Pokémon Pokopia doesn’t release until this Thursday, but early reviews have been over the moon for the game. In a surprising development, the game has actually climbed the Metacritic charts to become the highest-rated Pokémon game on the website. While technically tied with Pokémon Y (which could change as more reviews filter in), for such a drastically different style of game to take the crown in a storied series is no small feat.
We’re still very early into 2026, so there aren’t that many big games to compare Pokopia against yet. The only truly comparable ones on this scale are Resident Evil: Requiem and Mewgenics. Nioh 3 has been well-received by critics, but the fan reception is a little more muted. A lot of early 2026 has seen many ports coming to Nintendo Switch 2, and remakes/remasters of older games hitting current platforms, so that also skews things a bit.
Still, Pokémon Pokopia seems to be a hit. Out of 59 aggregated reviews on Metacritic, the game is resting at an 88/100. As with pretty much every game, there are a handful of 10/10 scores, but everyone seems to agree that the world of Pokémon was ripe for an idea like Pokopia. Combining elements of Animal Crossing with Minecraft and even Dragon Quest: Builders has resulted in a relaxing town builder that many fans have been dreaming of for decades.
From the previews I’ve seen, I think Pokopia does enough to distance itself from being a direct clone of Animal Crossing. There seems to be more of a focus on missions, which is echoed by something like Disney Dreamlight Valley rather than Animal Crossing’s free-form style. Even still, that should be fun for quite some time, and I could see the game engaging me for tens of hours.
Pokémon Pokopia trailer
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
