The Best Pokemon Spin-off?

Best Pokemon Spin-off Series?

  • Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

    Votes: 42 45.2%
  • Pokemon Ranger

    Votes: 14 15.1%
  • Pokemon Snap

    Votes: 13 14.0%
  • Pokemon TCG

    Votes: 8 8.6%
  • Pokemon Puzzle League

    Votes: 2 2.2%
  • Pokemon Dash

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Console Games (Stadium, Colosseum & XD, Battle Revolution)

    Votes: 36 38.7%
  • Pokemon Pinball

    Votes: 3 3.2%
  • Pokemon Trozei/Pokemon Link!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other/Don't know/Undecided

    Votes: 6 6.5%

  • Total voters
    93
GIVE US ANOTHER SHADOW POKEMON GAME GODDAMMIT.

GALE OF DARKNESS IS LITERALLY MY CHILDHOOD.

...ok but seriously, I honestly think Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is possibly the game that best utilized the standard formula. It felt really fresh compared to most of the main series pokemon games, the areas are memorable, the characters are actually given some sort of personality(Chobin is literally still killing my sides to this day), and it really made use of the double battle mechanic. Plus the Shadow pokemon were actually decent enough to go through the game with, and you get a lot of cool options. Its basically Colosseum, but better in nearly every conceivable way.

If someone would make a direct/spiritual sequel to Gale of Darkness, whether it be Game Freak or a poke-fan of some sort...
I
WOULD
PAY
HUNDREDS.
 
As much as I love Pokémon Puzzle League, it would have to be a draw between the TCG (the card game itself stays true to the gameplay of the main series beautifully and the GBC adaptation was on the nose) and the console games, particully the only one I own, the original Stadium. The only way one would beat the other is for the perfect console game to be released, being a perfect hybrid of the N64 and Gamecube titles along with perfect online multiplayer, but that is moving into speculation.
 
If it wasn't for Pokemon Colosseum 1 and 2 (2 and 3 I guess for the US? It's weird.) I would never have played Pokemon. I fondly remember playing it with my cousins on vacation when they brought their N64 with them. Even though the battles were hard for me, all of the mini games were my favorite part. I was great at that one when you make the Magikarp hit the bell, and when you have to use Harden at the right time to break rocks.
 
Mystery Dungeon for me every time.

The story's great, and the rogue like structure and variety of starters (save Gates to Infinity, screw that sequel) really adds to the replay value. Also just helps that it was the first time a Pokemon game felt like it had writers that cared about the story as much as a typical RPG. Also one of the few games to feature Pokemon as characters rather than the kind of support animalistic creatures they are in most entries, even spin-offs.
 

Xen

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Hey you, Pikachu!

It's hard to pick just one spin-off series. As much as I love Pokemon Snap (that game needs a 3DS/WiiU sequel), I think I'll vote on Colosseum/XD, moreso Colosseum. Colosseum was a step in trying something different with the core series gameplay, as well as the first game in the franchise with a darker, more gritty story & atmosphere. And I think it pulled it off well, for the most part. Wes was the first protagonist we had with a backstory, (with a bit of a criminal background to boot) instead of some random 10 year old kid from some rural town. Orre's desolation and lawlessness made the atmosphere of the game all the better. And the double battles, lack of Pokemon, and the steep level curve made Colosseum the only game in the franchise that I found to be a legitimate challenge to beat. To add icing on the cake, Colosseum is the game that introduced the greatest NPC ever, Michael Jackson Miror B.

Colosseum certainly wasn't a perfect game by any means. The shadow Pokemon mechanic was pretty tedious (not to mention Shadow Rush made catching the Pokemon harder than it needed to be), and the lack of available Pokemon made the game feel quite limited. But despite its flaws, I still enjoyed the game. While XD fixed a lot of the gameplay issues that plagued Colosseum, I didn't enjoy the game as much as Colosseum. The game's difficulty curve was much easier. And they completely threw away the gritty atmosphere of the first game; a couple of Cipher peons from XD felt like they were ripped straight from an episode of Looney Tunes, and the protagonist was yet another random 10 year old kid (with an annoying sister to boot).

Long story short, the games aren't perfect, but they were a nice departure from the main series games, which is something that the franchise needs to do more often imo. Any Pokemon game that lets you beat up a Sephiroth look-alike and a fat, corrupt politician is a cool game in my book.
 
Pokemon mystery dungeon without question! Only red and blue rescue team though. The storyline was sooo good and so was the gameplay. The only downside was all the 99 floor dungeons. However, some of those were definitely challenging, which made the game more fun. Also, as an added bonus, charizard is completely viable. I would even go as far as to say he's probably the best pokemon in the game!
 
Can't be bothered to look back up this thread to see if anyone else has pointed it out, but Pokemon Conquest is a big omission from the list (seriously why is that not there but Pokemon Dash is?) Never personally played it but it has significantly the highest Metacritic score and I've heard pretty much unanimously positive opinions of it whenever it's been mentioned.
 
I voted Pokémon Snap, probably due to nostalgia, but also for the fact that it's an such an offbeat title that shouldn't work but somehow does. This was casual before casual was a thing. I was also super-excited for Conquest but that turned out somewhat disappointing. FF Tactics Advance is one of my favorite games ever, but Conquest lacked that depth. I couldn't get into the Mystery Dungeon series and I thought Ranger perfectly captured the series with a new twist on the gameplay. I really, really want to play through Colosseum/XD but they're too expensive for their age at this point and I don't want to spend the cash on them.
 
I definitely have to say Mystery Dungeon. Let me count the reasons...
The storylines. They are easily the most touching ones in any Pokemon game. I think the Time/Darkness/Sky stories might be the best ones of any video game I've ever played. The partner finds the player washed up on the beach, their memory wiped. They decide to form an exploration team. At this point, it's all just for fun. But then, suddenly, it gets a lot more serious as it is discovered that time is stopping in various places and the planet will soon become paralyzed (I could go on for hours about all the reasons that this is scientifically impossible, but I'm willing to overlook it). Suddenly, you're not just exploring to find new dungeons and get treasure anymore; you have to save the frikkin' space-time continuum! And then the first ending, when you finally do defeat Dialga to put the Time Gears back into Temporal Tower, is absolutely touching. I think it legitimately made me cry, something that no other video game has done. The post-ending storyline revolving around Darkrai I feel isn't quite as strong; I assume Dialga has some degree of omniscience, so why didn't he just Roar of Time Darkrai's ass as soon as it showed up to Temporal Tower to steal the Time Gears? I also would have loved some more backstory behind the Scizor you rescued from Crevice Cave; right now all we have is "He's a member of the explorer's federation and he gives you Secret Rank".

The gameplay. I understand why some people don't like it; it is, by nature, a very repetitive game. However, to me the "downtimes" of exploring dungeons are really relaxing, and they can be made less tedious, especially in the second games, when you have certain IQ skills. Also, when you do get into a battle, or especially a Monster House, it can be very strategic. You have to be able to think "How can I get out of this situation without getting killed?". And the game stays challenging once you're level 100 and incredibly OP, because there are dungeons that reset you to level 1, some of them also forbidding you from bringing items, money, and/or team members.

The music. Although I think HGSS has the best music in Pokemon, Mystery Dungeon is definitely up there. In Red/Blue Rescue Team you have the rugged, climbing music of Mt. Steel, the sweltering feel of Mt. Blaze and Fiery Field, and the ethereal feel of Sky Tower. In Time/Darkness there's Craggy Coast's fast-paced, energetic theme that always makes me want to go for a run when I hear it. Aegis Cave has a theme that I can't quite describe, but I really like it. Good thing, too, since I always get stuck in Aegis for... ages. There's also Blizzard Island, which is an awesome nostalgia trip.
The boss battle themes are no slouches either. The Dusknoir/Darkrai battle music starts out suspenseful and eerie before climbing to a powerful theme. Palkia's battle music starts out frantic and stays that way for the duration of the battle. And of course...


Writing this has made me want to boot up PMD again and go dungeon crawling. Make of that what you will. :P
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Mystery Dungeon Explorers easily has the best story in the entire franchise, if not Nintendo's gaming library as a whole. lucariomaster2 pretty much covered everything about that.

I personally think Colosseum and XD are easily the best in terms of gameplay. Forcing the player to do Doubles the entire time (well, most of the time for XD) on top of the severe limit of Mons available gives the games legitimate difficult that the main series games sorely lack. I really wish that they would do a sequel for them (they have an excuse, too, there's a sequel hook in XD!) so we could have a cool RPG for the Wii U and have a way to play Mons on our TV as a bonus.
 
The console games were freaking awesome! I loved Colosseum, but it was a shame that you couldn't catch under normal circumstances!
 
Clearly you guys must've not remembered the true beauty that held behind Pokemon Stadium rather just the simple yet fun battling! What we have here was a fun classic filled legend with extremely addictive mini-games fun for all 4 players to spend hours on n_n
This is has got to be my favorite spin off series with honorable mention being pokemon stadium 2, where you can battle Red himself at the end (Legendary pokemon included)

Open for funzies
 
Oh come on everybody, we all know this thread will be flooded by posts about Pokemon Mystery Dungeon...

PS: PMD: Explorers of darkness is my favorite spinoff, abeit the only spinoff game I've actually owned... It's so good, it's the only video game I've ever played that has made me cry. One out of whats probably over a thousand games played over the years, and yet it's the only one to make me cry...
 
Oh come on everybody, we all know this thread will be flooded by posts about Pokemon Mystery Dungeon...

PS: PMD: Explorers of darkness is my favorite spinoff, abeit the only spinoff game I've actually owned... It's so good, it's the only video game I've ever played that has made me cry. One out of whats probably over a thousand games played over the years, and yet it's the only one to make me cry...
I've actually never played that game, so seeing that a new one is coming out surprises me! Was it that good of a game?
 

Xen

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Wi-Fi Leader
I've actually never played that game, so seeing that a new one is coming out surprises me! Was it that good of a game?

The gameplay can be pretty tedious (if you dislike random dungeon-crawlers, stay away from the games), but they're the best games in the franchise from a story perspective, especially the second game(s).
 
The gameplay can be pretty tedious (if you dislike random dungeon-crawlers, stay away from the games), but they're the best games in the franchise from a story perspective, especially the second game(s).
You know what, you actually made me curious about this game. I'm going to try it out!
 
I know this is kinda off-topic, but is Pokemon Conquest worth 20-30$? I enjoy games like Fire Emblem, so I thought that I might like a game that's basically F.E X Pokemon. Thing is, every review I've seen is very vague, so I was hoping I could get more details on it's highpoints and low points here, just giving me a link to a good detailed review would help as well. Again, sorry that this is kinda off-topic.
 
I know this is kinda off-topic, but is Pokemon Conquest worth 20-30$? I enjoy games like Fire Emblem, so I thought that I might like a game that's basically F.E X Pokemon. Thing is, every review I've seen is very vague, so I was hoping I could get more details on it's highpoints and low points here, just giving me a link to a good detailed review would help as well. Again, sorry that this is kinda off-topic.
Conquest has its ups and downs IMO. The battle system works well if you just want to go through and not be all completionist about it, but if you're like me and want to recruit all the people possible...well, it can be frustrating. You recruit regular warriors by defeating them in certain conditions in battle, which look something like:
1. Defeat them in 4 turns.
2. Defeat them with a SE attack
3. Don't take any damage from them
You must meet any one of these requirements to recruit them. If you want to recruit the better warriors (unique ones with their own sprites, etc, think Gym Leaders kinda people - they have gold backgrounds as opposed to grey, you'll know them when you see them) you must meet one of those conditions AND defeat them with another unique warrior you have. In addition, you only recruit them when attacking and when the kingdom you are attacking is the last one your opponent owns (IIRC). It can be frustrating at times.
The battle system does play very much like FE, albeit a pokemon version - movement takes place like that, different mons have different movements, moves have different ranges, and so on. Each stage has its own gimmick and victory conditions (which can make recruitment EXTREMELY frustrating if you're on the wrong stage with no SE mons), and type effectiveness is normal according to gen V rules (although IIRC all dual-type mons are now single-type).
Leveling up doesn't work as normal - instead each battle the mon takes place in, it gets a stronger "link" with its trainer (warrior), shown in percentage (37.84%, for example), which caps off depending on the trainer. Each trainer can link a different amount with each mon (Generally from 30/40% for bad links, 50/60/70% for so-so, 80/90% for good, and 100% for perfect links (generally only one mon's evolutionary line)). This is a good idea, but frustrating for some warriors. Each kingdom has its own set of pokemon you can link with, some of which appear more often than others, and many of which you can't even get until postgame (I think), and take forever to find. If you do happen to find a warrior's perfect link, there's no guarantee it'll actually be good. Stats aside, pokemon can only have one move, which can seriously make or break a pokemon (along with its ability), and you may find yourself wanting to use a 90% with a good move over a 100% with a bad move. (A good example is your starting companion/story warlord, Oichi - She starts with a Jigglypuff, her perfect link...of course, Wigglytuff is terrible, so using the 100% link is a bad idea.) Grinding link% can also be frustrating, although not really necessary. If you want to do that you pretty much have to leave the continent with 1 kingdom not under your control (in any post game storyline), then give a kingdom up to your opponent (Don't station any warriors in it), defeat their warriors who invade that kingdom, rinse and repeat.
Speaking of, this game has a good amount of post-game content, which mix things up...well, a decent amount. Some require you to befriend a certain number of mons, others conquer the whole continent, etc. The content is divided into little storylines, usually focusing on one of the unique warlords (including the main enemy, which is pretty cool). Linked pokemon carry over between storylines, but not % (I believe, and I also believe it keeps track of your highest link% too, so IDK). This lends a little more continuity between storylines, but still makes grinding in one storyline essentially useless (unless you're going for evolutions), as good grinding would take place at the end of a storyline. Anyway, the game is pretty good and if you're a fan of FE you'll likely enjoy it. It'll last you a good while (especially if you go through all the post-game stories), so I'd say go get it if you enjoy FE and Pokemon. Hope this helped :)
 
I hope we will get a sequel to Pokémon XD. I really want a much easier to catch Refresh + Dragon Dance Salamence and I think releasing the game with some appealing hidden abilities could sell the game as well like having a Sturdy Regirock or something.
 

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