It has been a strong year for Pokémon. Not only has Pokémon Go pulled in more than $430m year-to-date, but the Pokémon World Championships in London was a success by all accounts. On top of that the Pokémon Company released two of the most highly anticipated Pokémon games of all time on Nintendo Switch this year: Pokémon Legends Arceus and Pokémon Scarlet/Violet.
It has also been a year where the franchise fell short of its ambitions – not least in the graphics department, with Violet and Scarlet criticised for performance issues, while Arceus had problems with draw distance, meshing and the like. Switch games are limited by the Switch’s hardware of course, but critics and fans the world over were still disappointed.
However, there is one thing that Pokémon fans unanimously love, and for once it’s not even a specific Pokémon. The craftable Pokéball from Legends Arceus – a game set 1000 years in the past – is something that has captured the imaginations of Pokémon players around the world.