This year saw the release of the acclaimed Pokémon's actual spin-offs.
There are so many bizarre Pokémon games out there. It's to be expected, given that the franchise is one of the largest in the world. Whether it be obscure handheld games or games that never left Japan, there are plenty of oddball entries to be found. These make the aforementioned changes to the main series seem minor in comparison.
Pokémon Conquest
Pokémon has had plenty of bizarre spin-off games and crossovers. the most bizarre would have to be Pokémon Conquest, a crossover with Nobunaga's Ambition, a series of strategy games. The real-world warlord is re-cast as a Pokémon Trainer. The player must lead their own revolution to stop his conquest.
Each Pokémon comes with a warrior that trains them, and there can only be one Pokémon per warrior. The game's battles take place in 6v6 isometric viewpoints with turn-based matches and a variety of win conditions from routing the enemy to protecting points. The game doesn't have traditional experience points, but rather links between Warrior and their Pokémon.
Pokémon Play It!
Given how expensive Pokémon cards can be, a video game adaptation of the card game makes sense. Players are likely familiar with the GameBoy Color adaptation of the Trading Card Game. They may even be familiar with the modern PC version of the game, Pokémon Trading Card Game Online, however, the first PC incarnation, Pokémon Play It! is much more obscure.
This game came with the 2-Player CD-ROM Starter Set, a starter deck for the TCG. The game was meant to be a tutorial on the card game, featuring a mode that walked the player through the mechanics. Nowadays it's known mostly for its incredibly uncanny CGI graphics and holding the honor of being the first Pokémon game to mention Ash Ketchum.
Pokémon Dash
Some might hear the idea of a Pokémon racing game and get excited. However, Pokémon Dash for Nintendo DS is a lot weirder than players might expect. For one thing, despite being based on Pokémon Generation III, this game is the first appearance of Generation IV Pokémon like the iconic Munchlax.
The game is controlled by sliding the touch screen of the DS over and over. This causes the controlled Pokémon to start to run and players must guide their Pokémon to a series of checkpoints positioned around a large 3D top-down map. The game received lukewarm reviews in part because only Pikachu was playable in single-player.
The Thieves And The 1000 Pokémon
The Thieves And The 1000 Pokémon was only released in Japan, however, given that it was a rather small Nintendo 3DS able game, it is a wonder why it wasn't elsewhere. The game was released as a promotion for the anime movie Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction, which did get an English release.
The game has a surprisingly complex story based around the Carbink and other characters from the movie, however, the gameplay is much simpler than that. The player chooses what Pokémon to bring at the beginning of levels, chiefly water, fire, and grass Pokémon. The player must spend these Pokémon as resources to get through various challenges in the environment.
PokéPark: Fishing Rally DS
Technically, PokéPark Fishing Rally was only ever released as a demo making the full version one of the rare unreleased Pokémon games. Of course, the reason why it was only released as a demo was that it was only available through demo play at the Pokémon theme park in Japan. The game would be ed to players' DS's at the actual PokéPark.
The game could be ed at Pokémon Center kiosks and remained on the DS for twelve hours. The game was a basic fishing game where players would hold the DS horizontally and tap on shadows to catch fish with many iconic water types like Magikarp and Wailmer available. Currently, the game is considered lost media and unable to be played.
Facebook Pokémon Games
While Pokémon is best known for its presence on Nintendo, other companies have allowed Pokémon games on their platforms. Pokémon Tower Battle and Medallion Battle were released on Facebook, of all things. Despite both games having "Battle" in the title, Tower is actually a puzzle game where players must build a tower made out of pieces of Pokémon official artwork.
Medallion Battle is a little more true to classic Pokémon gameplay in the sense that battling occurs. Players assemble a team of six Pokémon, however, these are then played against each other like cards, with certain types and values beating other types and values. The game continues until one player reaches three points. It's even more like Rock-Paper-Scissors than the original.
Learn With Pokémon: Typing Adventure
Nintendo franchises aren't strangers to typing-based spin-offs. Mario Teaches Typing was released on the PC, but strangely Pokémon didn't follow suit. Their typing game was on Nintendo DS and came with a peripheral keyboard to help players play it. While the DS OS did contain a fake keyboard, it probably wasn't optimal for the gameplay.
The game sees players take on the role of a trainer under the care of Professor Quentin Werty. The professor gives the trainer a new type of PokéBall called a Typing Ball that activates when the Pokémon's name is typed. After that, the player enters a series of levels where they must type incoming Pokémon names. The gameplay is similar to Typing of the Dead but less frantic.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon WiiWare
A lot of gamers think that the recent Pokémon Mystery Dungeon remake was the first time the spin-off came to consoles. However, on Wii, there were the able titles Keep Going! and Let's Go!. The game used 3D models from the Pokémon Rumble series but otherwise featured similar gameplay to the handheld versions.
The game focuses on a small pool of Pokémon (different types depending on the version) navigating randomly generated dungeons. As they explore, the village outside the town will change in features. This game allows Pokémon to evolve within dungeons and features the first appearance of Arceus in this series, however, its smaller-scale plot makes it quite ignorable otherwise.
Pokémon: Catch The Numbers!
Pokémon actually had a number of games released on a console from SEGA called the SEGA Pico. Game Freak used to publish games almost exclusively with SEGA before Pokémon, so it isn't unprecedented. All of these games were educational and never released in Japan. The first was Pokémon: Catch the Numbers!, which actually also tied into the anime.
Not only are the game's graphics using the anime's art, but the characters appear as well. The plot is that Team Rocket has kidnapped Pikachu and Togepi and the player must help Ash and his friends get them back. The game features a voiceover from the anime's Japanese cast as well. The gameplay consists mostly of small math-themed minigames like Guess the Number.
Pokémon Battrio
In 2007 Pokémon released its first arcade system in the form of Pokémon Battrio. The game is a stadium-based battling game with a three-versus-three setup to differentiate it from the previous battle sim Pokémon Stadium. Additionally, Pokémon in this version must be attained using peripherals called Pucks which would be inserted into the cabinet and allow players to use the Pokémon saved on it.
This Puck format would prove popular enough for Battrio to get sequels. Pokémon Tretta is similar to the previous game but also allows the player to capture Pokémon in it. Tretta was such a success that its Pucks could be turned into digital data and stored on Nintendo 3DS. Pokémon Ga-Ole and Mezastar mixed things up by changing the peripheral used to discs and tags respectively. As of writing none of these games have been released in English but they remain some of the most profitable of Pokémon's obscure offerings.
