Image via The Pokémon Company
Published Oct 4, 2026, 7:15 PM EDT
Hannah covers horror, sci-fi, and games at Collider, where she writes news and features, reviews new releases, and interviews the people who make them. She’s helping build out Collider’s gaming coverage, with Pokémon as one of her specialties. If she isn’t writing about a monster, she’s probably watching one on a tape from her VHS collection.
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Pokémon’s ghosts have always understood the assignment when it comes to Halloween. Some are adorable enough to make you forget their unsettling Pokédex entries, while others make their intentions considerably harder to ignore. Either way, they’re an essential part of the season for trainers who prefer their Pokémon with a little supernatural mischief.
That makes October a particularly good excuse to bring some spooky residents into a Pokémon community. Seasonal decorations help set the mood, but a pumpkin-shaped neighbor is an even better addition. And when celebrating involves surprising the other Pokémon in town, the opportunity for trouble practically takes care of itself.
Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist are coming to Pokémon Pokopia through a Halloween event running from October 17 through November 1. The announcement introduces a seasonal activity centered on collecting Pumpkin Candy, which players can exchange for furniture and other items inspired by a midnight festival. Both Pokémon can become friends during the event, although welcoming each one involves a different step. Players will first meet Pumpkaboo near the Pokémon Center, where listening to its request begins the process of befriending it. Collecting the event’s candy then opens the way to the seasonal rewards. Those items also serve a practical purpose: building the appropriate habitat allows players to befriend Gourgeist.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Iconic Fandom Should You Join? Harry Potter · Lord of the Rings · Star Wars · Star Trek
Eight honest questions about how you actually are: what you put on when you need cheering up, how deep you go into the things you love, what you argue about, what you keep on your shelf. Answer them and we will tell you where you belong. Four of the biggest fandoms on earth are taking new members, and they could not be more different from one another.
⚡Harry Potter(Wizarding World)
💍Lord of the Rings(Middle-earth)
⚔️Star Wars(A Galaxy Far Away)
🖖Star Trek(The Final Frontier)
FIND YOUR PEOPLE →
01
What do you put on when you need cheering up? Nobody is brave about this one.
AThe same thing I have watched a hundred times. BSomething long, slow and beautiful. CSomething big and loud with a great score. DOne clever episode of something hopeful.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
How deep do you go into something you love? There is no shallow end here, only different deep ends.
AI know every character and all the gossip. BI have read the appendices and studied the maps. CI have a ranked opinion on every instalment. DI want to know how the world actually works.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What do you and your friends actually argue about? Every fandom has one argument it has been having for years.
AWhich one of us is which type. BWhether the adaptation got it right. CWhether the new stuff ruined the old stuff. DWhether the right thing was actually done.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
How do you feel about a room full of strangers? Every one of these comes with a very big room.
AGreat, and I will know everybody by the end. BFine, as long as they take it seriously. CBrilliant, especially if there is something to dress up for. DHappy, provided the conversation is interesting.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
Where would you rather spend a week? Pick on instinct rather than on budget.
AAn old castle somewhere rainy. BMountains, long walks, no phone signal. CA desert with an unbelievable night sky. DA city built around a university.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What do you believe about people, mostly? All four of these stories have an answer, and they disagree.
AMost of them turn out better than expected. BThe smallest ones decide the biggest things. CAnybody can change, even very late on. DWe work it out if we keep talking.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What is actually on your shelf? Look over at it before you answer.
AEverything I owned when I was twelve. BHardbacks, in order, read more than once. CFigures, posters, and a few things still boxed. DBooks about how things work, plus a model or two.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What do you actually want from a story? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your fandom.
AA place I can go back to whenever I need it. BA world complete enough to get lost in. CSomething huge I can share with everybody. DAn idea that changes how I think.
REVEAL MY FANDOM →
Membership Confirmed Your Fandom Is…
Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you would be having within a week.
Harry Potter
You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting you.
- You are drawn to belonging, which is why this fandom sorted itself into houses within about five minutes and has never stopped.
- This is the most social of the four, and the one most likely to know which type every single person in your life would be.
- The books are built to be reread rather than analysed, and rereading is exactly what you do with things you love.
- The new HBO series is bringing the whole thing back one book at a time, which means the arguments are about to start all over again.
Lord of the Rings
You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.
- You like the sense that the story you are reading is only the visible part of something enormous, which is precisely how Tolkien built it.
- This fandom takes adaptation seriously to a degree that other fandoms find slightly alarming, and it has good reasons for that.
- Your favourite thing about the books is probably the bit that is not action at all, which is the walking, the songs and the long goodbyes.
- Nobody here thinks heroism belongs to the powerful, and the whole story exists to make that argument.
Star Wars
You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.
- You want something you can share with absolutely everybody, from a six year old to a grandparent, and this is the only one on the list that really does that.
- Nobody argues like Star Wars fans argue, and the argument has been running since roughly 1980 with no sign of resolution.
- The pull here is sensory before it is narrative, since it is the sound design, the score and the look of a used and dented galaxy.
- You would be first in the queue, in costume, with strong opinions and a genuinely good time.
Star Trek
You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.
- You are an optimist in a way that is currently unfashionable, and this is the only major franchise still willing to say the future might be better.
- The best episodes are the ones where nobody fires anything, which is a sentence that makes perfect sense to this fandom and to nobody else.
- Starfleet Academy brought the franchise back to a classroom in 2026, which is appropriate, because Trek has always been a bit of a seminar.
- You would want the conversation afterwards more than the episode itself, and here you will always find somebody willing to have it.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
‘Pokémon Pokopia’ Turns Trick-or-Treating Into a Transformation Game
Getting Pumpkin Candy involves transforming into furniture or other objects that Pokémon like. Players then wait for a Pokémon to approach and surprise it, earning candy to spend at the Pokémon Center. It’s an appropriately playful way to celebrate Halloween; turning the familiar neighborhood tradition into an excuse to become part of the decorations. The rewards connect the activity to the town itself. Collecting candy provides new pieces to decorate with, and putting those pieces to use creates the conditions for another Pokémon to move in. That gives the seasonal furniture a role beyond looking festive, making the Halloween preparations part of expanding the community.
There is some preparation to do before the event begins. The official announcement requires version 2.0.1, completion of the relevant town requests, reconstruction of the Pokémon Center, and learning the imitation ability from Zorua. Players also need their Nintendo Switch 2’s date and time set correctly and an internet connection when starting the event for the first time. Most reassuringly, the Pokémon befriended through the event will remain in town after it ends. Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist can therefore become lasting additions to the community, even once the candy collecting is over. For players who want Halloween to leave something behind besides a collection of furniture, that’s a particularly appealing reward.
Pokémon Pokopia is available on Nintendo Switch 2, and its Halloween event begins October 17. There’s still time to prepare the town for two new residents who should feel right at home among the pumpkins.
Release Date 1997 - 2023-00-00
Network TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, TVh, TVQ, TSC
Directors Shigeru Omachi, Koji Ogawa, Fumihiro Ueno, Hideki Hiroshima, Maki Kodaira, Makoto Ooga, Ayumi Moriyama, Keitaro Motonaga, Shigeru Ueda, Fumihiro Yoshimura, Minoru Ohara, Yoshitaka Makino, Kiyoshi Egami, Makoto Sokuza, Bjarne Heuser, Naoki Murata, Kenichi Nishida, Tomoe Makino, Masahiko Watanabe, Hiroaki Takagi, Tazumi Mukaiyama, Ryohei Horiuchi, Yoshihiro Oda, Hiromichi Matano
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Rica Matsumoto
Satoshi (voice)
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Ikue Otani
Pikachu (voice)
