Recently, a new mobile game has taken the world by storm. The game, titled Pokémon GO, is a Pokémon based game which relies on the player's location. As the player moves, so does the customizable characters whom you run into and capture. The game allows you to know which Pokémon are near you and it's up to the player to move in the direction of it and capture it. There's destinations which appear on the map and you can receive gifts; these are called PokéStops. The gifts typically range from eggs to PokéBalls. The PokéStops however, are only able to be accessed once the player is close by. Once the player hits level five, they're able to begin training, which is done by battling, at a nearby training spot. These training spots are often called 'gyms.' Much like PokéStops, the character can only access them when they're nearby.
Being an augmented-reality game, which means the game does not create a reality, instead uses an actual reality, the player is able to capture Pokémon in 'real life'. The images below displays the screen the player sees while catching a Pokémon.
As seen in the first two pictures, the Pokémon appears on the screen as if it's a normal picture. At this stage, the player would swipe their finger towards the Pokémon, causing the Pokéball to fly towards the Pokémon. If the ball hits the Pokémon, then it's captured.
The game is still experiencing some issues, the largest one is the servers being down due to the large flow of users playing the game. Despite this, the game still manages to be a beautiful twist on the legendary game.
As a child, Pokémon was one of my favorite things growing up. I owned the games, books, trading cards and even stuffed animals. So having a new twist on the game come out (right after I bought my new phone!) was super exciting to me. Not only do I get to play a new version of the game I loved as a child, but I'm able to bond over it with millions of people who are in love with this game as well. It's truly humorous to see the amount of people crowding at PokéStops, with heads pointed down at their phones. We all know why we're here, and we bond based on that.
If you haven't downloaded Pokémon GO yet, I highly suggest you do. It's not only a great way to pass time, but it's a great way to bond with friends.
