Revisiting: Pokémon GO

So, it's been over two years since I first reviewed Pokémon GO after my time as a beta tester, so I felt it might be time to give it a second chance.  My first review wasn't positive, and I'll admit I went into this with a skeptic's bias.

But then my kids found out I was really playing Pokémon while we were taking our family walks.  And then my wife got involved, and started jumping up levels with expert skill.  And then I discovered what was fun about Pokémon GO, and it wasn't in game at all.  Its community.

As my family has caught Pokémon fever thanks to GO, we have met people from all over the state.  We have conversations with our mail lady now because she caught us chasing down an Onix, and she was cheering us on.  We now see members of our city parks and rec staff.  This game seems to have never really been about playing a game, but about using a game to better us as people.  And I love that about it.

So really, I don't care much about advanced game functions, battling opponents, or trading being in the game.  It could stay just the way it is, and as long as new Pokémon appear, I'd still play it.  If those functions do get added, that's cool too.  New ways to interact with other humans is great.  I have to say that maybe what was wrong with GO initially wasn't the game, but me.

Pokémon Go

So, I was one of the luck few to get a few weeks heads up on Pokémon GO,  and I've really been mulling over this one.  It's hard sometimes to write a review of a game when it's as popular as this, especially when your review is something of a negative view.

That being said, I think Pokémon GO is terribly disappointing.  When I was told it was going to be a Pokémon AR game, I thought, cool, a Pokémon game that interacts with its suroundings.  A pokemon game that will make it feel as if pokemon were part of the real world.

What we got instead was a game that feels only half done.  I'm not saying it's terrible, just that it's not great.  There is very little beyond the drive to control your local gym to drive you on your quest.  And the reality is, if you aren't the kid wasting all the data on your parent's cellphone plan, you are never going to control a gym.  Then there is the lack of battling.  In the show from the very beginning when Ash caught caterpie, we have been taught that you battle a pokemon to weaken it before throwing a pokeball.  None of that is in Pokémon GO.  In fact very little of anything in the main Gamez or the show is incorporated into the new game.  Nor is there much Augmented Reality.  The only pieces of AR in the game are the GPS tracking, and the display fed in from your camera.  And the camera functionality does less to convince you pokemon are hiding in the world than being used to make inappropriate pictures with Diglet.

Over all, this completed game feels more like a beta, and leaves me wanting a full game.  It's a bit early to see how much the rest of you like it.  But this feels like a fad thing to me.  Once the glitter and shine wear off, I'm not sure how much staying power this game has.  I guess we'll see next month.  Till then, catch you later pokefans.

(The game has made me very aware about the bugs in my attic space, though.)

Gonna Catch'em All

So, not going to say too much on the subject, be cause I'm not sure about the legality of things yet, but I've been putting some wear on my shoes trying to catch some Pokemon.