5 Pokémon Spinoffs That Are Better Than The Main Series

In 2027, Pokémon will debut its 10th generation dual-games, Pokémon Winds & Waves. The title was officially announced at the 30-year anniversary celebration of the franchise in February 2025, which is an incredible feat. Even more incredible is the sheer amount of mainline Pokémon titles that have been published since the series' beginnings in the 1990s.

Counting the upcoming two games, there are a whopping 40 official games in the core Pokémon series. In recent years, fans have become increasingly frustrated with the Pokémon Company and Game Freak with titles that haven't pushed the series forward. Instead, the most recent mainline games, Scarlet & Violet, were buggy at launch and criticized for feeling empty and lifeless.

Luckily, the Pokémon library of games isn't limited to the core games. There are many spinoff titles that are just as good as the main games, many of which add a much-needed unique twist to the traditional formula.

In fact, some of these Pokémon spinoffs are even better than the mainline games, and well-worth a play for fans and newbies alike. From recreations of historic battles to capturing memories instead of Pokémon, these are five of the best non-core Pokémon games.

Pokémon Conquest

Pokémon Conquest may be the most unexpected collaboration to ever come to the Pokémon universe. The game was developed and released in 2012 by Keoi Tecmo in collaboration with the Pokémon Company, and it combined the Pokémon franchise with another popular series: Nobunaga's Ambition.

Pokémon Conquest reimagines key conflicts, battles, and characters from real Japanese history, with Pokémon. In this much grittier version of the critter-collecting franchise, players command up to six Pokémon at a time on grid-based battlefields.

The collaborative title requires much more strategy than the original Pokémon games. It plays out like a story-driven tactical RPG with Pokémon capturing mechanics and castle management.

Those who played it rememebr the game as being more challenging than a typical Pokémon game, and a fun shakeup of the traditional formula. Unfortunatley, due to Pokémon Conquest's relatively niche audience, the game is only available to play today with a Nintendo DS.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

One of the most beloved spinoffs in the Pokémon universe is the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, developed by Spike Chunsoft. Its success can be seen in the sheer amount of media that surrounds it, including 11 games, and even a couple of manga and anime.

The Pokémon spinoffs of the Mystery Dungeon series place players into the shoes—paws?—of a Pokémon. In this form, you can speak with other Pokémon, and guide friends on a roguelike adventure through dungeons where you collect loot and battle enemies. Within the dungeons, every move counts as a turn, encouraging players to think ahead and make every move count.

The games weren't too difficult, and the original titles received mixed reviews on release. However, the games won fans over with the charm of playing as a Pokémon, combined with fun gameplay and procedurally generated dungeons for replay value.

Luckily, the series was successful enough to warrant a remake of the first two games in the series: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX was released in 2020 for the Nintendo Switch.

Pokémon Snap And New Pokémon Snap

In 1999, Pokémon Snap asked what would happen if, instead of a Poké Ball, players were armed with a camera. Developed by HAL Laboratory (of Kirby fame), Pokémon Snap was a rail-based photography adventure.

The game takes players through a series of biomes, where they're challenged to take photos of Pokémon as they frolic around in their natural habitats. The game let players throw various lures and goodies toward the Pokémon to line up the perfect shot, uncover hidden critters, and even complete a surprisingly epic boss battle for some legendary photos.

In 2021, the Pokémon Company released New Pokémon Snap on the Nintendo Switch, this time developed by Bandai Namco. The game brought back the rail-shooter style, with upgraded graphics and a brand-new, modern style.

The game mechanics aged well, and New Pokémon Snap remains one of the most fun non-mainline Pokémon games.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus sits at an unusual intersection between being a mainline and a spinoff title. The game is technically both a prequel to gen-4 and a part of gen-8. It takes place in the past and tells the story of how humans first learned to live with and collaborate with the Pokémon that inhabit the world around them. Since Arceus features a side-story, we'll consider it a spinoff game for the purposes of this list.

The game was different from the core titles in other ways, as well. Instead of an open world, it's separated into distinct regions. It also lets players throw Poké Balls at Pokémon in the wild without needing to battle them first.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus was beloved by Pokéfans and touted by many as being the next step forward for the franchise. It removed the tedium of a lot of the more outdated mechanics of the core games, and many hoped it would serve as a blueprint for upcoming games.

Although the games that followed did adopt a few of the features introduced in Arceus, it didn't quite hit the same level of polish—as can be seen in the 83 and 8.0 Metacritic rating of Arceus versus the abysmal 72 and 3.5 Metacritic reviews for Pokémon Scarlet.

And so, Pokémon Legends: Arceus remains the best example of what the franchise could look like.

Pokémon Pokopia

Pokémon Pokopia is the most recent addition to the Pokémon franchise, and it's already come out as the highest rated Pokémon game on Metacritic. With its rating of 89 it's surpassed all the mainline games—and all the other Pokémon games on Metacritic. (Our own Pokopia review touts it as being "everything I hoped for, and more")

This impressive rating reflects how much the game does well. In a nutshell, it's whimsical, adorable, and full of heart, all of which are elements that dedicated fans have noted were missing in recent Pokémon games.

Pokémon Pokopia lets you play as a Ditto that takes the form of a human, in a world that seems to have forgotten them. You can then befriend other Pokémon and work together to build a little community in a perfect blend of Pokémon and Animal Crossing.

The Pokémon you encounter can use their special skills to help develop the land and design a cozy little Pokétown. Pokémon Pokopia gets everything from the pacing to the atmosphere right, resulting in a game that's far better, more polished, and more appealing to fans than the franchise's core titles.

The upcoming Pokémon Winds & Waves might learn from fan feedback and past failures to create a perfect core Pokémon experience. But while we wait for the ambitious 10th generation titles, we can enjoy these excellent spinoff titles that just get it right.