I started writing this article this morning and thought I'd better play the game a little bit to find out what PokéDefense is all about. It's been an hour now, and I've had to pull myself away to actually write about it. Honestly, the jeopardy of standing at my desk and watching Pokémon trying to get past my defenses has had me on tenterhooks, and it's free to play anytime, anywhere.
PokéDefense is a tower defence game (sorry, I'm always going to spell defence the UK way). That means that you've essentially got to protect a certain point on a map, in this case the exit of a predetermined path, to stop enemies from getting through. You have a certain amount of Poké Dollars to be able to spend on adding Pokémon onto the map, so you have to think strategically about which Pokémon will be best for the job, how many you'll need to complete the task, and how much money you want to save back for future rounds.
There are multiple game modes, with weekly challenges, story journeys, and classic maps where you have to survive 20 waves of enemies across 8 different themed screens. There's a Hardcore mode for those who want to really test their skills, and an Endless mode to keep the party going indefinitely.
You can pick from 6 Pokémon to start off with: the three Kanto Starters, Gastly, Pikachu, and Geodude. Placing Pokémon at strategic points on the map so that they can attack enemies multiple times is key, because if just one enemy critter gets through the gate, it's game over!
Honestly, I'm a huge fan of this game; it takes me back to the days of playing browser-based games when I was in high school instead of learning how to make Word documents in IT classes, and watching episodes of Burnt Face Man and Salad Fingers.
Head to PokéDefense to start playing!
There have also been a wave of other Pokémon-based games heading our way recently, like the Pokémon Arena 2D ROM hack, and another browser-based game All 22 American Football game, for those of you who want some more Pikachu in your American Football games. Procrastination is the name of the game in 2026, and I'm here for it!
