Pokémon Pokopia: Bubbly Basin review – return to gaming’s cosiest post-apocalypse

One of the best games of 2026 gets its first slice of DLC, as Pokémon Pokopia adds an entirely new town to explore and rebuild – only this one’s underwater.

Since it’s been such a good year for quality video games, we had great difficulty narrowing down our list of the best titles of 2026 so far, in our recent half year report. That’s a good problem to have and while we ultimately gave the top spot to 007 First Light, there’s absolutely no point of comparison between it and its closest contender, Pokémon Pokopia – so it really could’ve been either one of them that won.

Although, actually, they do both have one thing in common, in that while they were initially assumed to be of at least reasonable quality, they greatly exceeded expectations. We haven’t enjoyed a Pokémon game as much as this since at least the 3DS era and while next year’s Winds and Waves does look promising, going back to pokémon battles is going to seem a bit of a culture shock after spending all this time helping them to build houses and plant vegetables.

Pokémon Pokopia seemed to be a much bigger hit than Nintendo anticipated, so we did have some concerns about the DLC expansion pass being quickly rushed out, in order to take advantage of the game’s unexpected popularity. The timing already seemed to make that unlikely but having now played the first of the three expansions, we can confirm that it’s just as charming and packed with things to see and do as the parent game.

For those that are not familiar with Pokopia we can only encourage you to give it a try, as no matter how enthusiastically we describe it, it’s still far more captivating than anyone can make it sound. It is fairly easy to describe though, as a cross between Minecraft (or rather Minecraft clone Dragon Quest Builders 2, which co-developer Omega Force made back in 2019) and Animal Crossing. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic (yes, you read that right) version of Kanto from the original Pokémon Red and Blue, where there are no humans and initially just one unusually talented Ditto.

As the Ditto you can partially transform into a number of other pokémon and use their special abilities, from spitting water to flying. You then take it upon yourself to rebuild various Kanto towns, creating the specific habitats which will encourage fellow pokémon to live there. It’s a wonderful game and transforming locations from broken down wastelands (as absurd as it sounds, Fallout 4 is a very obvious point of comparison) to bustling townships is a perfect mix of structured gameplay and sandbox creativity.

The expansion has been announced as having three parts to it and this is the first. It includes a brand new town, on top of the four in the original game – plus a fifth one that’s an empty canvas for you to do whatever you like with, including inviting friends for co-op play. The new one in Bubbly Basin is the ruins of Cerulean City (where Misty’s gym was), which has sunk completely under the waves and, once you install the DLC, can be found off the coast of Bleak Beach (what was Vermillion City).

Nintendo has not revealed much about the other two parts of the expansion pass, but the second one does not add a new town, but instead new clothes and accessories. The third and final part will include a new town though and given how interesting and extensive this one is, that immediately suggests the whole pass is going to be well worth the money. Which is just as well as you can’t purchase the individual parts separately.

Bubbly Basin starts with the appearance of a new island off the coast of Bleak Beach and when you travel over to investigate you find a beached Manaphy who teaches you the Dive move, which has you blowing an oxygen bubble you can enclose your head in, allowing you to dive to any depth for as long as you like. The controls for swimming are very good, allowing you to hover in one place or move up and down with more grace than many an action game.

This is actually part of a free update though, so everyone can use Dive – it’s just you have to buy the expansion pass for the rest of Bubbly Basin to appear. And thank goodness for the Portal Pod, which also comes with the free 2.0.0 update, which allows you to access stored items left in other towns, like the Ender chest in Minecraft or item box in Resident Evil.

Once you get to the seabed you discover the remains of Cerulean City, in all its destroyed glory, and a friendly Popplio who shows you around and gets you settled into the business of attracting more pokémon and doing things like building a submarine and an underwater clocktower.

We had worried that the new town would be smaller and more perfunctory than the others, but it’s not at all. It’s very large, with, if anything, more destroyed ruins than some of the others. And the underwater angle adds some interesting wrinkles to the gameplay, as there’s more emphasis on vertical exploration and construction, with building blocks that float. The deepest parts of the game map are pitch black, so working out how to get electric lighting running underwater is a major task. Although the logic of which objects do and don’t work underwater seems a little random.

There’re also things like new watermelon seeds, that can also be used on land, as well as pearls, and new smoothies. There’s also a whole new range of underwater themed furniture and objects. There’s a range of treasure maps to decipher too, as well as new object blueprints, outfits, and other items.

Pokopia was already a huge game, with a near infinite range of things to do and create, but it could still have done with a few more towns and that is exactly what the expansion pass provides. But it goes the extra mile by ensuring this first one has a distinctive gimmick and is just as imaginative and unique as the existing ones. Which makes the DLC equally as essential as Pokopia itself.

Formats: Nintendo Switch 2
Price: £29.99 (includes all three expansions)
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Omega Force and Game Freak
Release Date: 5th August 2026
Age Rating: 3

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