I’ve been trying to get my wife to play Pokemon for years and Pokemon Quest may have become my doorway in. With Game Freak’s newest game having been available on the Nintendo Switch for just under a full week, my wife has played more Pokemon in the past seven days than she’s played the entire time we’ve been together.

While everyone is excited for the upcoming Pokemon Let’s Go! Pikachu and Pokemon Let’s Go! Eevee (including myself), my wife, Ashley, is not your usual Pokemon fan. Sure, she knows a large amount of their names by heart and adores some of the oddball Pokemon like Goomy and Mimikyu. She has strong opinions about who her least favorite evil Team is (Hint: It’s your boy, Guzma!) because she thinks they’re idiots. She wears clothing with Pokemon on them regularly and is always happy to wear her Pikachu hat.

But, when she sits down to play the Pokemon White 2, Pokemon Y, Pokemon Omega Ruby, Pokemon Moon, or Pokemon Ultra Sun that I’ve bought her over the years, she doesn’t get much past the first or second gym/trial before letting it fall by the wayside. I end up using the games as a way to maneuver and launder Pokemon via Pokemon Bank as I need and then the games just go into my own personal collection when they’ve been tapped out of “resources”. She is the epitome of “casual Pokemon fan”.

I’m on the other side of the Pokemon spectrum from my wife. I’ve been playing Pokemon video games and cards since the ripe old age of ten, nearly immediately after it came to North America in 1998. A lot of kids grew out of it but it became one of my hobbies and “geekdoms” for the next twenty years of my life. I own every game as they come out and play through them. I organize my Pokemon Bank by events, legendaries, types, spares, and several other boxes. I play the trading card game and can assure you that even with minor differences, it’s barely changed in two decades. I am an officially certified Pokemon Professor, meaning I can hold, manage, and host leagues and tournaments for both the video and card games that actually count towards something official in the competitive scene. So, when I say my wife doesn’t play Pokemon, it’s frustrating.

A Pokemon Quest For Love

Last week, Pokemon Quest was the surprise announcement at The Pokemon Company’s Press Conference in Japan, alongside this year’s light-core Pokemon games, the Let’s Go! series, which reimagines Pokemon Yellow alongside Pokemon GO. We’ll get to that here in a moment.

But, Pokemon Quest offered something you don’t see as often in a Pokemon game: casual, quick, mobile-like play. This is my wife’s bread and butter. With the cutesy voxel-based aesthetics, the Bit Heroes-esque gameplay, and cooking mechanics, Quest has offered my wife something similar to the mobile games she plays ferociously. I bring up Bit Heroes because the gameplay very much resembles the mobile game in that players can set their “Expeditions” to idle play where the player is not involved but watches on, just like the dungeons in Bit Heroes. Seriously: “You said it’s like Bit Heroes? Yea, I’ll give it a try then.” She hasn’t stopped since.

This is where you have to realize this year’s Pokemon games are not necessarily for the hardcore Pokemon Masters out there, they’re for people like my wife. Every day since the announcement and release, my wife has kept the Nintendo Switch at her desk, and every night, it’s at the coffee table with her. Since we only own one Switch, I wait for my turn patiently when I’m winding down for the day. But, to my delight, I see her making similar faces that I do when I play Pokemon Ultra Moon or any of the core games, taking stats and type advantages into account when taking on the Expeditions in Quest. I know that face when I see it. It’s determination to kick as much ass as possible with the best possible configuration.

We purchased the $30 Expedition Combo Pack within the game, which offered all of the microtransactions that are worthwhile as a single kit, adding additional play time in a single sit-down (it’s designed like a mobile game, so it limits your Expeditions generally), PM tickets (or PokeMart Tickets, the in-game currency), multiple cooking pots for gaining more Pokemon (since you don’t battle to capture them, they befriend you when you cook foods they like), and so on. This pack, luckily, meant we both got it for the single price, since we’re on the same system. This means she will continue to play it because she honestly enjoys it and I’m willing to spend that $15 a piece for a game we play “together”.

I know that these boxy Pokemon won’t matter in the long run. These achievements won’t likely tie into some other Pokemon game. The Pokemon won’t be able to be sent to some future update of Pokemon Bank on the Switch. But, I don’t care. This got my foot in the door to get Ashley to enjoy a game series I’ve adored for two-thirds of my life.

Let's Go Play Together!

But, what about Pokemon Let’s Go! Pikachu and Pokemon Let’s Go! Eevee? Knowing myself, I’ll be grabbing both games the day they release either way. In her adoration with Eevee, I will gladly take the Pikachu edition as my own. Although I’m honestly slacking on the mobile Pokemon GO currently, this game may be the kick in the behind we both need to go out and explore more with the game in hand, especially with the Pokeball accessory/Joy-Con. But, the drop-in function shown in the trailer is the coup de grace. The fact that Ashley can drop in and play for an hour, not have to grind with wild Pokemon battles, and then leave while I play is where I think Game Freak and the Pokemon Company have really sold my wife on this idea. This is no longer a tactical, strategic, single-player game. This is now a co-op, non-mandatory, casual experience that she can jump in to help with something and then jump out.

What we have to understand is these games aren’t made for you or me. They games are to bring in a nearly untapped market that includes casual and mobile gamers like my wife and kids being introduced to the franchise now that may need something more easily digestible. Pokemon GO proved this market is willing to come play the games. People I know that had either never touched a Pokemon game since Generation 1 or even ever at all were playing Pokemon GO like there was no tomorrow. Although the sensation and fad have slowed down over the past couple years since release, I know several of those people still play to this day due to new additions, content, and updates on a regular basis. Now, it’s time for Phase 2: Get the casuals playing Pokemon games on a (mobile) device like the Nintendo Switch. What about Phase 3? Maybe they’ll pick up the next mainline core game.

In 2019, it’s confirmed that we’re getting that new, core Pokemon game for the Nintendo Switch designed for the diehards like myself. But, for 2018, I’m really excited just to have my wife join me to be the very best, like no one ever was.