Pokémon’s spinoffs are the series at its most adventurous
Detective Pikachu. Pokemon is a phenomenon, one that's lasted a steady 25 years built on a foundation of approachable roleplaying games. On the DS, Nintendo's bestselling piece of hardware, three of the top 10 bestselling titles are mainline Pokemon games. It's a franchise that perpetually serves as a system seller despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that it evolves at a glacial pace. But that's only true of the core Pokemon experience. While those RPGs have been infamously resistant to change, the many, many Pokemon spinoffs are a different story. In fact, many of Pokemon's biggest success stories, from the blockbuster film Detective Pikachu to the staggering success of Pokemon Go, were a result of this experimental attitude.
Without these offshoots,...