My top games of the decade. Number Three.

The 3D Pokemon Titles.

This summary for number three will probably be quite simple as there isn’t a lot to say about Pokemon as the franchise is so old now and changed so little other than the addition of new Pokemon. For many, Pokemon is a console seller and I think Nintendo realize this, they would be stupid not to as the most recent games sold 6 million copies in the first month making them the highest grossing Pokemon games ever. I highly doubt all 6 million of those people already owned a Nintendo Switch, hm?

Anyway, with the release of the 3DS during February 2011 the Pokemon fan in me was patiently waiting for the first of the 3D Pokemon games after the ironically enjoyable last 2D game, Pokemon Black 2 and White 2. This was ironic because the originals, Black and White, were just not that entertaining. However I would be getting used to seeing these titles as the first of the 3D games were not released until October 2013, two years after the consoles release date. As a long time Pokemon fan I of course watched the reveal stream for Pokemon X and Y the moment it went live, and since then I have been more addicted to Pokemon than I ever was.

The games were your generic Pokemon game, get your starter and collect eight gym badges and defeat the Pokemon League to become the champion. This has been a staple in every game since 1996. However, X and Y introduced my favourite mechanic there ever will be in a Pokemon game and this is what changed the game for me, that was Mega Evolution. A select few Pokemon were given the ability to evolve in battle beyond their normal evolution boundaries to change their forms and increase their power in different aspects. This blew me away as all the Mega Evolutions had unique changes to them and some Pokemon even had multiple Megas. One being Charizard, my favourite Pokemon.

X and Y also introduced better “shiny” odds for Pokemon, a unique variant of each Pokemon changing their colour palette and giving them a unique sparkle animation when they entered battle. The adjusted the shiny odds from 1/8000 to 1/4000 which was much more attainable and enjoyable as grinding for shiny Pokemon is a long process. This is when Pokemon became more of a completionist game for me, as I only used to play through the main campaign of the games using different and unique teams each time but X and Y gave me a proper endgame, allowing me to look for shinies of the Pokemon I liked.

This got progressively more fun as in November 2016 the next generation of Pokemon was released in the form of the games Pokemon Sun and Moon. These games actually changed the formula up for the campaign as instead of collecting 8 badges you needed to defeat different trials across different islands each with their own unique puzzle and boss Pokemon. This was a welcomed change for me as after 20 years it was about time for a mix-up to the formula everyone was used too. As I did with X and Y, I completed Sun and Moon and began to shiny hunt but this time I “evolved”, see what I did there, even further and began to create Pokemon that were “competitively viable.”

Each Pokemon game has an endgame activity where the difficulty was set higher and the A.I was much more advanced and could easily defeat your in-game teams, these were usually in the form of a “Battle Tower.” I finally wanted to dabble in this activity and realized it was important to have all my Pokemon the best they could be, stat wise, but I did this whilst shiny hunting them too. To this day Sun and Moon and the sister games, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, are my most played Pokemon game because of how much I enjoyed the endgame content of the game.

Now, for the most important part of all of this rambling, the recent releases of Pokemon Sword and Shield, my favourite Pokemon games to date. These games completely astonished me. I was astounded at how much I enjoyed these games compared to any others. They added so many features that previous incarnations needed, for example the ability to change the nature of your Pokemon at will, using a consumable, and being able to transfer egg moves from Pokemon of the same species rather than having to go through the painfully long process of individually breeding them.

Gamefreak also began to add actual online elements to the games! Woo! Online raid battles where you can join random players to complete them or have private raids with just your friends, the games have needed a multiplayer feature other than just battles for such a long time and it came in the form of huge boss battles that still are not boring four months after release. I believe this is Gamefreak’s way of dipping their toes in the water, so to speak, of creating a much larger online experience for the Pokemon franchise, something I feel is needed for the evolution of the series in order for it to stay relevant in the gaming industry. Not only did they add an online activity they also created their own large open space in the games that can be played entirely online, which is fantastic, however a little laggy. This has been improved with updates, of course. In this space you can see other players running around or riding their bicycles, you can’t really do anything with the other players, apart from steal their food (?), but it is all pointing to one future outcome.

Now for the unfortunate reason as to why the 3D Pokemon titles are not higher up my list in terms of games of the decade, also why they are all in one category rather than separate. I have one simple reason that might seem negative at first. The games are the same. Whilst certain features of the games change and are welcomed, the core gameplay is always the same, this is not a negative thing about the franchise by any means. What I mean by this is when I buy a Pokemon game, and I think I always will buy them, is that I always know what experience I am getting out of it and how far that experience can actually go. I am never disappointed about that, just content, which is why it won’t go higher on this list. Who knows? Maybe the next generation will completely change the franchise in a really good way, but for now, it is what it is and I am happy with it.

Harry.