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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - What happened to the Pokemon Spinoffs?

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What's your favourite Pokemon spinoff?

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 9 37.50%
 
Pokemon Ranger 2 8.33%
 
Pokemon Snap 5 20.83%
 
Pokemon Stadium & Battle Revolution 2 8.33%
 
Pokemon Colisseum & XD Gale of Darkness 4 16.67%
 
Pokemon Trading Card Game 2 8.33%
 
Pokemon Rumble 0 0%
 
Pokemon Pinball 0 0%
 
Pokemon Conquest 0 0%
 
Pokemon puzzle games (Puzzle, Picross...) 0 0%
 
Total:24

After a couple of days of Sword/Shield releasing, I feel like the discussion about them is turning somewhat sour, so I would like to offer another pokemon discussion to focus on.

Lately, I feel like Pokemon is releasing less and less spinoffs in propper consoles. The last spinoff Pokemon had was Detective Pikachu in 2018, and I'm pretty sure it only released because they had a movie in the works already (what was thought of first, the film or the game?). Pokemon Shuffle was released on the Switch too, but that was basically a mobile title ported to the Switch. We'd have to look at 2016 to find another propper console spinoff, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon. Unlike the main series, pretty much all of this spinoffs are made by other companies, so it's not like the workforce is the problem here. And it's a shame, some of those series are quite good in their own right (I would absolutely adore a TCG with a campaign mode just like the GB ones).

Why are we getting less pokemon spinoffs on consoles? Do you think the new mobile focus is the cause of this, and if so, what will happen to many of this series? What Pokemon spinoff do you wish to see getting a new release?



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Yes I think they've died with mobile. I also don't see any of the spin-offs coming back. Most of them died with their console.



village boy learns to jump.

I think some went to smart phones. Not a bad place considering its size.



A lot of them are products of their time (Ranger) or the short of lower budget games that have been cannibalised by the mobile market.

Another stadium, battle revolution, Colosseum or XD is highly unlikely now that the main series has made its on to the home console. I thought Ranger might have got a further release on the 3DS but its last title came on the DS and the series is centred around the use of the touchpad. Mystery Dungeon could be one that does see a Switch release its hard to say if it will happen.

The rest like Channel, Snap, PokePark, TCG seem like one offs that are unlikely to be repeated. Also they have Pokemon Go which is still raking it in so they are covered on the mobile side of things.



Wasn't there one a little while ago? The free to start game where the Pokémon looked like cubes?



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Poke park isnt in the polls, the true best Pokémon spinoffs



SecondWar said:

A lot of them are products of their time (Ranger) or the short of lower budget games that have been cannibalised by the mobile market.

Another stadium, battle revolution, Colosseum or XD is highly unlikely now that the main series has made its on to the home console. I thought Ranger might have got a further release on the 3DS but its last title came on the DS and the series is centred around the use of the touchpad. Mystery Dungeon could be one that does see a Switch release its hard to say if it will happen.

The rest like Channel, Snap, PokePark, TCG seem like one offs that are unlikely to be repeated. Also they have Pokemon Go which is still raking it in so they are covered on the mobile side of things.

I agree that most seem superfluous now, considering we do have 3D battles in home consoles now, and the smaller ones are a better fit (or more precisely, a more profitable fit) in mobile. But there are the ones such as Snap, Mystery Dungeon, TCG and even story driven ones like Detective Pikachu that still are big enough to need a propper release. Those are the ones that worry me the most, considering we haven't had one of this in a while now.



You know it deserves the GOTY.

Come join The 2018 Obscure Game Monthly Review Thread.

Darwinianevolution said:
SecondWar said:

A lot of them are products of their time (Ranger) or the short of lower budget games that have been cannibalised by the mobile market.

Another stadium, battle revolution, Colosseum or XD is highly unlikely now that the main series has made its on to the home console. I thought Ranger might have got a further release on the 3DS but its last title came on the DS and the series is centred around the use of the touchpad. Mystery Dungeon could be one that does see a Switch release its hard to say if it will happen.

The rest like Channel, Snap, PokePark, TCG seem like one offs that are unlikely to be repeated. Also they have Pokemon Go which is still raking it in so they are covered on the mobile side of things.

I agree that most seem superfluous now, considering we do have 3D battles in home consoles now, and the smaller ones are a better fit (or more precisely, a more profitable fit) in mobile. But there are the ones such as Snap, Mystery Dungeon, TCG and even story driven ones like Detective Pikachu that still are big enough to need a propper release. Those are the ones that worry me the most, considering we haven't had one of this in a while now.

Mystery Dungeon is the most likely candidate to come onto the Switch, but I'm unsure on the chances of this happening. Detective Pikachu 2 is already announced for the Switch. Snap and TCG haven't seen any attention since the N64 or GBC days so these are highly unlikely. Your best bet for Snap is for it to be included on a potential N64 mini. TCG I think have a mobile release.



SecondWar said:
Darwinianevolution said:

I agree that most seem superfluous now, considering we do have 3D battles in home consoles now, and the smaller ones are a better fit (or more precisely, a more profitable fit) in mobile. But there are the ones such as Snap, Mystery Dungeon, TCG and even story driven ones like Detective Pikachu that still are big enough to need a propper release. Those are the ones that worry me the most, considering we haven't had one of this in a while now.

Mystery Dungeon is the most likely candidate to come onto the Switch, but I'm unsure on the chances of this happening. Detective Pikachu 2 is already announced for the Switch. Snap and TCG haven't seen any attention since the N64 or GBC days so these are highly unlikely. Your best bet for Snap is for it to be included on a potential N64 mini. TCG I think have a mobile release.

There is a Pokemon TCG on mobile, but it's just a card game, it doesn't have a campaign mode like the GB games had.



You know it deserves the GOTY.

Come join The 2018 Obscure Game Monthly Review Thread.

RolStoppable said:
There is likely one planned for 2020 which can be expected to be a year without mainline game. Mystery Dungeon has been the most successful spinoff series, so that's my pick.

There's only one Nintendo console now, so fewer games are needed. I expect Pokémon to become similar to Zelda where it's usually one release per year if everything is counted between mainline and spinoff games.

Really? Pretty much all spinoffs are made by external developers that have licensed the IP, I'd be surprised if the unified platform means less games overall. If anything, I would expect the opposite, now a single release can get a much bigger audience. The only way for this to happen is a massive migration to mobile, which is sadly very posible.



You know it deserves the GOTY.

Come join The 2018 Obscure Game Monthly Review Thread.