$450 is a hefty price for a video game console, and many Nintendo fans have been hesitant to invest. The Nintendo Switch 2, although boasting better graphics, load times and a bigger screen, has one fatal problem: it does not have any high-selling, exclusive games. That was, until Pokémon’s newest life simulation game, Pokopia, dropped on March 5. Tasked with restoring the world after all humans have disappeared, players must decorate their own towns while restoring habitats to prompt Pokémon to return.
Prior to the game’s launch, many fans assumed Pokopia would just be a Pokémon reskin of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing franchise. The widely popular Animal Crossing series is also a life-simulation game collection. The latest installment, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, allows players to customize, decorate and build up their own personal island. But when it was released, Pokémon Pokopia defied all of the fans’ expectations. Contrary to popular belief, Pokopia was much more than Animal Crossing with a facelift – it is its own fleshed-out game. Developmental choices like the dialogue, quality of life and sheer size of the game set it apart from Animal Crossing. It is with these new improvements that I believe that Pokopia is the superior game in comparison to Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
I should clarify that I have been playing New Horizons since 2021, whereas I’ve only played Pokopia for the past month. With that considered, it’s safe to say that I may have a tad bit of recency bias. But, even when I try to look at both games from an impartial point of view, I can’t escape the feeling that Pokopia is the more entertaining game between the two.
A core mechanic of both New Horizons and Pokopia is villagers. Villagers are NPCs (non-playable characters) that you invite to live on your island. Villagers in New Horizons are meant to be your in-game companions who live with you while you build the island getaway of your dreams. However, I have noticed that villager dialogue and wandering states are a bit dull at times. I will admit that there are some very cute in-game moments between NPCs and the player, but they are relatively rare. Monotonous dialogue breaks the immersion of the game because it serves as a constant reminder to the player that these villagers are just code and will always just be code.
Pokopia’s villager dialogue, on the other hand, radiates with genuine character, personality and style. Even upon playing Pokopia for a few hours, you can see the tremendous amount of time that the developers put into the creation of the villagers’ personalities. Dialogue is rarely repeated, and each villager feels unique. This attention to detail is something that I really appreciate because it makes the game come to life.
Another key difference between the two is just how much content Pokopia has in comparison to New Horizons. In New Horizons, the majority of gameplay takes place on your own island. Once you finish decorating your island to your heart’s content, I have found that there is not much else to do in the game from a story standpoint. However, Pokopia boasts four different worlds to explore, multiple online play modes and an extensive story.
Yet, excessive amounts of content can be a double-edged sword. I have found myself at times feeling decision paralysis in Pokopia over what quests to complete and when to complete them. Too much in-game content can become overwhelming and even stressful at times. Pokopia could benefit from streamlining its story in the style that New Horizons did. New Horizon’s story, despite being a bit lackluster, kept the player on track with a set goal. It fostered a sense of calmness that Pokopia seems to lack.
One last major difference I noticed between the two is quality of life (QoL). QoL is the name for small in-game features that contribute to the user-friendliness of a video game. In comparison to Pokopia, the poor QoL of New Horizons comes to light. For example, the excessive menus and strenuous crafting systems in New Horizons make the gameplay more difficult to enjoy, in my opinion. On the other hand, Pokopia takes the QoL that New Horizons had and builds upon it to make gameplay more fluid.
As a big Animal Crossing fan, I was overjoyed to see how many features the Pokopia developmental team implemented into their game that we never got to see in New Horizons. There will always be more work to be done and Pokopia is by far not a perfect game, but it is pretty darn good.
Every gamer’s playstyle is different, and your own personal playstyle will definitely sway which game you prefer. As of now, Pokopia offers a better gaming experience for me than Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Competition forces the video game market to keep growing and changing, so I hope the development team behind the next Animal Crossing installment can take some inspiration from Pokopia to even the playing field. Until then, I will continue to decorate my islands, collect Pokémon and live out my Pokopia dreams.