How to play Pokémon Shining Pearl on Mac

Game summary

Revisit the Sinnoh region and the story of the Pokémon Pearl Version game Experience the nostalgic story from the Pokémon Pearl Version game in a reimagined adventure, Pokémon™ Shining Pearl, now on the Nintendo Switch™ system! Adventures in the Pokémon Shining Pearl game will take place in the familiar Sinnoh region. Rich in nature and with mighty Mount Coronet at its heart, Sinnoh is a land of many myths passed down through the ages. You’ll choose either Turtwig, Chimchar, or Piplup to be your first partner Pokémon and then set off on your journey to become the Champion of the Pokémon League. Along the way, you’ll be able to encounter the Legendary Pokémon Palkia. Adventure together with the Pokémon that appeared in the Pokémon Pearl Version game. Players of the original games can revisit familiar places and relive familiar scenes, while first time players can enjoy plenty of fun encounters and surprises that the Sinnoh region has to offer. The original story and the scale of the Sinnoh region’s towns and routes have been faithfully reproduced. This remake has also been revitalized with some of the player-friendly features of modern Pokémon games and up-close-and-personal Pokémon battle scenes. Whether you played Pokémon Diamond Version or Pokémon Pearl Version back in the day or you’re encountering these games for the first time, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.
First released: Nov 2021

Play Pokémon Shining Pearl on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Pokémon Shining Pearl on a Mac is through Parallels, which allows you to virtualize a Windows machine on Macs. The setup is very easy and it works for Apple Silicon Macs as well as for older Intel-based Macs.

Parallels supports the latest version of DirectX and OpenGL, allowing you to play the latest PC games on any Mac. The latest version of DirectX is up to 20% faster.

Our favorite feature of Parallels Desktop is that when you turn off your virtual machine, all the unused disk space gets returned to your main OS, thus minimizing resource waste (which used to be a problem with virtualization).

Pokémon Shining Pearl installation steps for Mac

Step 1
Go to Parallels.com and download the latest version of the software.
Step 2
Follow the installation process and make sure you allow Parallels in your Mac’s security preferences (it will prompt you to do so).
Step 3
When prompted, download and install Windows 10. The download is around 5.7GB. Make sure you give it all the permissions that it asks for.
Step 4
Once Windows is done installing, you are ready to go. All that’s left to do is install Pokémon Shining Pearl like you would on any PC.
Did it work?
Help us improve our guide by letting us know if it worked for you.
👎👍