“ I wanna be the very best like no one ever was!” cue the chorus of 20 something’s singing the song that is arguably the most universally known symbol of childhood to date. However, not counting the multiple releases of games like X and Y and the anticipated Sun and Moon, it has been years since the generation that grew up on Pokémon has played the long loved journey of becoming the ultimate trainer. That is until late last Wednesday, when the universally anticipated and highly praised Pokémon GO surprisingly became available to the United States for iOS and Android weeks before it was believed to come out as promised at E3. Only a month before, the game was released in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand and received massive following prompting alerts from the government in Australia to be safe while out looking for Pokémon. Within its first day, the game skyrocketed to the top of the app store and has becoming a trending topic on sites like Reddit and Twitter.
Recommended for you
So just what is this game about? Well its not how you originally played Pokémon, it’s a lot more interactive. For starters, you play in real time and with your location rather then say walking from Pallet town in the game through grass to find Pokémon you haven’t caught yet. You start the game by making your character decked out in true trainer gear, you then are directed by Professor Willow on why you’re there and you then are released onto the blue screen (which will become your map you see from now on) to catch your starter Pokémon. You have the option of the classics like Charmander, who I chose, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle, all of which pay homage to the games that started them all. Fun secret, if you don’t chose the three they offer and continuously deny them as you start to walk around, you’ll get the option of everybody’s favorite, Pikachu. From here you’re basically released on your own to wander around your city and where ever else you want to go hunting down Pokémon, pokéstops (places you can get items like pokéballs, and lucky eggs every 5 minutes), and rival gyms (only after you reach level 5 though). Just like the previous games you can evolve and power up your Pokémon to take on other Pokémon in gym battles, which is how you’ll be the very best, pun intended.
Although it’s not much on giving help on what to do, there are tons of tips online from beta testers and those who have went full ham on the game. As well as being in a semi large city and a college town at that, places like Tennessee street near the campus and Lake Ella are a virtual gold mine for activity and pokéstops, just the other day driving to work I stopped at a red light to notice that my phone was going crazy with around 10 different Pokémon’s around me. Unfortunately in the no mans land between FSU and TCC there is nearly nothing as well as farther out towards Havana. The amount of stops and gyms and Pokémon are determined by the amount of people in the location so it’s easy to see why places like the different school campuses and the mall are swarmed. But fret not my fellow middle of nowhere people, its suspected that with the next patch that Niantic will add more Pokémon or stops to rural areas to help balance out the somewhat unfair advantage of more dense areas.
One amazing trend this game seems to be creating even in its first day in the States is the community that it seems to foster. Countless stories online of users who have run into each other and bonded over the fact that they’re both trying to hunt down a certain silhouetted Pokémon. When the game released late Wednesday night, folks were out in droves wandering the towns trying to catch anything and while doing so meeting kindred spirits. Now I’m not recommending running around a night to hunt down a Clefairy just to find fellow trainers but if you do happen to go to a stop and notice some people around you looking at their phone, don’t be surprised if they’re playing to nor to say hi.
So good luck trainers, get out there and start exploring!
