The Pit’s overlord – Damien Dennis – caught a Pikachu very early in the release. Pikachu is one of the most popular Pokémon to date.
Since its launch on July 6, Pokémon Go has taken the world by storm, including the staff here at The Pit.
For those of us who aren’t familiar with Pokémon Go, it is latest generation of Pokémon games that has been released based off the popular Pokémon Universe. The idea behind Pokémon Go is that instead of just being a trainer like in the other Pokémon games, where you wander around a virtual world battling and collecting Pokémon against AI, you actually wander around the real world to capture Pokémon and go to predetermined locations that are known as Gyms to battle people who have ranked there.
The concept itself is revolutionary in the idea that it requires the user to actually leave their home and walk around to fully immerse themselves in the game and catch Pokémon.
It starts off similar in the old Gameboy style of selecting one of the three base Pokémon you are offered. Those Pokémon being a Squirtle – which is a water-based turtle type Pokémon, a Bulbasaur – which is a grass-based plant Pokémon, and a Charmander – fire-based lizard Pokemon.
An interesting tidbit though is that if you opt to not select one of the three starters at the beginning of the game, they eventually follow you around and disappear till they come back with a fourth option, the ever-favorite and staple of Pokémon named Pikachu – an electric-based mouse type Pokémon.
The rest of the game is pretty straight forward. You walk around your town or other towns and when Pokémon pop-up on your screen within your radius you click them and you enter a capture phase were you can attempt to capture the Pokémon.
There are also Pokéstops that can be found around you as you wander the world hunting for Pokémon.
To use those, you simply walk till one is in your radius and tap the icon indicating it and swipe on the circle that comes up to get a random assortment of goods from it including more Pokéballs, potions, sprays, food for your Pokémon, and even eggs you need to incubate to hatch new Pokémon.
To incubate the egg, you need to put it into and incubator and simply walk some more. The Gyms are an interesting dynamic as well.
Once you visit your first one at level 5, you pick a team out of the following three: Team Valor, Team Mystic, and Team Instinct. Once you pick a team, you can battle at the gyms against other players to take the gym over for your team.
Overall the game is infinitely fun and as lots of replay value for those who love Pokémon or those who are looking for an excuse to get up and exercise.
Personally, to date since the game has been out, I have walked 19.95 kilometers or 12.39 miles. The best part about it too is that as you are around in the world you always inevitably make new friends who are hunting Pokémon or join old ones on adventures that couldn’t be had otherwise playing traditional video games that keep you tied your console or computer wherever you may keep them.
Pokémon Go is by far one of the best games to come out that encourages people to actually get up and rejoin the world while playing one of their favorite games.
