The Switch 2 is about nine months old at this point, and while there have been a few bangers like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, the system hasn’t really had a capital S System Seller yet. That might’ve changed this week, however, as Pokémon Pokopia seems to have finally gotten folks to upgrade.
This morning my brother, who had been planning on waiting until Pokemon Winds and Waves launches next year to finally take the plunge on the beefier handheld console, told me he was starting to hear Pokopia call to him like the Green Goblin mask. Kotaku writer Zack Zwiezen said some of his friends had also decided to buy the Switch 2 to play the Animal Crossing-style life sim. If you look around at places like the Pokopia subreddit, it sounds like a lot of Pokemon fans have been persuaded.
“I wanted to wait with the Switch 2 for a bit longer, but Pokopia made me cave,” Liodin_ writes. “It’s arriving tomorrow and I can’t wait to join the cozy fun!”
Some folks say they were waiting for Nintendo to release a special-edition console based on something like Winds and Waves or a potential new Super Mario game, but since those don’t seem imminent, an exclusive game they want to play is as good a reason to jump in as any.
“Pokemon games have always been my reason for grabbing Nintendo consoles,” OcnBtzV3 wrote.
Pokopia has only been out for two days, but it’s already making waves online as fans discover its many secrets and cute monster interactions. The spin-off is the highest-rated game in the series on Metacritic, so even folks who have grown a bit skeptical of Pokémon games after train crashes like Scarlet and Violet are intrigued. Plus, the premise of a Pokemon game similar to Animal Crossing is a pretty easy pitch. Those who still don’t have the Switch 2 are making do.
It’s been six years since New Horizons launched at the height of the pandemic, so it’s been long enough that plenty of cozy game fans are eager to get into a new one. I’m not usually a life sim sicko, but Pokopia’s structure and its deep dive into Pokemon lore have their hooks in me. Without a pandemic surge, it’s unclear if Pokopia will quite catch the cultural zeitgeist the way New Horizons did, but at the very least, it looks like it’s gotten a fair number of people who were waiting to buy a Switch 2 to finally drop the cash.