Pokemon Pokopia is like a brilliantly bizarre blend of Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Dragon Quest Builders, and Viva Piñata.

This week, the newest game in the Pokémon franchise arrives with the long-awaited debut of Pokopia. I played the company’s first-ever life-simulation game to see if it was worth the wait.

Given the recent love for Pokémon stuff that simply lets you watch them hang out in different environments ( New Pokémon Snap, Detective Pikachu, Pokémon GO, etc), it's astonishing that it took this ...