I woke up today with only the goal of heading out, visiting a lake in a park near me, and having a long walk—one of 5 kilometers, to be exact. Huh, you might think, that’s a pretty good exercise plan! And you’d be correct, it is a good plan, and I’m rather proud of it! However, did I come up with said plan with my health and fitness in mind? Ha! Of course not. You see, I have more important concerns at hand. In fact, I’ve got two 5k eggs that are currently incubated and I want to have those hatched ASAP.

By now you’ve probably realized I’m talking about Pokemon GO. If you haven’t - I’m sorry for how weird I might sound to you - but you need to get on with the times! Seriously, what are you even doing with your life? If your main goal right now isn’t catching them all and being the very best (like no one ever was), then we have nothing to talk about. Unless we talk about how awesome the game is - which is exactly what I want to do in this article. Yes, this article is coming out purely due to my need to gush about how awesome Pokemon GO is. My hope is you will be able to relate - and if you’re not, I hope I can convince you to join in and experience the awesomeness for yourself.

Why so awesome, you ask?

For me, the key factor is nostalgia. You may have heard about or assumed this yourself. Despite all the glitches in the present version of the app (faulty servers, I’m looking at you!) this is a game that has successfully united a generation of once Pokemon-obsessed kids (and now nostalgic 20-year-olds) across the world, all in the pursuit of the same mission. The excitement is totally in the air, and I don’t care if it sounds cheesy. On my 5 kilometer walk I am able to pass 30 people all equally mesmerized by the same game that I’m engrossed in. We’re all doing doing the same thing (which is manically swiping up and crazily waving our phones around to catch that darn 165cp Pidgeotto!), and that makes me think we have something special here.

We ‘millennials,’ or ‘90s kids,’ or whatever you might call us have a unique connection with the game thanks to the anime we watched when we were younger. This must be one of the aspects of the game that the developers were counting on to make it successful when they launched. It is also likely the reason why they decided to include the first (a.k.a. best) generation of Pokemon into the game - to appeal to us who literally grew up with the franchise.

Yet, it’s not just us. Pokemon GO has broken all popularity records with millions of players registering since it was launched just about two weeks ago. That can’t all be just fans of the tv show. The large amount of players includes people who have never watched or otherwise played Pokemon, and it includes players in vastly varying age groups. Now that’s extremely impressive because it shows that the enormous success is not just because the creators are playing the nostalgia game - but because the idea is a truly great one, with great potential.

In addition to the obvious sentiment of letting players revisit their childhoods (or experience a brilliant new world for the first time), I’m also in love with the exploration aspect of Pokemon GO. Pokemon GO requires you to walk around to fully experience the game. You have to physically reach Pokestops to collect items, and you have to be near a gym to battle other players. These stops and gyms are located at real-life landmarks all around you, and as you travel to those yourself, your avatar in the game travels too. On the way you catch Pokemon, but also see some places you might not have otherwise visited. For me this was great, because I downloaded the app while staying in a new city for the first time. Without Pokemon GO, would I have payed that much attention to interesting spots in Houston? Probably not. Additionally, all this walking coincides perfectly with the weather outside. This of course varies on your location, but here in the northern hemisphere it’s summer - and the warm weather makes all this Pokemon-catching, egg-incubating, and Pokestop-locating much easier than snow- and rainstorms would.

So, my point is, check this game out! Behind what may seem silly or childish you might find a summer pastime that brings you back in time and into a virtual story, but also out into the real world.