Think Mario Party but with Pokemon.
If, like me, you remember the Pokemon Stadium games, then you likely remember the mini-games that were included. Pokemon Stadium was supposedly more about battling through arenas and defeating gym leaders. I know a majority of my time and entertainment was in playing the mini-games.
These mini-games were all little quirky games that usually centered around a Pokemon. The Chancy game that involved catching eggs was my personal favorite of these. But all of them were fun. So the thought came to have a Pokemon game that was a collection of cute, fun mini-games came to mind. Then the thought occurred that it could be structured like Mario Party!
The different boards could be based on different regions. And maybe, depending on what board played on, the game can also determine what Pokemon mini-games can be played. For example, the 1st generation of Pokemon mini-games would only appear in Kanto. At the very least, they could have a larger chance of appearing, since it is a large task to create a unique game for every individual Pokemon. Either having multiple Pokemon in one mini-game or not including the entire roster of Pokemon might be a more realistic task for developers. It would also eliminate having mini-games that are too similar in nature.
As players travel around the board, they can collect badges that can be lost or stolen by other players. How would this happen? Having the players on the board start from different locations, and then, as they run into one another on the map, they will need to battle in a 1 VS 1. The player that loses will need to forfeit one of their badges. If the winner doesn’t have the badge, they can take it. If they already have it, then it will simply be lost. Whoever can get all 8 or the most badges are the end of the game is the winner.
As they play, there can be items to derail other players, like using an item that throws a Snorlax in their path to make them lose a turn or speed up their own journey by getting the bicycle, so they can move twice as far in a turn.
Maybe it doesn’t need to be a game on its own. Just include it in the next Pokemon Stadium, Nintendo. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.