When Pokémon Pokopia came out earlier this year, it surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. To this day, it’s my favorite game of 2026, thanks in large part to its loving treatment of the Pokémon world and its characters, as well as the compelling gameplay loop that draws on games like Dragon Quest Builders and Animal Crossing. I poured tens of hours into the game when I reviewed it, and kept playing for several more hours even after it was over. I thought I was out, but the new Bubbly Basin DLC brought me right back in.
It all starts with a free update, available to all Pokopia players. Now, Ditto can Surf to a new island in Bleak Beach to learn Dive. This new move lets Ditto explore underwater areas, which comes in handy across the entire game, but particularly in Bleak Beach. Though that is the most impactful component of the free update, all players now have access to new emotes, hair colors, and quality-of-life improvements, including being able to move items in bulk, turning off the annoying confirmation message when canceling certain abilities, and a new Portal Pod that lets you access stored items across all locations. Those all improve the overall experience, but that’s just the starting point if you grab the Expansion Pass for Pokopia.
Those who pick up the Expansion Pass can expect three parts of the premium DLC experience. In this first part, Expansion Pass owners get access to a completely new biome, Bubbly Basin. This new area feels in line with the towns in the base game, giving you a ton of caves to explore, Pokémon to befriend, tasks to take on, builds to complete, and, of course, an environment level to raise. The catch with Bubbly Basin is that it’s almost completely underwater, putting excellent use to Ditto’s new Dive ability. Because of this, it lets you swim in any direction in addition to running around, making the deep underwater caves easier to spelunk.
It may be an underrated aspect of the overall Pokopia package, but Bubbly Basin is aesthetically pleasing. The blue hue doesn’t feel overbearing, and being underwater doesn’t make you feel like you’re moving in slow motion as I had feared. Additionally, I love the juxtaposition between the bright areas bathed in sun and the deep darkness that fills the underwater caves. Lighting some of those caves up with new underwater power rods can also lead to fun discoveries, and I loved exploring these areas on repeat to find new offshoots full of loot and diary entries that further hint at what happened to this iconic city from the Kanto region.
It also seems like the new biome cuts down on the wait times for construction projects, which was a criticism of mine in my original review, as something that felt like it would have been a “ready next day” project only took an hour from the time I kicked off the construction. This is good, as I ran out of meaningful tasks and exploration beyond the main story. Maybe this is because I’m very explorative in Pokopia, and I prioritize that over the story tasks, but I had moments when I was just waiting around for construction projects and tasks to finish during some of my gameplay time.
I haven’t yet completed Bubbly Basin, but the handful of hours I’ve already put into it reminded me just how much I like Pokémon Pokopia, and why it’s still my favorite game of the year going into the extremely busy fall months. With Part 2 introducing more gameplay mechanics (including equippable accessories for Pokémon) and Part 3 adding another biome, I can’t see myself removing Pokopia from my Switch 2 anytime soon. But for now, Bubbly Basin is a great excuse to jump back into Pokopia.
For more, read Game Informer’s Pokémon Pokopia review, and then check out our list of the top-scoring reviews of 2026 so far.
