Top Five Pokemon Spinoff Games (by Carl B.)

October 19, 2011, by Carl B. - With the upcoming release of Pokemon Rumble Blast on Nintendo 3DS, there's no better time than to look back at the best Pokemon spinoff titles that have released alongside the main RPG series over the past 15 years. Which spinoffs are the best?





5. Pokemon Pinball (GameBoy Color)
Pokemon Pinball released on Nintendo's GameBoy Color in 1999. The premise is simple: play classic pinball with a Pokemon anime theme. Nintendo added several Pokemon style mechanics to shake things up, including the ability to catch and evolve Pokemon to complete their PokeDex. A sequel was released on GameBoy Advance, which was mostly the same game only with Generation 3 Pokemon.

4. Pokemon Ranger (Nintendo DS)

The original Pokemon Ranger on Nintendo DS was a pretty good game, something that people often forget since the latest editions to this spinoff series have been very low in quality. Compared to other games on this list, Pokemon Ranger is the most similar to the main RPG series. Players take control of an aspiring young trainer, but instead of battling Pokemon, players must capture Pokemon by drawing circles around them with the DS' stylus.

3. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (Series)

The entire Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series has been pretty good. Each game is basically a Shonen/roguelike dungeon-crawler clone, only with a world full of Pokemon and devoid of humans. Players take control of a select set of Pokemon based off of a character personality quiz, and are then thrown into a world full of randomly generating dungeons.

2. Pokemon Trading Card Game (GameBoy Color)

I'll always remember how insanely popular Pokemon trading cards were when Yellow Version first released. Pokemon Trading Card Game – the video game – sadly wasn't as popular as the real thing, but it still emulated the card game in a great way. It's a shame the game only had one sequel, which never made it out of Japan.

1. Pokemon Snap (Nintendo 64)

Anyone who doesn't love Pokemon Snap lacks a soul. The notion of playing a game all about taking pictures of Pokemon doesn't sound particularly exciting on its own, but Nintendo was able to craft a high quality title by including a variety of environments, Pokemon, and charming and hilarious interactions between the player and Pokemon in the game.