humans to talk to.  After realizing that humans are not around, Ditto will change their appearance to their beloved trainer who you can design.  After Ditto leaves the cave that they were in, they’ll discover that the surrounding area is barren and depressing.  They’ll soon be greeted by Tangrowth who is very knowledgeable on humans and has some pointers on restoring the planet to its former glory.    

While exploring the terrain with Tangrowth, Ditto will discover another Pokémon, Squirtle, who is begging for water in the desert-like wasteland.  By transforming into Squirtle, Ditto will learn their first ability, Water Gun.  With Water Gun, Ditto can water barren land and withered plants to restore them back to their former glory.  These abilities are not unlimited; Ditto will need to have enough energy (Power Points) to use them.  Replenishing Power Points is done by eating.  Some of these abilities have a more powerful level that can be unlocked by cooking and eating specific meals.  

Tangrowth and Squirtle are the only free Pokémon you’ll get.  The rest of them you’ll have to bring back by restoring the habitats that they came from.  Throughout the land you’ll find glowing spots that are traces of Pokémon.  When you investigate these traces, you’ll see a clue on how to create that habitat and you can get more details on how to construct it if needed.  

Like Minecraft, you’ll have to gather resources and assemble items at workbenches which are conveniently available throughout the land.  Some resources will need skills from various Pokémon to be transformed into other forms.  For example, some Pokémon can transform logs into lumber and fire Pokémon are needed to heat up furnaces to convert ore into ingots.

Reviving Pokémon is relatively easy, but keeping them happy takes more effort.  If you ask them how comfortable they are, they’ll often ask for toys, decorations, or environmental changes like making thing hotter, darker, brighter, more humid and so forth.  If your Pokémon are happy, the environment level will increase which has to be at level five to unlock other areas/biomes.
  
New biomes are blocked by a gate that will only open up if your Pokémon trainer rank is high enough.  You can warp between biomes if you have a house built and three pieces of furniture inside of it.  A home is declared as yours if it’s flying a Ditto flag on top of it.  

Traveling throughout regions can be done by setting up railroad tracks, carts, and gates.  Later in the game, assembling lifts that connect different land masses is possible.  The Driftaloon Pokémon can whisk Ditto away to resource gathering islands called Dream Islands once a day if needed. 
 

Completing the game is accomplished by fulfilling the eight trainer challenges at a rocket launch site in the Withered Wastelands habitat.  I won’t spoil if humans make an appearance or not, but the game is expandable with $35 DLC packs that add new areas to explore and restore.   There’s plenty of gameplay to be had with the base game that justifies the $69.99 price tag.  Doing the bare minimum to proceed too me over thirty-five hours to see the credits roll.

There is support for four players to play together via local wireless or online gameplay which requires a Nintendo Online subscription.   There are two multiplayer modes: Link Play and Cloud Islands.  In Link Play you can share an island by inviting players via a code.  Visitors can spectate but not gain access to inventory or build stuff.  Cloud Islands is similar to Minecraft where the online island is persistent and players share resources and Pokédex entries.  Items, Pokémon, and recipes shared in multiplayer do not transfer over to the single-player game’s progress.  

Pokémon Pokopia is family-friendly and there’s little to worry about from a moral perspective.  I didn’t see any Pokémon evolve so it’s not even offensive in that regard.  There are some ghost-themed Pokémon and many of them have elemental abilities like fire and lightening.  The color visuals and cute Pokémon are bound to attract the attention of children and it’s good to know that this title can be safely played around them.

If you enjoy Pokémon and Minecraft, Pokémon Pokopia is worth checking out.  Some people have also compared this game to Animal Crossing, but it reminded me more of Minecraft personally.  There’s a lot of fun to be had and I highly recommend this game for Switch 2 owners.