Detective Pikachu Switch sequel reportedly spotted — inside Monster Rancher

Detective Pikachu made its debut on 3DS in 2016. Since then, the electric mouse sleuth has starred in the highest-grossing video game movie and made an appearance in Pokemon Go. That happened in 2019, which feels like a lifetime ago at this point. Since then, we haven’t heard anything more about a new Detective Pikachu game — until now.

Resetera user CyberWolfJV started a thread to report finding something called “Untitled Detective Pikachu sequel” in Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX on Nintendo Switch. CyberWolfJV claims to have been reviewing the game when they saw the sequel name-dropped while summoning monsters. For those unaware, the original Monster Rancher games allowed you to swap discs on PlayStation to summon different monsters. In the new Switch version, this is replaced by searching video game titles across PS1, Saturn, and Switch — and an untitled Detective Pikachu sequel came up in the results.

This is the first we’ve heard of a sequel since a new game was teased on Twitter in 2019 (what a banner year for Detective Pikachu). At the time, the official Pokemon feed said that details “were still a mystery” and that fans should “keep checking back for more clues.” Those clues never came, and it was unknown if the Switch game would be a port or a full-blown sequel. If this report is true, it’s the first time a sequel has specifically been mentioned.