We Need More Cozy Pokémon Games Like Pokopia

1 day ago 3

Published Mar 30, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT

Blake Morse is a contributor that has been working in the video game industry for over 18 years as a journalist, content creator, and has helped to publish and promote a number of indie games. In that time, he's gained knowledge and experience of not only how to be a thorough and competent journalist, but also the in's and out's of how gaming works as an industry at large. He has the type of insight that only comes with a seasoned career.

It’s a little hard to explain, but I’ve just never been able to get into the Pokémon RPG titles personally. I know, it sounds crazy to some of you, I’m sure. But, I’ve never really had any interest in capturing wild animals, putting them in a small container, and then forcing them to fight so I could be the ultimate master. No, I’m much too laid back for that.

chef dente mosslax pikachu pokemon pokopia

10 Cutest Pokémon in Pokopia

Gotta catch'em all looking precious!

I do love how adorable most Pokémon are though, and I have spent too much money collecting my favorite trading cards. But, the only time I’ve ever really enjoyed any Pokémon video games, in particular, is when they’ve been cozy or casual titles that just let me kick it with Pikachu and pals. And there just aren't enough games out there that let you do that.

Thankfully, however, we do least have one more example now, thanks to the release of the perfectly cozy Pokémon Pokopia.

No Trainers, No Masters

The latest in a much too short list of cozy Pokémon games, Pokopia is making waves right now. You can kind of think of this as an Animal Crossing style game. You take on the role of a Ditto trying to get Pokémon whose masters have been gone for a long, long time back into a community of sorts. The whole game is about exploring, building, and creating friendships with other Pokémon. There’s no combat, nothing to capture, no badges to collect. It’s just Pokémon thriving and being chill little dudes.

You can spend time getting to know some of the unique Pokémon around the island, like the artistic SmearGuru, the five-star chef Greedent Dente, or the sleepiest Snorlax of them all, Mosslax. And since you're a Ditto, you can even learn to change into certain Poke-types to learn new skills and abilities, like using Squirtle's water gun ability to grow flowers or Scyther's cut skill to chop down vines. The more you get out there and learn, the better you can make your new world for you and your friends.

Many folks are finally getting the opportunity to experience a fully realized cozy Pokémon game for the first time thanks to Pokopia. And it’s already proven to be yet another solid hit of a casual game. People are building crazy stuff like Waffle Houses and someone even made a working subway system in-game. It’s all the fun of AC: New Horizons with none of the evil landlord/predatory loan shark raccoons. And it’s already cemented itself as “one of the best Pokémon games of all time” according to our own review.

There’s no combat, nothing to capture, no badges to collect. It’s just Pokémon thriving and being chill little dudes.

Pokopia is such a cozy and adorable little title that it makes it hard to argue we shouldn't have more titles in the Pokémon universe that emulate it. And it's not like this is the first game in the cozy genre to gain popularity quickly upon its release either. There have been a handful of other games that help make the case that we could've been playing games like Pokopia a long time ago.

Why Can’t We Be Friends?

I think my first time ever playing a casual Pokémon game was back in 1999 when Pokémon Snap came out. You could think of it as a rail shooter, only instead of killing anything, you just had to try to take the best possible pictures of Pokémon doing cool stuff like a Jigglypuff rocking out or a Blastoise enjoying a day at the beach. You could even take your game to your local Blockbuster Video (RIP) and print out sticker sheets featuring your best shots.

Pokémon Snap spread like wildfire, selling well over a million copies and was a hot rental item thanks to Nintendo’s partnership with Blockbuster. But for some reason, we didn’t get a sequel until New Pokémon Snap came out in 2021. That’s about a 22-year gap in releases and I don’t know why there was such a long time when the original sold like gangbusters.

5 Things Animal Crossing Needs to Learn from Pokémon Pokopia

Animal Crossing has long been Nintendo's premier cozy game, but it needs to learn from the recent success of Pokémon Pokopia.

Thankfully, since the release of the original Pokémon Snap, there have been a number of other casual games for fans to explore, like Pokémon Cafe, and I personally used Pokémon Sleep to track my sleeping habits for a couple of years before I burned out on it. It was nice for a while though.

I would wake up in the morning, have a few Pokémon to snap pictures of for research and I could befriend some of them if I wanted to by feeding them candy. Other than that, all you did was feed an adorable giant Snorlax three meals a day and whatever fruits and berries your squad picked for you. The simple routine and desire to catalog all the Pokémon available kept me using the App for much longer than I expected.

And then there was the worldwide phenomenon that was Pokémon GO. Pokémon GO culturally felt like a moment of enlightenment as strangers became friends while wandering around parks trying to catch rare or elusive Pocket Monsters. Communities gathered to enjoy the mobile geocaching ARG, everyone’s favorite cafés became gyms and offered discounts for players. I don’t think I’ve ever been more hopeful for humanity then when Pokémon GO seemed to be uniting us all through a shared love of all things cute and small. It really was a magical time for casual gamers everywhere.

It all just goes to show that when we do get any sort of casual Pokémon video games, they’re usually a total revelation for fans of the franchise and gamers at large. And we need more of them in larger quantities! The rate at which we get new casual titles like Pokémon Snap, GO, and Pokopia make them feel too few and far between. Especially for those that aren’t into violence in their games of any sort or want something they can share with a younger member of their household.

I’m not saying we need annual releases like we get with the RPG series, just a more steady and consistent drip of titles for those of us who would rather cozy up to a Psyduck than put it in a Pokéball. Until then, at least we have Pokopia fighting the good fight for all of us.