This is it, the moment we've been waiting for our entire lives. Pokemon GO released in the U.S. last Wednesday night (July 6th), enabling millions of people to be the very best, like no one ever was.
If you're unsure what Pokemon GO is, think Google Ingress meets Pokemon. If you're not familiar with Ingress, think a Pokemon game using a map created from the area where you are using GPS on your phone or tablet. The concept was announced several years ago by the Pokemon company and has been delayed several times. During this year's E3, the company announced a release date of "sometime in July". It was rumored (and basically confirmed) to be released on the very last day of July by those who were testing the game. Earlier in the week of the U.S. release, Pokemon GO was released in New Zealand and Australia in order to test servers. However, due to a workaround, people from all over the world were playing the game. This caused a server overload, so the company decided the best course of action was to go ahead and release it in the U.S.
This premature release triggered two things. First, a massive wave of people went to go download the free application. Currently the game is the top trending search and top trending download on the Apple app store. The second was that, because of this, the servers went down shortly after release. While working for many, some people are having issues logging in or signing up because the servers are beyond overloaded.
While the game has been down for me at the time of writing this article, I got a chance to play it for a couple of hours upon release here in the U.S. As aforementioned, the game is a mix of GPS technology and Pokemon. Players, upon starting the game, are asked to create their character. This character creation is highly limited and only has three different variations for each of the four categories (skin tone, hat, shirt, shorts, shoes), resulting in a very limited amount of combinations. After this, the player is directed to make one of the most important decisions of their life.
Naturally, I chose Squirtle since I love water-types. I love both Charmander and Bulbasaur, but Squirtle is my homeboy. This acts as the "tutorial" for the game (which is very lacking in my opinion) and shows you how to catch a Pokemon. Beyond that, the concept is simple. Go out into the world and find those legendary tufts of rustling grass using the app and engage them to capture the Pokemon.
Those familiar with the Pokemon games will be disappointing to learn that this game is highly different in terms of mechanics. Capturing multiple Pokemon of the same type will level up that Pokemon and candy is used to evolve. This game includes micro-transactions ("in-app purchases") to buy things such as Pokeballs, Incense (increases number of Pokemon in your area for 30 mins), and other things. Battles between trainers aren't included in this game yet, which disappointed a lot of people. It seems as if the whole point of the game for right now is to try to catch them all. More features will be added later.
Pokemon GO is available now for iPhone, iPad, and Android phones (Android tablets are currently unsupported).
