Team Rocket are one of the most iconic images across the Pokemon fandom. You ask any casual Pokemon fan to name a human character from the series, and rice cakes to donuts Jessie and James would be mentioned in the first five. After Ash himself, they're probably the most important humans in the story, surviving usurpers Butch and Cassidy, as well as seeing off Misty, Brock, and every companion Ash has had since. In the games though, it's a different story.
Team Rocket are the principal antagonists of Pokemon Red & Blue, and are heavily involved in the story, although Jessie and James are nowhere to be seen. Giovanni, Jessie and James' boss and leader of Team Rocket, is instead the main Rocket character away from the faceless grunts. In Pokemon Yellow, Jessie and James enter the arena, though the story is still built around Giovanni's master plan. Gold & Silver plays out much like Red & Blue, with Rocket involved as generic baddies but without the spice of the anime.
From there on out, Team Rocket was swapped for different villainous teams. That's not without its merits; Team Magma & Team Aqua are generally agreed to be the two most complex rivals working as antagonists in opposition to each other, while Skull and Yell both inject a sense of comedy to revitalise what it means to be a villain team. Still, it's only the Miss Fortune Sisters of the recent Pokemon Legends: Arceus who may actually eclipse Team Rocket. Why then, if Team Rocket are so great and so important, has the game done them dirty for so long? There's only one solution - we need to play as Team Rocket in the next game.
I already cosplay as Team Rocket in any game that may allow you to. My trainers in both Let's Go and Pokemon Go are decked out in their finest Jessie threads. However, you still don't get the feeling of actually being in Team Rocket. Pokemon Legends: Arceus might be the biggest leap forward the game has taken in 25 years, but it's still a fairly by-the-numbers game, it's just by slightly different numbers than Pokemon usually counts by. Something as radical as playing as a villain is probably off the table, but until a true mainline game lets me play as something other than a ten-year-old starting out as a Pokemon trainer, winning eight gym battles, and becoming ultimate champion, I'm unconvinced Pokemon will ever fully evolve.
Legends might be a step in the right direction, but it also could be a spin-off series while the main game keeps on ticking, or it could be a one off in the way Let's Go seems to be. So while playing as Team Rocket seems to be asking for a lot, it doesn't really matter what you ask for when all you're ever going to get is 'nothing'. Might as well have some fun with suggestions then, eh?
Still, playing as an out-and-out villain would not work for formula. But then, Jessie and James are not out and out villains. Giovanni? Sure. Bad guy, sits in a shadowy chair, ominously strokes a cat on his lap. He bad bad. Illegal experimentation, lust for power, god complex? He ticks all the boxes. I'm not asking to be Giovanni though, I'm asking to be Jessie and James. I want to dress up as a flamenco dancer, wear a bikini with inflatable boobs, and come up with a catchy, overdramatic entrance song with my gay best friend. That's the Team Rocket experience I want, and it's also one that the game might just be able to give us.
In features editor Eric Switzer's comprehensive review of every Pokemon movie, he noted that the ones which actively involve Team Rocket (almost always Jessie and James) in some meaningful way result in the best stories. They are a key part of Pokemon. But are they villains in the true sense of the word? Their main ambition is to steal Pikachu, and even if Ash's has perfect EVs, it's just Pikachu. Team Rocket both own and have bypassed the opportunity to catch much better Pokemon than Pikachu. Hell, it's not even Ash's best Pokemon. Jessie and James are Team Rocket in all but name, and are entirely there for the vibes. That's what we could be in a Team Rocket game.
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We could be sent off on an adventure, only to be foiled in comedic ways at every turn, as we grow to support and later assist the actual hero in their quest. We could be taking Team Rocket down from the inside, or carry out their plans before realising that we're the baddies here. Team Rocket deserves a lot more love from the Pokemon games, and letting us play as one of them offers a new perspective to everything. It could even be a spin-off, since they tend to have the best ideas anyway. Just let me play as Jessie. Please.