It's a shame, because I feel like those are the games they could focus on when they say they want their development teams to focus on other things so they can go back to Pokémon with fresh ideas. I know it sounds ironic that they would move from Pokémon main games to spin offs, like, I suppose the point of it all is moving away from Pokémon altogether, but I think even if it was still Pokémon themed, they could take the chance to explore all kinds of new gameplays and styles and graphics and whatnot.
I always felt like those spin-offs were the games that could totally stay away from the main game formula, that could totally and understandably have a cut roster, introduce all kinds of stories and characters, and mechanics and items and whatever they needed.
I still play Pokémon Shuffle to this day, every day, and I play Pokémon Go, they're fun, they're simple, they're addictive, but they feel incomplete to me. They don't feel like real games, mainly because graphically they're very simple, for more updates that they get, a mobile game will never feel as complete as a console game.
Detective Pikachu was a strange choice and I still don't understand the idea behind it or how it came about, and I think I didn't even finish it, because it was very boring, to me. But I appreciated the effort of trying to do something unprecedented in the Pokémon franchise, and you know, bring a whole new experience. Pokken was a nice attempt too (I would've preferred something more like Smash or like an actual Tekken game, but again, the idea is appreciated).
I just think it's such a waste of potential.
I love platform games, or however you call all those games like Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Crash Bandicoot, etc. My dream would be to have a platform Pokémon game, with several worlds and levels and bosses. You could use obviously Pikachu and maybe a selection of Pokémon you would befriend along the way. Maybe have some power-ups, I don't know. I think Pokémon needs something like that. Mystery Dungeon was amazing in the sense that you could be any Pokémon (in the latest game that was done) but the gameplay is what prevents it from being more popular, I think. I'm convinced they need a spin-off that is so much more fast paced, with more action, that you can actually move the Pokémon around like you do in Super Smash. Whenever I play the classic mode in Smash with a Pokémon character, when I reach that part where you have to destroy the boxes and run for your life in that maze-like platform level, I'm always like, damn, I wish this was a full game, with other Pokémon acting as enemies and whatnot.
But yeah, each time I lose more hopes that they explore that route, and I think from now on we'll only get mobile games, and maybe just some adaptations like Quest (which was really boring and ugly looking, but hey, they tried).
