Series guide
All Pokémon spin-off games in order
By Lenn Hodes · founder — every cartridge tested by hand
“Is this a Pokémon game too?” — we get that question about the stranger boxes on the shelf, and the answer is almost always yes. Outside the main series there are 38 Pokémon games on a Nintendo cartridge or disc: photography, pinball, a card game, a typing course, battle simulators, a samurai strategy game. Below they are in release order with the platform marked, because those are the copies we stock and test; after the table, what each branch actually is and what to check before you buy one second-hand.
The short answer
Thirty-eight spin-offs exist on a European cartridge or disc, from Pokémon Stadium (2000) to Detective Pikachu Returns (2023). None of them needs a main-series game first. If you pick one: Explorers of Sky for a story, New Pokémon Snap for something calm, Conquest for strategy, Rumble for a young child.
Tested Pokémon spin-offs in stock
Ranger, Rumble, Mystery Dungeon, Conquest, Dash, PokéPark, Colosseum, Snap — every copy play-tested on real hardware, save included, and listed exactly as it is, loose or boxed.
Pokemon Pinball mini (Pokemon Mini)
Personally tested · Good condition
Pocket Monsters Stadium (JP, NTSC-J)
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokken Tournament DX
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokken Tournament
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Colosseum - French edition (without Memory Card)
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Box: Ruby & Sapphire
Personally tested · Good condition
Super Pokemon Rumble
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Rumble World
Personally tested · Good condition
Detective Pikachu
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Rumble World
Personally tested · Good condition
Super Pokemon Rumble
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Dash
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Ranger
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Ranger (USA)
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Conquest (USA)
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Ranger
Personally tested · Good condition
Pokemon Dash
Personally tested · Good condition
Every Pokémon spin-off game in order
Physical European releases only — cartridges and discs you can still buy. The year is the European release; the platform links to our list of every Pokémon game on that system.
| # | Game | Type | Platform | Year (EU) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pokémon Stadium | Battle simulator | Nintendo 64 | 2000 |
| 2 | Pokémon Snap | Photography | Nintendo 64 | 2000 |
| 3 | Pokémon Pinball | Pinball | Game Boy Color | 2000 |
| 4 | Pokémon Trading Card Game | Card game RPG | Game Boy Color | 2000 |
| 5 | Pokémon Puzzle League | Puzzle | Nintendo 64 | 2001 |
| 6 | Pokémon Puzzle Challenge | Puzzle | Game Boy Color | 2001 |
| 7 | Pokémon Stadium 2 | Battle simulator | Nintendo 64 | 2001 |
| 8 | Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire | Pinball | Game Boy Advance | 2003 |
| 9 | Pokémon Channel | Virtual pet | GameCube | 2004 |
| 10 | Pokémon Colosseum | RPG (Orre) | GameCube | 2004 |
| 11 | Pokémon Box: Ruby & Sapphire | Storage tool | GameCube | 2004 |
| 12 | Pokémon Dash | Racing | Nintendo DS | 2005 |
| 13 | Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness | RPG (Orre) | GameCube | 2005 |
| 14 | Pokémon Link! (Trozei!) | Puzzle | Nintendo DS | 2006 |
| 15 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team | Mystery Dungeon | Game Boy Advance | 2006 |
| 16 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team | Mystery Dungeon | Nintendo DS | 2006 |
| 17 | Pokémon Ranger | Ranger | Nintendo DS | 2007 |
| 18 | Pokémon Battle Revolution | Battle simulator | Wii | 2007 |
| 19 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time | Mystery Dungeon | Nintendo DS | 2008 |
| 20 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness | Mystery Dungeon | Nintendo DS | 2008 |
| 21 | Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia | Ranger | Nintendo DS | 2008 |
| 22 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky | Mystery Dungeon | Nintendo DS | 2009 |
| 23 | PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure | Adventure | Wii | 2010 |
| 24 | Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs | Ranger | Nintendo DS | 2010 |
| 25 | Super Pokémon Rumble | Rumble | Nintendo 3DS | 2011 |
| 26 | PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond | Adventure | Wii | 2012 |
| 27 | Pokémon Conquest | Strategy | Nintendo DS | 2012 |
| 28 | Learn with Pokémon: Typing Adventure | Typing tutor | Nintendo DS | 2012 |
| 29 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity | Mystery Dungeon | Nintendo 3DS | 2013 |
| 30 | Pokémon Art Academy | Drawing lessons | Nintendo 3DS | 2014 |
| 31 | Pokémon Rumble World | Rumble | Nintendo 3DS | 2016 |
| 32 | Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon | Mystery Dungeon | Nintendo 3DS | 2016 |
| 33 | Pokkén Tournament | Fighting | Wii U | 2016 |
| 34 | Pokkén Tournament DX | Fighting | Nintendo Switch | 2017 |
| 35 | Detective Pikachu | Adventure | Nintendo 3DS | 2018 |
| 36 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX | Mystery Dungeon | Nintendo Switch | 2020 |
| 37 | New Pokémon Snap | Photography | Nintendo Switch | 2021 |
| 38 | Detective Pikachu Returns | Adventure | Nintendo Switch | 2023 |
Not in the table because they were never sold on a cartridge or disc in Europe: Pokémon Rumble (WiiWare, 2009), Pokémon Rumble U (Wii U, 2013), Pokémon Shuffle and Pokémon Picross (3DS eShop), and Pokémon Quest, Café ReMix and Unite on the Switch. Hey You, Pikachu! on the N64 stayed in Japan and North America. Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Eevee! are main-series games (Yellow retold), so they are on the Switch list, not here.
The three branches with their own list
Mystery Dungeon
The biggest branch by far: you are the Pokémon, exploring dungeons that change every visit. Eight releases from the GBA to the Switch, two of them paired versions, and Explorers of Sky the one everyone wants. All Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games in order.
Ranger
Three DS games where you capture by drawing loops around a Pokémon with the stylus — the series that gave the touchscreen a job no other Pokémon game did. Shadows of Almia is the usual entry point. All Pokémon Ranger games in order.
Rumble
Wind-up toy Pokémon bashing into each other in small arenas. No turns, no type chart, just running and one attack button — the lightest Pokémon games there are, and the right ones for a six-year-old. Two exist on a 3DS cartridge. All Pokémon Rumble games in order.
Battles on a television: Stadium, Colosseum, XD and Battle Revolution
The oldest branch. Pokémon Stadium on the Nintendo 64 had no story — the point was the Transfer Pak, which read your Red, Blue or Yellow cartridge and put your own team on the television in 3D. Stadium 2 did the same for Gold, Silver and Crystal. On the GameCube the idea grew a story: Colosseum (2004) and XD: Gale of Darkness (2005) are full RPGs set in the desert region of Orre, where you build a team by snatching Shadow Pokémon from other trainers — Colosseum has no wild Pokémon at all, XD adds a handful of Poké Spots. Battle Revolution on the Wii (2007) went back to pure battling, reading Diamond and Pearl wirelessly. Every one of these is on our N64, GameCube and Wii lists with a note on what a complete copy should contain.
Photographs instead of Poké Balls: Snap
Pokémon Snap turns the whole idea around: you sit in a cart on a fixed track and take pictures. Points for pose, size and whether the creature is looking at you. The original was on the Nintendo 64 in 2000; New Pokémon Snap (Switch, 2021) does the same with far more routes and Pokémon. It is a calm game, and for that reason one of the few Pokémon titles that works for someone who does not enjoy battling.
Samurai on a grid: Conquest
Pokémon Conquest (DS, 2012) is a crossover with Nobunaga’s Ambition, a Japanese strategy series about the sixteenth century. You conquer territories with armies of warlords, each bound to a single Pokémon, and the fighting happens on a grid with movement ranges and lines of sight. It looks like nothing else in the series and is by far the most tactical of the lot. It is also one of the scarcer titles: released once, at the end of the DS era, never followed up or re-released.
The small ones
Each odd in its own way. Pokémon Dash (DS, 2005) is a racing game where you push Pikachu forward by rubbing the stylus across the screen — it mostly existed to show what a touchscreen could do. Pokémon Pinball (Game Boy Color) and Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire (GBA) are exactly what the names say, with a rumble motor in the cartridge. Pokémon Trading Card Game (Game Boy Color) is the card game as an RPG, and a good one. Puzzle League (N64) and Puzzle Challenge (Game Boy Color) are Panel de Pon in Pokémon clothes — the first wearing the anime, the second Johto. Pokémon Channel is a Pikachu watching television. Pokémon Box is not a game but storage for your Ruby and Sapphire teams. Learn with Pokémon: Typing Adventure came with its own wireless keyboard and never reached North America. Art Academy teaches you to draw them. The two PokéPark games are gentle Wii adventures for children, Pokkén Tournament is a fighting game, and Detective Pikachu is the adventure that became the film — Returns on the Switch is its sequel.
Which one is for you
| You want… | Get | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| A story to disappear into | Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky | Nintendo DS |
| Something calm, no battling | New Pokémon Snap | Nintendo Switch |
| A game for a young child | Rumble World or Super Pokémon Rumble | Nintendo 3DS |
| A real strategy puzzle | Pokémon Conquest | Nintendo DS |
| Your own team fighting in 3D | Pokémon Stadium 2 | Nintendo 64 |
| An RPG with a darker twist | Pokémon Colosseum or XD | GameCube |
| Something found nowhere else | Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia | Nintendo DS |
Buying Pokémon spin-offs second-hand
Region matters on the N64, GameCube, Wii and 3DS — not on the DS or Switch
Stadium, Snap, Colosseum, XD, Battle Revolution, PokéPark and every 3DS spin-off are region-locked: a Japanese or American copy will not run on a European console. The Game Boy line, the DS and the Switch are region-free, so an American Conquest or Dash plays fine on a European DS. We state the region on every listing.
Stadium needs the Transfer Pak, Box needs the cable and the memory card
Pokémon Stadium and Stadium 2 read your Game Boy cartridge through the Transfer Pak — bundled with the first Stadium, not always with the second — and without it you are playing with rental teams. Pokémon Box shipped with a GameCube–Game Boy Advance link cable and a memory card, and those two are most of what a complete copy is worth. Check what a used copy still includes before you pay a complete price.
Pinball is a thicker cartridge with its own battery
The Game Boy Color Pinball is the only Game Boy Color Pokémon cartridge with a rumble motor, so it takes an AAA battery on top of the save battery. Its GBA sequel, Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire, does the same trick. A flat rumble battery is normal and harmless; a flat save battery on the GBC one means the high scores are gone.
Ranger wears the touchscreen, Battle Revolution lost its online half
A Ranger game asks more of the stylus and the screen than any other Pokémon title, so a DS whose touchscreen still responds cleanly matters more here than for a main-series game. Battle Revolution was the first Wii game with Wi-Fi play, and that half died with the Wi-Fi Connection in 2014 — what remains is local play and your own DS teams.
Rumble World: the cartridge is now the only version
Rumble World started as a free-to-start eShop download in 2015 and got a boxed European cartridge in January 2016 with everything unlocked. The eShop route closed in 2023, so the cartridge is the version that still exists — and unlike the download it has no paid extras.
Conquest, Guardian Signs and Explorers of Sky were printed once
They came out late in the DS run, in small numbers, and were never reprinted or re-released. That is why a spin-off can cost more than a main-series game from the same year: there are simply fewer copies. A genuine cartridge that saves is the whole question — which is what we test on every copy.
Every copy tested before it is listed
Booting, saving, reloading, label, contacts — checked on real hardware. We have been doing this since 2019, with 1400+ verified reviews at 5.0★, and we ship tracked to all 27 EU countries. Originals only; if something ever turns out not to be genuine, you get your money back.
Browse tested Pokémon gamesQuestions we get asked
What counts as a Pokémon spin-off game?
Every Pokémon game that is not part of the main series — the games where you catch, train and battle through a region for badges. Stadium, Snap, Colosseum, Ranger, Rumble, Conquest, Mystery Dungeon, Pinball, Pokkén and Detective Pikachu are all spin-offs. They stand alone; you do not need to have played a main game first.
How many Pokémon spin-off games are there?
38 exist on a European Nintendo cartridge or disc, from Pokémon Stadium in 2000 to Detective Pikachu Returns in 2023. There are more if you count download-only games such as Pokémon Rumble on WiiWare, Rumble U, Shuffle, Quest and Unite, but those cannot be bought second-hand.
Which Pokémon spin-off is the best one to start with?
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky on the DS if you want a story, New Pokémon Snap on the Switch if you want something calm, and Pokémon Conquest on the DS if you want a real strategy game. For a young child, Rumble World or Super Pokémon Rumble on the 3DS.
Which Pokémon spin-off games are on the Nintendo DS?
Dash, Link! (Trozei!), Blue Rescue Team, Ranger, Explorers of Time and Darkness, Ranger: Shadows of Almia, Explorers of Sky, Ranger: Guardian Signs, Conquest and Learn with Pokémon: Typing Adventure — eleven in total, and all of them also play on a DS Lite, DSi, 3DS and 2DS.
Which Pokémon spin-off games are on the Switch?
Pokkén Tournament DX (2017), Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (2020), New Pokémon Snap (2021) and Detective Pikachu Returns (2023) exist on a cartridge. Pokémon Quest, Café ReMix and Unite are download-only. Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! are not counted here: they retell Yellow and belong to the main series, so they are on our Switch list.
What is the difference between Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Colosseum?
Stadium (Nintendo 64) is a battle simulator without a story: you load your own team from a Game Boy cartridge through the Transfer Pak and watch it fight in 3D. Colosseum (GameCube) is a full RPG with a story, set in the Orre region, where you snatch Shadow Pokémon from other trainers instead of catching wild ones.
Are Pokémon spin-off games region-locked?
It depends on the console, not the game. Nintendo 64, GameCube, Wii and 3DS games are region-locked, so a Japanese or American copy needs a console from that region. Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, DS and Switch games are region-free and play on any console.
Do you ship outside the Netherlands?
We ship to all 27 EU countries with track & trace. Parcels leave from the Netherlands, there are no customs charges within the EU, and your country’s exact rate appears at checkout before you pay.
Years given are the European release; Japan and North America were sometimes earlier. The main series is on all Pokémon games in order. Deze gids in het Nederlands.