Pokémon Pokopia Expansion Pass - Switch 2 Review

The first wave of the Pokémon Pokopia Expansion Pass is out now and players are free to explore the Bubbly Basin. Adding a whole new town, a wave of water-themed Pokémon, and thematic furniture and decorations, along with a free update for all players that allows them to dive underwater. It's time for Ditto to make a splash and jump into the water to help make habitats for more Pokémon.

The Good

To have access to Dive and the Bubbly Basin, you have to reach environment level 5 on the Bleak Beach, upon which you'll discover Manaphy asking for some seaweed and in return they will teach you how to dive. This move is a free update for all players, which I believe is a great move for Pokopia to execute. This allows everyone to make use of all the space to beautify their underwater areas.

Popplio wanders into Bleak Beach and requests Ditto to help them revive their own town of the Bubbly Basin. Having fallen into disrepair and completely flooded, you'll find the former Cerulean City and it's now your job to make it a space for all the Pokémon that call the water their home liveable. The Bubbly Basin is a huge environment, similar in scale to every other location in the game. Which helps provide an estimation of what will be coming in the third wave of DLC and further increases the value of the expansion.

All of the Pokémon look absolutely gorgeous in their design and movements around the water. The way they interact with each other and objects placed throughout the environment just helps the world feel so much more alive. Popplio may be the one that introduces you to the Bubbly Basin, but his friend Totodile having a single brain cell that just wanted to play hide-and-seek is so cute.

TL;DR

• A huge expansive town
• Adorable characters
• Dive not locked to DLC purchase

The Bad

Without utilising time travel by changing the system time and date, the length of time it takes to construct buildings can take up to a day to complete. This is an issue carrying over from the base game, so I don't expect it to change. However, it's not difficult to change the system time, so it's just a matter of if you want to play as a purist or utilise the advantage given to you.

Swimming underwater is awkward at times with the jump button increasing your height while actively swimming or not and the R button decreasing your height while swimming. Or you can just slowly float down to the floor. The primary awkwardness comes from trying to suck up all the items in an area as they float in the space they were broken in instead of falling to ground level. However this is only a minor inconvenience for players that's only affected due to the water physics.

TL;DR

• Waiting for building can be tedious
• Swimming controls are a bit awkward

Final Score: 9/10

A large additional town with a free update that allows players to dive underwater and utilise all the space down there as well. Anyone who loves Pokopia’s base game is going to be ecstatic to explore all of the additional content. With just the Bubbly Basin being released, the price point is very expensive; however, a second town is in the pipeline and an update that looks to add accessories to your town residents. I'm feeling very hopeful for the future of this expansion pass. 

Thank you for checking out our Pokémon Pokopia Expansion Pass Switch 2 review, thank you to Nintendo AU/NZ for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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