Pokémon has become the greatest franchise worldwide, and Nintendo Switch allows Pokémon fans to experience new regions with varieties of Pokémon’s to catch on the portable game console.
I love how developers Game Freaks have completely transformed our old beloved 2D Pokémon games into a 3D world, adding new mechanics and twists to the story. Listening to old soundtracks brings back nostalgia, and catching old Pokémon in new ways is a delightful joy to have. Plus, there are whole new features, Pokémon to capture and a story to unravel.
12 Best Pokémon Games for Switch
Are you ready to be the very best like no one ever was? To become the master of Pokémon, you gotta catch ’em all. In these twelve Best Pokémon Games for Nintendo Switch.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Although it’s a small step, it’s a step forward in the right direction. Pokémon Legends: Arceus has completely changed the fundamentals of the game to bring freshness to the old series. A dream come true for Pokémon fans at last.
Players are now able to interact with Pokémon more closely as they roam around the world and behave dynamically to the environment and to the players. You have a wide variety of options to approach wild Pokémon. But be careful because they react to you like real-world animals, and clouds flee away or get aggressive toward you.
An open-world game that focuses on catching all the two hundred and forty-two Pokémon of the Hisui region. But you are given the mission to find the five noble Pokémon to calm them and find the reason for their aggressive behavior.
Pokémon Snap
Take your camera out and shoot them down with Pokémon Snap. A 360 on rail shooting game that has no Pokémon battle, gym badges, or any trainer fight. Capture the scenario with Pokémon, just like the real theme park ride where you capture moments on your phone.
Pokémon Snap was first released on March 21, 1999, and Nintendo made the game playable on Switch through an online expansion pack service. It’s a short and sweet game with only six levels that takes no less than ten minutes to completely run through each level.
Be the photographer of Pokémon by capturing them with a snap and reporting back to professor oak, who reviews those photos. There are a total of sixty-three Pokémon, which might seem disappointingly small but interacting with all of them by feeding apples, hitting them with pester balls and playing music to watch them dance makes all the effort a worthwhile experience.
New Pokémon Snap
You have seen the Pokémon battle countless times, but have you seen them roam around the wild like actual creatures? New Pokémon Snap brings the joy of virtually snapping these cute creatures into your photo album like never before.
New Pokémon Snap is a sequel to the Pokémon Snapback in 1999. Although its past predecessor sparked the joy of Pokémon photography, The game was limited to its hardware for complete immersion. New Pokémon Snap does everything Pokémon fans wanted from Snap.
The unpredictable nature of these adorable creatures playing in the wild is always a delightful sight to see. With a new day and night version of courses, you can view the adaptation of wild creatures.
In addition to that, you can throw illuminating orbs to capture sparkling photos of them at night. It’s a nice take for Pokémon fans to step away from fighting and dip their toes in a relaxing Pokémon game.
Pokémon Sword and Shield
With awesome new encounter mechanics, Max raids battle, and dynamic weather, Pokémon Sword and Shield do a very good job removing random encounters and letting people explore the world at their own pace.
The star of the show is the Max raid battle where you and three other players battle against gigantic Pokémon with max stats and hidden abilities. Then you can gigantamax your Pokémon once per battle to bring out the power moves against other Pokémon.
Sword and shield also have two DLC packs that were released in 2020, Isle of Armor and The crown Tundra. These are the Expansion Pass. The new DLC provides a whole new biome to explore, players to battle, and legendries to catch.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl faithfully capture the feeling of nostalgia with the remake of old diamonds back in the NDS days. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl had a unique charm that brought the fourth generation Pokémon within the Sinnoh region. Brilliant Diamond took the game and gave it a completely new 3D look adding some minor upgrades.
Besides the graphical renovation and underground overhaul, players can experience the game pretty much as it was back in 2006. If you want to experience the old ways of routes full of unavoidable trainers and grinding your Pokémon to hit weak opponent Pokémon, then this will bring all the old features that new Pokémon have scrapped out of their game.
Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee
Its adorable art style and fun ways to interact with Pikachu and Eevee make the remake of Pokémon Yellow a whole lot memorable. The catching mechanics are heavily inspired by the Pokémon Go mobile game with some minor tweaks, which makes catching Pokémon more quick and easy rather than battling to catch them.
The game difficulty is made easier for newcomers to enjoy the visually pleasing aesthetic and capture mechanics of the game. Go back to the nostalgic region of Kanto and catch the first gen Pokémon in a new 3D version of them. Old Pokémon fans may find the game a little too easy but revisiting old places in new ways makes it worth picking up and playing.
Pokémon Unite
Pokémon Unite is a MOBA(Multiplayer online battle arena) game for Pokémon where your team of five battles against the five team players on a Dota-style map with 10 minutes duration.
Instead of breaking enemy towers, you are given hoops to dunk the score you get from defeating creatures around. Whoever gets the highest score within the given time wins the battle.
The game plays differently from traditional Pokémon games and has more approach to that of League of Legends and Dota gameplay mechanics. Pokémon behave more like heroes and hoops like a tower. Overall it’s a great way to play competitive Pokémon without the traditional spectrum of the game.
Pokkén Tournament DX
The traditional battle has been completely thrown out of the window for new fighting mechanics that are fast-paced and resemble more Tekken vibes. Bandai Namco Studios has made the greatest Pokémon fighting game and delivered the perfect balance between Pokémon fight and real-time action.
You can choose over twenty different Pokémon to battle against each other. The game is considered more of a fighting game than a Pokémon because old fans are used to catching Pokémon and collecting gym badges that it is forgotten how a real Pokémon battle is supposed to be.
Although game freaks won’t allow such a huge change in our beloved franchise, it’s good to know the potential, and I hope to see such a feature in future main game titles. For now, You can enjoy the highly competitive battle of Pokémon with friends and families in Pokkén Tournament DX.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX switches the traditional game and turns you into a Pokémon. Now you and your rescue team are headed into the mysterious procedurally generated dungeons to rescue trapped Pokémon.
As you delve deep into the dungeons, you recruit new Pokémon that will further help you defeat elemental-type enemies. You also have to manage the resources as they fill your inventory pretty quickly, and knowing what to keep and which one to discard determines the game style and difficulty.
The game’s visual aesthetic is beautifully designed with watercolor-inspired graphics and you, as a Pokémon, get to make the world a better place by making a safe area for Pokémon to live in.
Pokémon Café Mix
Pokémon Café Mix puts you in the shoes of a café owner welcoming Pokémon and customers to their beautiful artistic café. A free-to-play game where you mix and match identical Pokémon tiles to complete customers’ orders.
Unlike other tile-matching games, Pokémon café Mix allows you to match all the icons within the box. It’s really quick and fun to play. As you progress along the game, many cute Pokémon will offer to join the staff. These adorable Pokémon also have their work best suited to their skills.
Recruiting new Pokémon, using their skills to level up, and expanding your business by creating a new room for your café is the game’s main purpose. The beautiful story children’s book art style with delectable meals makes the game worth a play.
Pokémon Quest
Pokémon Quest takes you to the blockiness of the Pokémon world that is more of a Minecraft aesthetic. Including its voxel graphics, Pokémon Quest behaves more like RPG-style gameplay where you level up by completing quests on the island and defeating wild Pokémon.
Pokémon you encounter here are from the first generation. As you progress through gameplay, your base camp also gets upgraded with a cooking pot and receives a new Pokémon visit every twenty-two hours. Although the game lacks guidelines about how things work and what to cook, you can always search on google for help.
There are markets to visit, confectionery to decorate, and Pokémon to train and optimize. The gameplay can sometimes be pretty challenging, but it is always a rewarding experience.
Pokémon Puzzle League
Thanks to the Nintendo online expansion pack, players can now experience the game of Nintendo 64 on Switch and watch the bite-size cutscene of Pokémon anime episodes. It’s basically Nintendo’s old game Panel de Pon with a Pokémon theme, but the game offers so much more with pleasurable background music, enemies to battle, and cool 3D-looking tiles.
The objective might be simple, clear blocks by arranging them horizontally or vertically with more than three blocks but battling against AI players who keep challenging with more blocks can be frustrating and also equally rewarding when you finally rise victorious. There is something charming about listening to Pokémon voices when matching tiles, and the background music makes the puzzle game an immersive delight.
The game is easy to pick up and extremely addictive when every game becomes a little more challenging and rewards you with an immense amount of satisfaction of finally beating the game.
