Pokemon Pokopia launched earlier this week to fantastic critical acclaim, but developer Omega Force is losing goodwill among players thanks to an upcoming event that’s leaving a bitter taste in the mouth.

Starting on March 9, an event called ‘More Spores for Hoppip’ will be hosted in the game. This will run until March 24, during which time players will be able to attract Hoppip, Skiploom and Jumpluff to their island.

While this is a neat idea that sees the game garner more Pokemon as time goes on, players were less thrilled to learn that once the event ends, those monsters will no longer be available to attract.

The event’s announcement reads: “These Pokémon can’t be encountered outside of this event, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to welcome these new friends to your towns.”

Players will also need to ensure that they’ve already built a Pokemon Centre on their island, otherwise the three new Pokemon won’t appear. Thankfully, this can be achieved within a few hours of playing the game, although you will have to wait a full real-time day for some construction elements to finish, akin to Animal Crossing.

Omega Force also acknowledges that the event won’t be available to access on Cloud Islands.

To attract these three new Pokemon, players will need to collect Cotton Spores and trade them in for event-specific items. Place enough of these items down to form a suitable habitat, and Skiploom and Jumpluff have a chance to appear.

However, you’ll need to be quick. As mentioned, once the event ends on March 24, those Pokemon will seemingly be gone forever if you don’t already have them on your island.

Omega Force hasn’t confirmed whether the event will roll around again in the future, so it certainly sounds like the studio is leaning on a fear of missing out to get players stuck into Pokopia early on.

As a fully-priced title on a relatively new console from Nintendo, locking Pokemon behind a limited-time mode seems a little harsh towards gamers who don’t always jump into games on day one. Pokemon fans were quick to voice their distaste for the event over on Reddit, with one player writing: “I really hate limited time events like this.”

Another adds: “This is anti-fun. Please stop with fomo grinds for items in single player games.” Meanwhile, a third writes: “This sucks. For reasons, I can’t play until like March 20, and idk if I’ll have a built pokecenter by then to trigger the event. I don’t want to miss out.”

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