Pokémon Go, Our First Impressions!

It’s amazing how, even as a nearly crazed Nintendo fan, this is the first new Pokémon “game” I’ve picked up in almost 15 years. Despite this, the second people were talking about catching a Ratatat in the park or a Ghastly on the other side of the neighborhood, the names, appearances and sounds of those original 151 Pokémon came flooding back from the recesses of my brain, complete with that goofy rap song from the cartoon. When us 90’s kids were still kids, and parents reluctantly allowed Pokémon to invade their homes, we took it for granted that quite a lot of us had bonded with friend and classmates based on mutual interest in Pokémon, and for those that played games, the conversation never really went away even in high school; there was just a clear divide between those of us that had watched the cartoon, or played every new game, or just had an old small deck of trading cards. Now, that bonding has brought the world together in a way that all those kids in 1997 were, except with an additional, even more unifying device: a smartphone.

As someone who has gone on searches for Geocaches before, I’m used to the idea of looking for some random thing in public for an hour, glaring at my phone and creepily checking my surroundings, but that scavenger hunting culture is now quickly becoming normalized thanks to the use of Pokémon in an augmented reality application, and I actually hope that this gets some continuous updates, because it’s actually really nice to see photos and videos of massive crowds outside together, bonding over something on such a massive scale, and even heartwarming to see a kid post on Reddit that he’s gone walking 15 miles in one day for the first time, and is now going to invest in a bike. I kind of wish there was this kind of fun motivation when I was 12 or 13.

Ultimately, whether you think it’s silly or not, it can’t be denied that it’s only cemented the Pokémon phenomenon to reach an even broader collection of people outside of the Nintendo die hards, and makes a very, very strong case for the use of VR and ARG content outside of store demos and on the PC.

I already needed an excuse to get outside on a beautiful Cape Cod summer day, and adding a caught Magicarp to my visit to the beach, in addition to geocaches and a photo op just made the day that much more exciting. Who knows, I may end up having a Gyarados on my hands before I know it. Let’s see someone try to take over my Gym team them. – Evan Griffin, Cape Cod MA

Pokémon Go is like geocaching for beginners. You wander around for miles, probably on some middle of nowhere back-roads where you’re likely to get shot, just for the chance at scoring a little entertaining trinket. The difference here, on the other hand, is that this game has been a childhood dream come true for many.

At the time of writing this, the most powerful Pokémon I have caught is a Fearow at CP 263. I had to have thrown at least six different Pokéballs at it before I finally managed to catch the stubborn bird, before the final one it just kept escaping the ball. In most of my encounters with the higher leveled Pokémon, if they escape your first attempt, you’re screwed. More often than not, they would immediately run away. That’s why I was shocked that I managed to capture the Fearow at all, with a Golbat and a Pidgeot having escaped within seconds of me spotting it. And let me tell you to all of those who haven’t started the game yet, there’s no greater sense of disappointment then seeing powerful Pokemon disappear just as fast as you find them after walking aimlessly for an hour.

And yet, even with all it’s problems in the first week of playing, there’s an odd addicting nature that keeps me wanting to go outside and keep looking. Sure, the eggs take forever to hatch and the you’re bound to lose to ridiculously powerful gym leaders when you start out, but that’s just the makings of a Pokémon master I suppose. You can’t be the very best, like no one ever was, without a little trial and error and waiting for the servers to work again. – Donald Strohman, Knoxville TN

When “Pokémon Go” works (as in, free of server or GPS issues),  it works well. It’s a fun, engaging scavenger hunt that most of the time makes up for what it’s been doing to my Galaxy S4’s battery.

What’s more, I’ve never seen a mobile game become such a huge deal so quickly. “Angry Birds” and “Candy Crush Saga” may be among the most popular games of all time, but I couldn’t tell you if I’ve ever had a conversation about either of them, let alone as many as I have had with random strangers around town about “Pokémon Go” over the last few days.

I live in Newport, Rhode Island, which seems to be chockful of Pokéstops and gyms because of the city’s hundreds of landmarks  I walk a lot every day and it’s been neat figuring out where certain Pokémon and Pokéstops are along my regular walking and jogging routes. It’s been especially fun to find Pokémon in particularly quirky places around town.

The best finds so far have been a Drowzee in the Walmart pharmacy section, a Pontya that inexplicably appeared on one of the longest bridges in New England (don’t worry, I was riding the bus) and a Gloom I found off of Bellevue Avenue, famous for its mansions.

At this point, I feel that its negatives like connectivity issues and a “battery saver” feature that seems to do nothing at all, detract from the things that work and work well. I’m looking forward to see how this game develops as it becomes more stable over the summer. – Ryan Gibbs, Newport RI

First impressions are everything, but here at The Young Folks, we gave Pokémon Go almost a week to essentially get their shit together. I’m a Day Zero player since I downloaded the APK to gain access to the game before its wide release in the US. That means I didn’t experience the initial Google log-in issues or username unavailability. What I did experience once it opened wide was that awful “server down” screen due to server flooding. The experience has greatly improved now that I can actually access the game, beat gyms without the 1HP error freezing the game every time, and just all around (mostly) being able to catch Pokémon without having the game freeze on the Pokéball, costing me my hard-earned Pokémon.

The most noticeable thing about Pokémon Go, aside from the myriad of technical issues still plaguing it, is the counter-intuitive game design. The foxy Professor Willow is there to welcome you to the world, but any other guidance on gameplay is all a matter of trial and error, guess work, or just plain Googling. Overall, this is a promising first step in a game that will be the next frontier of mobile gaming akin to Virtual Reality’s incorporation in the console world. Now go be the very best like no one ever was! – Jon Espino, Chicago IL

 

Pokémon Go is slowly taking over my life, and I don’t really mind since it’s adding an unexpectedly fun, adventurous element to my summer. I should take a moment to say that I’m not an avid gamer; the only other games I’ve played in the past decade are Solitaire and the Kim Kardashian Game (don’t judge). But when I heard that a game like Pokemon Go was now available, nostalgia reared its ugly head, and well, here I am: obsessed.

At first, I found it hard to give a real overall impression on the game since it has been full of issues when it arrived last week. Yes, it does freeze a lot – during quite pivotal moments like catching a rare Pokemon or in the midst of a battle. The servers go down at inconvenient times, like when you’re a mile walk from home and now lose the chance to incubate your eggs. It is annoying, but the thing is… when it freezes, you start it right back up again. It’s THAT fun. So much so I’m able to look over the hiccups and issues to continue playing at whatever capacity I am able to at that moment. I don’t care if it drains my battery or if I look awkward standing in the middle of sidewalk trying to catch my 15th Pidgey. Pokémon Go does that crazy thing where it transcends all those problems and still manages to be a wonderful mix of nostalgia, adventure and strategy. – Gabrielle Bondi, Chicago IL

 

Do you have any stories on Pokemon Go of your own? Feel free to share them with us in the comments section and on twitter @TYFOfficial!

 

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