Detective Pikachu has more mysteries to solve. The Pokémon spin-off sequel still exists and is just a few months away with a Switch release date of October 6, 2023.
A first-look at Detective Pikachu Returns didn’t show much in the way of more advanced gameplay or what the story will be about, but we did get a look at new Pokémon like Scorbunny and Inteleon from subsequent generations that appeared after the original game launched.
Here’s the trailer:
The first Detective Pikachu game arrived on 3DS in 2018, one of the last big games to hit the handheld platform as Nintendo pivoted all of its focus to the Switch. It revolved around the titular electric mouse and Tim Goodman, the only human able to understand everything Detective Pikachu says. And adventure game in the vein of Ace Attorney, the two hunt for clues to solve mysteries as Pikachu talks his ears off.
The game also spawned a popular live action movie adaptation in 2019 starring Ryan Reynolds as Detective Pikachu. It was surprisingly good, even if it didn’t fulfill the internet’s wish of seeing Danny DeVito voice a Pokémon. A second movie was also supposed to be in the works, but it’s struggled to get off the ground. Negotiations have been underway to get a new writer and director onboard, which means its’ years away at the earliest.
That’s a shame really considering how good the first one was and that Pokémon has only gotten more popular in the years since. Maybe Detective Pikachu Returns will be another low-key hit that lights a fire under the studios’ butts. Its only competition in the Pokémon space this fall will be the upcoming DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, neither of which include a hard-boiled Pokémon detective.
