I’m not a Pokémon or Animal Crossing guy, but Pokopia has hooked me

Last week, I wrote a feature breaking down Nintendo’s early 2026 games lineup, and I was pretty positive about it. From first-party fare like Mario Tennis Fever and Super Mario Bros. Wonder‘s Bellabel Park Switch 2 expansion to significant third-party ports like Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata, it’s quite well-rounded.

But there was one other game I checked out that I couldn’t talk about until now, and it’s perhaps the most significant one of all. Enter Pokémon Pokopia, a life simulation game co-developed by The Pokémon Company, Game Freak, and Koei Tecmo Games. For reference, this is the game that looks a lot like Animal Crossing and stars a Ditto who assumes a humanoid form.

Admittedly, this game wasn’t initially on my radar. While I totally understood the potential there for fans, I outgrew Pokémon many years ago in favour of more mature JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Persona, while the simulation elements of Animal Crossing tend to just feel like busywork to me.

Much to my surprise, then, that I ended up really digging Pokopia after a roughly 90-minute demo. By mixing the charmingly cozy vibe of Animal Crossing with some of the key iconography and mechanics of Pokémon, the experience just clicked for me.

Truthfully, some of that comes down to nostalgia. While I don’t actively play Pokémon anymore, I obviously have a lot of reverence for those original games like everyone else from my generation. And so, there’s an undeniable appeal in starting the game as Ditto in this desolate wasteland that I have to help restore and immediately coming across a Squirtle. With the guidance of Professor Tangrowth, I had the little turtle help me water the dried-out soil to sprout some plants. From there, a Bulbasaur appeared, and, later when I needed to light a campfire, I stumbled upon a Charmander.

Kicking off my adventure with these iconic Starter Pokémon felt right, and I appreciated that it was all from the framework of a cozy life sim. No battling, no random encounters, no running around a big city — just hanging out with some of my favourite lil’ guys. Sure, it took a little bit of time to get used to them speaking full sentences, but once I did, I found them endearing. I love these this little hub areas where they’re just walking around and going about their day, especially once I help them get more comfortable in various ways, like building Bulbasaur a little straw bed.

But of course, there’s quite a bit of depth still, and that involves how you have to build out areas to attract more Pokémon. I saw this on full display in the next section of the demo, a much larger rocky area featuring a dilapidated Pokémon Center. Thankfully, a nearby PC was still working, and it gave me different challenges to complete in exchange for coins that I could use to purchase decorative objects and upgrades. One of these missions tasked me with discovering a few new Pokémon types, so off I went.

Something I soon appreciated about the level design is that you’ll see a bunch of glitter effects in specific places, and interactive with them will tell you about a particular type of habitat that you can restore there to attract a new Pokémon. A silhouette will also be shown so hardcore fans will get a tease for which Pokémon they can get. One habitat I found was a tree-covered bush that I had to create unlock Scyther, while another was a makeshift boxing gym (requiring a bench and punching bag) for Hitmonchan.

To build these habitats, Ditto can head to a workbench to craft objects requiring wood and other resources or even, in some instances, use their copying abilities to sculpt the environment. This includes learning Water Gun from Squirtle to grow plants or Cut from Scyther to chop down trees and other obstacles. And once I had enough resources and Pokémon, I could instruct a couple of them — in this case, the handyman-like Timburr alongside Charmander — to help me rebuild the Pokémon Center. This prompts a real-time counter of several minutes, allowing you to continue to do other things while you wait.

All in all, I adored this gameplay loop, as it’s constantly rewarding you for discovering new Pokémon and teaming up to progress. In this way, it retains that core “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” appeal of Pokémon but reimagines it for a different genre, and it really speaks to me so far. Plus, there’s just something inherently lovely about a game focusing on you working together with wild animals to restore the environment in the year 2026.

The final part of the demo, which was more hands-off, had me and two other Canadian media dropped into a little paradise island. Here, we had access to many more abilities and Pokémon types to get an idea of how things flow once you’re deeper into the game. Right away, I love that you can turn into a Lapras to swim or glide as Dragonite, making the act of traversal and exploration more engaging. More importantly, though, I was pleasantly surprised to see how strong the co-op multiplayer element was here. Even as we were just doing our own thing, we could share Pokédex data and building recipes to progress even further. For instance, we were able to rebuild this island’s Pokémon Center using both my Charmander and a teammate’s Makuhita, enhancing the teamwork element.

And with our shared Pokémon collections on this sprawling island, I could appreciate how lively the game can be. I love looking around and seeing the Pokémon wandering around and interacting with each other across the beach, waterfalls and farm crops, deepening my connection to them and, by extension, the world itself. There’s also potential for some fun little moments of chaos, like when I created a makeshift dining room table with fruit to attract a Growlithe, only for a Torchic to come by and eat my “bait.” This, alongside a day and night cycle, is the sort of thing you’ll have to me mindful of when you try to create habitats. Hopefully, the final game has a variety of these more emergent encounters to make the world feel even more lived-in.

Overall, I really loved my time with Pokopia, and I honestly wasn’t expecting to say that. Perhaps it’s because I’ve spent the past month balancing lengthy RPGs like Lost Odyssey and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined with multiple Resident Evil games to prepare for Requiem, but this cute and cozy life sim is exactly what I needed right now.

I’m now very much looking forward to playing more when Pokopia launches exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on March 5, 2026.

Image credit: Nintendo