Pokémon Sleep may have taken forever to be released after it was initially announced, but can you believe it has now been out for a whole year?! As we recently celebrated the first anniversary, I wanted to update my review on the game, and look at how it has progressed in it’s first year.
Pokémon Sleep: The Good
Firstly, this game has the cutest animation style! The Sleep Styles are truly adorable, and I get so excited to find new Pokémon in the game because of how it looks. It isn’t a game that is built around shiny hunting, getting a shiny is welcome bonus, but it isn’t what most researchers are playing the game for. What you hope for is a new Sleep Style, Pokémon have either 3 or 4 possible Sleep Styles, with some being rarer than others. Some will make you gasp with delight at how sweet they are, while others are hilarious, like the ‘gas-venting sleep’ for Pupitar, which basically appears to be a Pupitar farting itself awake as it sleeps.
This game fits fantastically into your daily life. You can get away with only logging into it three or four times per day quite easily: When you wake up to do your research and feed your Snorlax breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, and just before you head off to sleep. You can log in more than that if you wish to, but it isn’t a game that requires huge amounts of time and attention.
Secondly, the other major thing I think is good with Sleep, is that it is a grind. You can buy premium items to help you progress quicker, but a lot of items are only purchasable with Sleep Points, which you cannot buy. The harder level islands feel like a big step up as you progress, and currently the level cap is 60, so there are a whopping 40 more unreleased levels to go. It isn’t a rush to get everything, you literally can’t rush it because of the nature of the game, and that makes it playable long term.
While there are ‘metas’ and opinions on what Pokémon you use, it’s also the sort of game that if you want to run a less than ideal Pokémon, that’s fine too! You aren’t in competition with anyone else, and can play entirely at your own pace.
Pokémon Sleep: The Bad
In terms of the negatives, there is one major glaring problem with this game. The cost. There is a subscription option that gives you premium items and certain boosts that I personally use, but if you are aiming to buy diamonds (the currency in Sleep), wow does it get expensive quickly. The cost of diamonds vs what you can actually get for them is quite outrageous. It makes Pokémon GO look affordable. It is truly wild what your cash money can get, and I’d advise being very careful over your spending in this game because it is SO expensive. It is entirely playable without spending any money, but of course as with any freemium game, you’ll progress a lot slower than those spending.
The other thing I think that is really of note is that the game can be a little slow, the menus can take a hot second to load which can be frustrating. However, this is something that has been noted, and is being worked on for future updates!
Finally, a minor gripe. The friend’s list is only 50 spaces, and it just feels way too small!
Pokémon Sleep: The Great
Pokémon Sleep has mastered the ‘slow trickle’ that is needed to keep a game like Pokémon Sleep, or Pokémon GO, alive long term. I’d actually say the developers of this game probably looked at GO, and saw how it is now struggling for new Pokémon to release without catching up to the main series, and took note. We started out with a fairly random selection of Pokémon that included the Kanto and Johto starters, and a variety of other Pokémon including Kangaskhan, Sableye, Houndour, Gastly, Psyduck and more.
Since the game began various events have introduced new Pokémon, but it is a trickle. This year we’ve seen Cramorant, Clefairy, Vulpix, Dratini, Shuppet, Onix, Mr Mime, Snover, Dedenne, Delibird, Ralts, Stufful, Comfey, the Paldean Starters, Raikou, Suicune and Entei released. Three legendaries, and the rest a fairly random mix of Pokémon. Oh, and we can’t forget, we’ve had a couple of costume Pikachu too!
There are SO many more Pokémon that can be added to Sleep for different events, I’m not worried about how it will progress at all. I’d speculate that we’ll get a new ghost or dark type come October for the Halloween event, and that will probably be the last new Pokémon we see until December. It isn’t a game that feels like it constantly needs new Pokémon because it is a long grind.
Introducing Legendary Pokémon at such a slow rate, that within the first year, we only have three in game, is a decision that seems really beneficial to keeping this game viable long term. The Legendaries are accessible during their debut events, and as incredibly rare spawns afterwards, so whether you are free to play, or a whale, you will be able to obtain them.
I’ll be so intrigued to see how Sleep handles their first Mythical Pokémon! Could we see a Mythical in year two of Sleep? I hope so!
Another thing that the developers behind Sleep have absolutely smashed out the park, has been how they’ve dealt with in-game errors and problems. When things have gone wrong, they’ve addressed publicly what the issue is, and how/when they plan to fix it. They regularly publish articles talking about the known bugs and when they will be fixed by. It’s refreshing to see a company discuss their inadequacies so openly. When there have been big problems with the game, as an apology, we’ve had some incredible premium items given to us to apologise. As a GO player, it can feel like Niantic can be hit or miss with addressing issues, and how they fix them, but SELECT BUTTON, the team behind Sleep, have clearly made customer satisfaction a major priority, and it shows.
Pokémon Sleep: The Conclusion
Honestly, I am surprised more GO players haven’t taken this game up! It’s a fantastic mobile game, it works well with the GO Plus+, and it easily fits in with your GO routine without taking up much time. It’s cute and fun, you’ll fall in love with Pokémon you otherwise might not have, and your biggest aim with the game is to get a good nights sleep! The game is doing fairly well, with over 20 million downloads so far, and I can see it being a sleeper hit, growing slowly over time while other Pokémon games drift off. (See what I did there?)
If you’ve not given this game a go, I highly recommend it. It’s such a lovely part of my daily routine now, and I really adore it!
