What is Pokémon Ranger?

Pokémon Ranger, developed jointly by Creatures Inc. and HAL Laboratory, was released in Japan on March 23, 2006, before Diamond and Pearl, and in North America on October 30, 2006. It is the last Pokémon game of Generation III and the first built entirely around the DS touch screen. Before release it travelled under the working title The Road to Diamond and Pearl, which is exactly what it turned out to be.

You are a Ranger of the Fiore region, and Rangers do not own Pokémon. With the Capture Styler you draw loops around a wild Pokémon on the touch screen, closing circle after circle before its attacks break your line and drain the Styler's energy. A calmed Pokémon follows you and can spend its strength once, a Poké Assist in a capture or a field move on an obstacle, after which it is released back into the wild with thanks. Only your partner is permanent: Plusle if you play as Solana, Minun if you play as Lunick. Missions, not gyms, structure the story, which pits the Ranger Union against the Go-Rock Squad and its plan for a Super Styler that would control Pokémon outright.

Fiore's Browser, its Pokédex, lists 213 Pokémon from the first three generations. What made the cartridge essential to Generation IV collectors sits past the credits, in the Ranger Net missions and the Manaphy Egg they guard.

Two sequels followed on the DS, Shadows of Almia in 2008 and Guardian Signs in 2010, and the series sold steadily, 2.93 million for the first game alone. A Wii U Virtual Console reissue arrived in 2016, with one quiet loss: that version cannot send the Manaphy Egg, the very thing the game is collected for.