On Tuesday, March 18, the LEGO Group and The Pokemon Company International announced that they will be partnering up to produce several Pokemon-themed LEGO sets for the first time starting in 2026. In a brief trailer announcing the partnership, four flat LEGO bricks are shown to combine to form Pikachu’s iconic yellow and brown tail as the electric mouse Pokemon electrocutes a LEGO Pokemon sign. No official LEGO Pokemon sets have been revealed yet, but it’s likely this partnership will end Mattel’s eight-year-long Mega Pokemon building block toy line as the Mega Pokemon sets are very similar to LEGO sets. Regardless of Mattel’s fate, LEGO and The Pokemon Company should utilize this opportunity to produce an official LEGO Pokemon game in the near future.
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Potential Pokemon LEGO Game Adaptations
For most of the 21st century, most major LEGO games have been comedic, kid-friendly adaptations of popular film series and video games, such as the long-celebrated LEGO Star Wars games and the recent LEGO Horizon Adventures. While most of these games were developed by TT Games, the LEGO Group’s CEO, Niels Christiansen, recently divulged that LEGO is building up its in-house game development, suggesting that future LEGO games may be developed primarily by LEGO itself. If a LEGO Pokemon game were to be made, the toy company would likely collaborate with Nintendo and Game Freak to produce the game despite this development change, as Nintendo and Game Freak have shepherded the franchise for nearly 30 years.
Unlike the TT Games-developed LEGO titles, it may be difficult for LEGO and Nintendo to adapt one particular story or set of stories into a LEGO Pokemon game. It could adapt the early story of Ash Ketchum, but his journey is especially long for one LEGO game, taking place over 25 seasons. The LEGO Pokemon game could adapt major episodes of the first season leading up to the storyline of Pokemon: The First Movie, but that may make the game too long or disjointed. In contrast, the LEGO Pokemon game could simply adapt the story of Pokemon Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow, but that may be overly repetitive, as it would be the sixth incarnation of a Pokemon game set in the Kanto region.
The Potential Gameplay of a LEGO Pokemon Game
In terms of gameplay, the LEGO Pokemon games have a variety of options to choose from depending on the game’s context. If it’s an adaption of the original Pokemon games, gamers could simply play as LEGO trainer minifigures, traveling around the region and collecting Pokemon. Alternatively, if the game is focused more on the Pokemon themselves than trainers, the LEGO Pokemon game could play similar to Pokken Tournament and Pokemon Rumble with groups of LEGO Pokemon fighting each other in melee combat across various battlefields. The two companies could design the LEGO Pokemon game similar to Pokemon Rumble U by having LEGO sets or minifigures unlock Pokemon and other content in the game, incentivizing players to purchase the physical sets akin to collecting amiibo.
2009’s LEGO Rock Band and 2024’s LEGO Horizon Adventures are the only standalone LEGO games to be adapted from preexisting video game series.
A LEGO Pokemon Could Imitate Mystery Dungeon or Minecraft’s Pixelmon
The LEGO Pokemon game could additionally take inspiration from the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series of games to feature fun turn-based gameplay alongside a comical Pokemon-focused story. Since 2005’s Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red and Blue Rescue Team, the Mystery Dungeon series has explored several Pokemon-led narratives that typically focused on a pair or small group of Pokemon saving a Pokemon settlement from imminent disaster. Similar to other roguelike RPGs and dungeon crawlers such as Diablo, Mystery Dungeon features third-person combat and dialogue sections mixed in with moments of treasure hunting. A LEGO Pokemon game could play similarly to a Mystery Dungeon game, but with a LEGO aesthetic instead of the more cartoonish Pokemon anime design seen commonly in the series.
LEGO and Nintendo also take inspiration from one of the most popular Minecraft mods to create a LEGO Pokemon game: Pixelmon. First appearing in 2012, Pixelmon essentially populates Minecraft worlds with Pokemon from every generation, including the latest ones introduced in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Players could still mine, craft, and build their own structures in Pixelmon, but they could also participate in Pokémon battling, trading, and breeding as well as quest-like assignments and research tasks. LEGO and Nintendo could create an official LEGO Pokemon game that could play similar to Minecraft Pixelmon, but instead of building and crafting with pixelated blocks, players would use LEGO bricks. This could serve as a more intricate, standalone alternative to LEGO Fortnite’s often lackluster survival worlds.
- Released
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November 18, 2022
- ESRB
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E For Everyone Due To Mild Fantasy Violence