Pokémon Friends, a New Pokémon Brain Teaser Game, Is Out Now on Mobile and Nintendo Switch

During today’s Pokémon Presents, The Pokémon Company announced a brand new Pokémon spin-off game. It’s called Pokémon Friends, and it’s a daily brain teaser game featuring lots of Pokémon-themed puzzles.

In the trailer, we got a look at a number of examples of the sorts of puzzles we’ll encounter in Pokémon Friends. The first one showed a design of tiles with light bulbs on them, asking players to draw a line from one tile that touched every single other tile only once. Another had a player sliding lined tiles around to connect a path so that water could flow from one side to the other. Still others involved connecting train tracks, predicting which balloons wouldn’t be popped by a flying arrow, sliding around an ice maze, and more.

All the games are themed around Pokémon such as Pikachu, Piplup, Mudkip, Sableye, and more. Completing puzzles gets the player in-game Pokemon plush items that they can use to decorate a virtual room.

Pokémon Friends is out right now on iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch. It costs $9.99 on Nintendo Switch, and is “free to start” on mobile but eventually will block the player from progressing without paying. The game purports to feature over 1,200 different puzzles.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.