Three years following a reveal in the NHK TV Show, the Professionals, the next 3DS piece of software was announced. This piece of software is a detective game where you play as a trainer who solves crimes with his loveable smug talking Pikachu.

In the game, the human Tim Goodman arrives in Rhyme City, to look for his father, who went missing 2 months ago, where he soon meets the Pikachu. They team up in order to solve puzzles and solve mysteries in various Locations

Only Tim can understand the Pikachu and using their abilities, they go through Rhyme City to solve the crimes. This is done by getting clues from the various people and Pokémon throughout the city and then piecing together the clues based on what has been said. The game also has various quick-time events where you have to press the A button at the right time, or enough times, in order for the story to proceed. If you fail, the story continues but the animations are slightly different. There are 3 separate Cases to go through in the game

The game ended with a To Be Continued and was followed up by a full retail version of the game, including the first part, in March of 2018.

The game also spun off into a live action Hollywood movie called Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.