Currently, it seems everyone is talking about Pokèmon GO, however, you may be asking yourself "what is it" or "is it any good" Well, hopefully this will clear up what the general components are of the game and hopefully will persuade you to download it and join the rest of the world in the crusade to capture small, innocent creatures and stuff them into tiny prison balls against their own will, then force them to beat their own brothers and sisters into submission, all so you can repeat the process. In all seriousness,I think Pokèmon GO is great, if this game came out when I was eight years old I would have literally killed someone to play it and I think any kid would have. Also, im very happy to see a Pokèmon game on IOS and android, even if its not exactly "traditional." What is it? So Pokèmon GO is essentially an AR (Augmented reality) and GPS based game which allows you to go outside and capture Pokèmon in real life. I guess its Nintendo's way of trying to make nerds go outside and exercise, whatever they are doing, it seems to be working. Nintendo teamed up with Google to try to bring an immersive, real life Pokèmon experience with the fact that if you move in real life, you move in the game. An accurate world map has been put in play, listing every road, street or park in the world, this allows a realistic Pokèmon experience. Choosing the right starter: So, obviously the first thing you do in Pokèmon GO after creating your avatar is to choose a starter Pokèmon. Thankfully Nintendo weren't stupid with this, they made the right choice and brought back the first generation starters: Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. But which is best for you? Who am I to tell you, I decided to be mainstream and choose Charmander. But I almost regret that, looking back I would have much rather have chosen Squirtle. But lets all be honest, no-one likes Bulbasaur. Teams: First things first. After you have chosen your starter, captured a few more wild Pokèmon and reached Level 5, you can then choose one of three teams: (Go team Valor) Valor: Red Mystic: Blue Instinct: Yellow So, I will not go into detail of each teams set of beliefs, however if you played the original games then you will realise each team represents a Legendary Pokèmon: Moltres (Valor), Arcticuno(Mystic) and Zapdos(instinct). I won't tell you which team to choose because that should be your choice when you come to it. (But choose team valor). Gyms To stay true to the original games, the creators have added in Gyms. Once you have reached Level 5 you can challenge the Gym leaders Pokèmon at your local Gym. Each Gym is Occupied by a team and are located at landmarks such as churches, pubs etc. If you succeed in defeating the Gym, then the Gym will become occupied by your team and you can set a Pokèmon to guard the Gym. If you feel like you need some practice before attacking an enemy team's Gym then you can challenge a Gym on your own team, for a friendly battle. Pokèstops Pokèstops, like Gyms are also landmarks, however they are much more frequent Instead of getting a Gym every 5 streets or so, Pokèstops are pretty much on every street and most parks are littered with them. Basically they are a good way of getting pokèballs and other loot, all you have to do is walk near them and tap on them, when the image pops up, swipe the screen to get loot. Just in case you didn't know, a Pokèstop looks like a floating blue cube. Once you are close enough to activate it, it will transform into a blue Pokèball symbol surrounded by multiple discs. Eggs Eggs can be found at Pokèstops and are very useful. Eggs will hatch into a Pokèmon after you walk the distance marked, you will be given either a 2km, 5km or 10km egg. KM stands for kilometres, this is the distance you must walk for the egg to hatch, incase you hadn't already worked it out, the further you have to walk, the better the Pokèmon that will hatch. This image shows what Pokèmon could hatch from each type of egg: Lures and Incense
If your thinking "I like this game but I cant be bothered to go outside." Then Incense is for you, activate incense and Pokémon will be attracted to your location for 30 mins. However, make sure you are in a spot with good connection and enough charge on your phone to last 30 mins. I made that mistake. I used my incense in a spot where there was no internet, the app crashed and then I used the last of my charge trying to start the app up again. Also you are given two incense at the beginning of the game, after these have been used you either have to buy them as an in app purchase, or use Pokècoins you have already used. They are available from Pokèstops however they are rare. Lure Modules are slightly different, Lure modules attract Pokèmon to your closest Pokèstop, however this does mean a higher chance of other people taking the Pokèmon. If you see a Pokèstop with a purple glow around it, this means someone has placed a lure on it. Pikachu Easter Egg For those of you who remember Pokèmon Yellow you will know that Pikachu follows you round for the whole game, just like Ash in the Animè. It seemed Nintendo and Niantic remember this too, and they have blessed us with a Pikachu easter egg in which you can choose Pikachu as one of your starters. To gain Pikachu as your starter you must be at the stage where you choose one of the three starters. As the game is GPS based you will need to walk away from the starters until they are off the screen, hopefully the starters will respawn infront of you. repeat this process three or four more times and Pikachu should pop up next to the other three Pokèmon and you are free to choose him as your starter. Issues I only have a few minor issues with this game, all in all I think its fantastic and a huge leap forward for gaming, however AR frankly just pisses me off, It makes it extremely hard to capture the pokèmon with the camera moving around everywhere although I'm very grateful that they made it possible to turn it off. Also I think the Pokèmon level range is a bit messed up. By this I mean it is quite easy to find over powered and in some cases rare Pokèmon when you are a low level, for instance, I found a Hitmonlee with CP 450 when I was only level 4, however this can be fixed easily by the developers and is only a minor gripe. Also, I think it is way too hard to evolve Pokèmon, to evolve a Pokèmon you need a certain amount of candy for that specific Pokèmon, you can get these candies by capturing more of the same pokemon (you only get one per capture), but if you have a rare pokemoin that you want to evolve then you are basically screwed, the only other way is to take part in Gym battles and if your a bit of a noob then you are also screwed. I think it would have been better that instead of having to get 25 charmander candies, instead you could get 25 fire type candies. I think this would have been a better alternative. Finally, Where are the battles at? The only way you can battle other Pokèmon is to go to a gym, this is a big problem as in the original games, Every time you encountered a Pokémon, you had to battle it in order to be able to capture it. (with the exception of starter Pokèmon and weak Pokèmon) This is my largest issue with the game. When you decide to encounter a Pokèmon, you should have to choose one of your Pokèmon to battle it to weaken its health in order to capture it or just simply defeat it. This is a huge issue, however this game is still amazing and thoroughly enjoyable. Conclusion In conclusion, I think this game is overall great. It is fun to play by yourself and with friends. It is diverse in the sense that you can be a casual player who plays from time to time or you can be obsessed and play all the time, it is great for all ages and is definitely nostalgic for an older audience. Overall I think Pokemon GO fantastic game I rate Pokèmon GO 8/10 Max Randall 18/7/16
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AuthorMax Randall Archives
November 2016
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