Pokemon Ultra Sun

Pokémon Ultra Sun is an expanded version of Sun from 2016 and once again takes the player to the tropical Alola region, where island trials led by each island's captain await instead of classic gyms. The basic structure of the game remains the same – catching and training pocket monsters, battling other trainers, and progressing through trials toward the final league – but the Ultra versions add an expanded story tied to the mysterious Ultra Wormholes and beings from other dimensions that reach Alola through rifts in space.

Compared to the original versions, Ultra Sun offers several new locations, a revised postgame, and the ability to catch exotic Ultra Beasts in special dimensional challenges. The game also expands the selection of available Pokémon with regional Alolan forms and adds a set of characters and side quests that were missing from the original. The battle system remains turn-based, built on the classic type triangle of advantages and disadvantages, supplemented with island-exclusive Z-Moves that are activated with a special gesture and give battles a flashy visual spectacle. Besides the main story, the game also offers an extensive postgame with beauty contests, battle arenas, and the collector's chase to complete the Pokédex.

For 3DS owners, it was the last major generational addition to the series on this platform before Pokémon moved to the Nintendo Switch, and the Ultra versions thus function as a kind of farewell to the traditional handheld style of play that had accompanied the series since its very beginnings. Thanks to its expanded content and longer playtime, it ranks among the most extensive titles of the series on 3DS, and many players turn to it specifically for the amount of side content that was missing from the base version.

Why play it: Expanded Alolan adventures with bonus content and dimensional monsters on top of the base versions.