I do occasionally when I feel like it because I enjoy reliving the good ol' days. Series like Pinball, Colloseum, Ranger, even one-off games like 2012's Conquest for the DS, all of these are a part of the franchise's history that may have brought other fans closer to the core series and as such should be preserved as best as possible.

I say 'HAD led' because spinoff games have taken an absolute dumpster dive within the past five years ever since the Nintendo Switch launched and all we've gotten since then that's even remotely close to the glory days was the Pokémon Snap reboot and a Mystery Dungeon remake.Ĭertainly a good start, but we need more of those games.

I own a good selection of them and tend to be of the belief that the increase in freedom spinoff developers had led to better products than your average main series title. Notably, my main focus this year has been for Mario Kart's 30th anniversary, but as far as Pokémon is concerned, I find myself wanting to play the old spinoffs more (including the Ranger trilogy, gee who would've guessed that?) but not having the time to do so. I've had a high outlook for 2022's Pokémon lineup for reasons of my own, but until that time came I've been keeping myself busy with other game series, primarily.

Sword & Shield in particular was in its prime during a key transition point during my life where I was rapidly losing interest in Pokémon for the first time, and as a result I never really gave the game a fair shot at first, and still struggle to do so to this day. I think all of the games have their upsides and their downsides.

Emulator for pokemon sword and shield