So if you keep up with social media, you would know that it has been buzzing about this Pokemon game that actually came out on my birthday (small world). To be honest, I didn't know about the game until the day before, and I decided to look up the story behind it. It's not like the other games that had preceded it, but it's also not to far from those games. To get the basics behind the game, it retains the main points of Pokemon games past: catching Pokemon, battling at Gyms, using items, evolving your creatures with a crazy twist: You're doing it all in the real world. That means instead of tapping or using a D-pad to tell your virtual avatar where to go to find Pokemon; you're actually walking In the real world! All you have to do is sign up with your google account or a Pokemon trainer account. After signing up, you'll want to customize your digital avatar. You can choose your gender, eye color, hair color, shirt, hat, pants, shoes and the style of your backpack. Once you've done so, you'll enter the main area of the game: The Pokemon Go Gym.

The main area of the game is a brightly-animated version of Google Maps. You'll see (unmarked) roads, rustling grass (marking Pokemon in the area), and local landmarks disguised as Poke-stops and Pokemon Gyms. As you move in the real world, your avatar does too. Pokemon will pop up on the map with a small vibration as you walk along, and if you tap on them, you can try to capture them. Whether you've never caught a Pokemon before or you've been collecting these creatures since childhood, you'll quickly get introduced to the Pokemon of this world after starting the game. Once you set up your account, your very first Pokemon will appear right in front of you. Thus begins catching more. You can catch more Pokemon by simply walking around your area. Stick to populated areas like tourist spots, museums and even malls. Pokemon appear most often near Poke-stops. The more Poke-stops nearby, the more creatures should appear.

You can even join teams! Once reaching level five, you have the choice to join three teams. Team Valor, Mystic or Instinct. They're color-coded based on the original U.S. titles– Pokemon Red, Pokemon Blue and Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition. After picking your team, you join others around the world who also is apart of that team. There, you will be able to take over and level gyms. When you do that, you get to collect Pokecoins and Stardust, which helps you evolve and level up your Pokemon. What you need to know about the Gym is that's where most of your battles will take place. This is the basic instructions on playing the game.

Now that I gave you the breakdown of Pokemon Go, I expect you to be out playing it now. Good luck!