Pokémon Sun

Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon trademarks were registered thus leaking the next Pokémon game titles to the public. Pokémon.com confirmed the games would be for the Nintendo 3DS and released in holiday 2016, with…

86 18 November 2016

Adventure Role-playing (RPG) Strategy Turn-based strategy (TBS) Party Science fiction

Pokémon Sun is an adventure developed by Game Freak, released 18 November 2016 on Nintendo 3DS. The main story takes about 33.7 hrs to finish.

Verified 15 Oct 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What Pokémon Sun is

Pokémon Sun is an adventure game developed by Game Freak and released in 2016. It was published by Nintendo. It is available on Nintendo 3DS only.

The premise, in the publisher's words

Embark on a new adventure as a Pokémon Trainer and catch, battle, and trade all-new Pokémon on the tropical islands of the Alola Region. Discover the Z-Moves and unleash these intense attacks in battle. Call upon Pokémon with Poké Ride to discover new areas across the region and take on the Island Challenge Trials to become the Pokémon Champion! Choose one of three new partner Pokémon that will accompany you as you set out on an all-new adventure and discover new Pokémon and regional variant Pokémon in the Alola region. Catch and train Pokémon as you encounter captains, and kahunas of the 4 main Islands of the region. Discover the mystery of the Legendary Pokémon while stopping Team Skull…

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a third person perspective. Its themes are party and science fiction. It supports multiplayer for up to 4 players online. Local play supports 2 players. Available modes: Multiplayer and Single player.

Where it sits in the Pokémon series

Pokémon Sun is the 219th of 306 entries we hold in the Pokémon series. The next entry was Pokémon Moon in 2016. Its critic score of 86 is 12 points above the series average of 74. The highest-rated entry is Super Smash Bros. Melee at 100.

See all 306 Pokémon games in release order →

How it was received

Pokémon Sun holds a critic score of 86 out of 100. That places it above 86% of the 7,525 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2016 averaged 68, so it scored 18 points above the year average. Players rate it 80, 6 points lower than critics did — a gap worth knowing about before you buy.

How long it takes, and what that costs

The main story runs about 33.7 hrs.

What it launched against

Pokémon Sun launched on 18 November 2016, within three weeks of Dishonored 2, Final Fantasy XV, Titanfall 2 and The Last Guardian. It reviewed better than 2 of the 4.

Released around the same time: Dishonored 2, Final Fantasy XV, Titanfall 2, The Last Guardian.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Pokémon Sun yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

Know one? Send it in and we will test it →