Detective Pikachu - 3DS/2DS

With little by way of news on a Pokemon release for the Nintendo Switch, it's all eyes on Detective Pikachu for that fix of catching them all. Of course, when Pikachu's a detective "gotta catch 'em all" takes on a different meaning...

While Detective Pikachu isn't a mainline Pokemon series entry it's clearly something The Pokemon Company believes in, with a live action film on the way starring a host of big names. It might take longtime Pokemon fans a minute to get used to the cute little series mascot as a gruff, coffee-swilling, sassy private eye, but once they do they'll settle into a world that feels happily familiar.

Pikachu and his human partner, Tim, are in the business of solving mysteries. The pair will approach each one as a duo, with Pikachu questioning Pokemon witnesses and Tim dealing with the humans. Players select from a range of questions to interrogate other characters with and can return to them with further lines of inquiry as new evidence is uncovered. You can scan the environment in the style of a point and click game, too, and as the clues gather you'll put them together to solve the crime.

In amongst it all are a series of quicktime events to test your speed, though with consequences of failure such as Tim getting hit in the face by flying hot dogs, you might want to miss a few...

Detective Pikachu looks like the start of something big in the world of Pokemon, and this is your chance to get in on the ground floor. more