Pokemon Pokopia Preview: Surprisingly engaging

I did not expect to want to play more, if I'm being honest...

I’ve been writing a lot of reviews and previews which begin, startlingly, similar — either, “I don’t really enjoy this franchise” or “I’m not a fan of this genre”. As I was gearing up to go hands-on with Pokemon Pokopia, I was thinking both of those things at the same time. I was a little too old to really get into Pokemon (though I dabble), and unlike a lot of you, I fell off the likes of Animal Crossing New Horizons even in the midst of the world’s longest lockdown.

An hour with Pokemon Pokopia, a fusion of Pokemon and Animal Crossing, had me eating my hat and coming out against my original thoughts. I am incredibly excited to play more of this particular cozy builder.

That said, the structure of the hands-on preview session almost derailed all this immediately; without a tutorial or any real direction, I was first let loose into Pokopia via multiplayer and on another player’s rather barren island. Unclear of what to do, I resorted to stealing anything that wasn’t nailed to the ground, including a crafting bench. I managed to find my way to a fellow journo; together, we took advantage of my kleptomania, creating a liveable area full of Pokemon plush toys and a bridge that literally lead to nowhere.

As fun as it was — and, please let me be clear: the fun was entirely of our own making — Pokopia was feeling like a flop to me at this point. Luckily, a shift to single-player and the actual start of the game corrected all that.

This cozy crafter has a surprisingly dark undertone: you’re let loose in a post-apocalyptic world, really, where everything is in disarray. You’ll play as a Ditto, one who has long lost their human trainer, in a world where Pokemon have almost gone extinct. Doing your best to transform into human cosplay (which frankly comes with horrific results), you are tasked to rebuild the world, bringing both Pokemon and, hopefully, humans back to it.

Single-player filled in all the gaps I was missing over in multiplayer, introducing me to Ditto’s transformations and, therefore, abilities, and how they could be used to create habitats that would lure Pokemon back to the world. Starting simple, watering dead grass would rejuvenate it, enticing the likes of Squirtle back to the fold.

Watering dead flowers and trees will also bring them back to life, which begin to form the starting blocks of other habitats. My kleptomania worked in single-player too; stealing a punching bag and placing it beside a bench was all it took to lure a Hitmonchan to me. At its core, this is Pokopia.

Building upon this is more structure in the form of Pokedex requests, Pokemon Centre PC requests, and just general tasks that are placed upon you by in-world Pokemon, denoted by speech bubbles that appear over their heads. Requests start simple — collect tree branches and stones, or work with your Pokemon to increase the quality of their habitat, and therefore their happiness.

It can get a little complex at times; to build a leafy habitat for a Pokemon, I not only needed to purchase its recipe, but recruit Timburr and Scyther to help me build it, then providing them both with the resources needed to do so. I thought I’d done that, but neglected to realise that I placed the build area incorrectly, on top of a single block that I needed to use Rock Smash to first clear. It was a small blip in proceedings, but it had me thinking about complexity and when a knowledgeable parent may need to step in and assist their children.

There’s also a wonderful sense of exploration to be found within Pokopia — you never know what you might find if you Rock Smash through what appears to be a pretty solid wall. I was rewarded with a Ninja outfit for my troubles, and was proud to rock the look for the remainder of my hands-on time.

While multiplayer fell flat, Pokemon Pokopia is a wonderful mix of whimsy and structure; I know that I’ll lose hours and hours of time playing it after just an hour and change last week. Can I play more now, please?

Expect Pokemon Pokopia from 5 March on Nintendo Switch 2.

Pokemon Pokopia 5 March 2026 Switch 2   Buy on Switch: Nintendo eShop, Amazon