Pokémon is one of the biggest intellectual properties out there. And it’s been going on for a long time. Recently, in South Korea, board games have started getting the Pokémon have been getting added to games. Point Salad was the first one to get an Eevee edition. But more recently, Splendor, Paper Safari, and Bag of Chips are now all Pokémon themed. So that got me thinking, what other games would work with that theme?

Top 5 Games that Would Work with a Pokémon Theme

5. Ice Cool

The list needs a dexterity based Pokémon game, and I think with Ice Cool branching out into Ice Cool Wizards, there is room where this can work. You flick around your trainer and you need to collect pokéballs and then capture Pokémon. It would be a very simple game. Simple games work well for this. For Ice Cool you’d actually need to change some more rules than in other games, and Ice Cool and Ice Cool Wizards don’t have that many rules. But make it a dexterity game about who can catch the most and rarest Pokémon.

4. Gasha

This already has a Japanese theme. It leans into the gashapon machine theming. You get toys and you’re trying to collect ones to get additional prizes. The theme doesn’t even have to change. Do it like Gasha: Pokémon or Gasha: Eevee Edition and it’ll work just fine. You’ll find for most of these that I’m trying to do what has been done thus far, which is just add the theming to the game. So a simple game like Gasha is perfect to get that theme added to it.

3. Super Fantasy Brawl

It’s a fighting game, so that makes sense for Pokémon. And it’s a 3 versus 3 character fighting game, that’s certainly possible to do with Pokémon. This could easily be my number one game on the list, but I think that there’s another fighting game that would work even better than Super Fantasy Brawl. But the simple game play Super Fantasy Brawl would make for an extremely accessible game and you could do some cool miniatures with it too.

2. Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

I like this one where the Pokémon theme is a bit more slapped onto it. I think, though, it’d b a solid game to get the theming. Why, because this game is all about rescuing cats from an island that’s being destroyed. Well, make it about capturing Pokémon and you’re trying to be the one to do it the best. It loses any battle aspect of the game, and makes it more about catching them all. That might not be Ash’s goal always in the show, but it certainly works and is one of the goals of the show.

1. Dice Throne

Dice Throne is an easy top answer for me to get a Pokémon theme. It’s considered to just be a head to head fighting game. I think that you can do more than just that, but if you treat it just as a head to head game, it works perfectly. Plus there are already 26 characters out with another 8 on the way. Not all of them would translate into Pokémon but some of them would. And I think with minor tweaks, you could get a core group of eight Pokémon ready for a set.

Final Thoughts

Before you get your hopes up, only a few companies seem to have this property to release in South Korea. So before you get your hopes up, it’s highly unlikely that any of these would ever happen. But it was a fun exercise for me to do. I like to think about what games might work well with other themes.

And some of these games, Dice Throne for sure, doesn’t really need that boost. It’s already a very successful hobby game for Roxley Games. Some of the others maybe haven’t gotten as much notice. But I am keeping an eye out to see what other games are getting a Pokémon board game treatment. And I expect that there’ll be a few more that happen that I might have to import.

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