Someone has to say it: Pokémon Go kind of sucks. I am not saying this because it distracts thousands of people for hours upon hours. I'm not saying this because I think people are being lazy playing the game. I don't say this because people continue to stare at their phones for hours. People would still be consumed by their phones regardless of if this new app was a thing or not. I'm saying this because Pokémon Go does not do justice to the original game of Pokémon.
As a late 90s child, Pokémon was a large part of my childhood. Every game from Pokémon Gold to Pokémon Emerald consumed much of my time as a young kid learning how to catch them all. I would stay up all night restarting my game every time I failed a battle and wanted another shot. This new version of Pokémon Go completely shuts out the true fun of Pokémon. Sure, you get to catch Pokémon in real life areas, but Pokémon isn't meant to be a real life game. The old Pokémon games that ruled the Game Boy had a different feel to it. This new version overall just kind of sucks.
The point of the game was to escape to a world where Pokémon run wild, catching them all, and one day hoping to defeat the Pokémon League and become the best of the best. Pokémon Go does not offer that to any player. The worst part is that younger kids are going to grow up thinking Pokémon Go is the true essence of Pokémon. The old Pokémon games were hidden with vast secrets, puzzles and endless opportunities. Whenever you thought you caught the rarest Pokémon there was, you would read online that there is a hidden Pokémon that is even more rare then the infamous Mewtwo. All true fans of Pokémon will remember the challenge of trying to capture all four forms of the incredibly rare Deoxys. This challenge does not appear anywhere in Pokémon Go. You might stumble upon a Mew and stop your car to go get him, but that will never be like running through the game and stumbling upon one of the three rare birds or any of the other rare Pokémon that populate the world.
The idea of Pokémon Go is a cool concept, but when the app finally appeared, many true fans of Pokémon were disappointed in how the app failed to be anything like the original games. Anyone who was ever a lover of the old Pokémon games and the old Pokémon cartoons knows that even though the concept of Pokémon Go may be pretty cool, it will never be even remotely close to comparing to the original Pokémon games.
