Summary
There’s been quite a long time, and many important events, since 2018.Detective Pikachu Returnsis a very aptly named sequel to the originalDetective Pikachu3DS game released five years ago. While the original game may not have impressed those who enjoy classic Pokemon gameplay, it has at least earned enough love from fans to lead Creatures Inc. to continue the story of Detective Pikachu and Tim Goodman. As a result, there are more cases to crack, puzzles to solve, and pocket monsters and humans to interrogate inDetective Pikachu Returns.
Of course, there was one important event between both games that fans shouldn’t forget about. Just a year after the 3DS game came out, an entire feature-length film sharing theDetective Pikachutitle was released, and this title was no coincidence. In fact,theDetective Pikachumoviewas based on the general story of the game, with the peculiar “R” case taken straight from the 3DS title’s finale.Detective Pikachu Returnshas even decided to reference this itself.
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Detective Pikachu is an In-Universe Movie in Detective Pikachu Returns
If they do, it may be rather perfectly timed, asfans of theDetective Pikachumoviemay wonder why Tim has a sister and a mother after the movie made it clear Tim was an only child and his mother passed away. Just as the movie is justified in-game as a film adapting the “R” case, the sister Sophia asks why she and Tim’s mother weren’t included in the film, to which the boy detective replies that “movies usually do their own thing.” For fans of both the games and the movie, this is a hilarious way to explain why there are discrepancies between both versions of the story.
As there are likely a number of people who took up the Switch game thinking it would be a video game sequel to the movie, which is its own strange combination of true and false, explaining this right away is a great move by thoseat Creatures Inc.that makes for a great meta joke. It also brings the set ofDetective Pikachutitles together in a unique full-circle manner in the sense that the movie that was an adaptation of the first game is now adapted to be an Easter egg in the second title.
This may not be where this cycle ends, either. While theDetective Pikachugames performed well enough to warrant a sequel, so did the movie as there’s asecondDetective Pikachufilm in the worksaccording to some reports. If this is the case, there may be a chance that the way both versions of the franchise reference each other may turn into a mutual act as the film writers could easily squeeze a reference to Tim and Pikachu getting their own video game somewhere. While news about the second movie has yet to surface outside what little has been spoken so far, the fact that fans of the 3DS title finally have their sequel is a great sign that Detective Pikachu isn’t done yet.
