Pokemon Go-ing Through Tests

Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.

Yesterday, Nintendo announced that Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem would be receiving mobile gaming apps this Fall. The gaming company also declared that they would focus on a new Legend of Zelda game at this year’s E3 and that the NX, a gaming console, will be released March 2017.

All this news is fantastic, but where exactly does that leave Pokemon : Sun and Moon and Pokemon Go? We haven’t necessarily heard anything from them in a while, especially the former. Thankfully, we have some information regarding the latter.

Yesterday, test footage of Pokemon Go leaked from Australia. While nothing is set in stone, here’s what  I managed to discover:

·         They’re only using the original 150.

·         To evolve Pokemon, you have to collect ‘Evolution Shards’. From how it appears, there are four sections to an ‘Evolution Shard’. I’m honestly on the fence about this feature, because I feel it takes away the anticipation we have when waiting for a certain level for our Pokemon to evolve.

·         The camera plays a heavy role in this app. The camera allows you to see the Pokemon (which randomly appear), capture said Pokemon, and change the background from a pixelated green field to your actual surroundings. If you pass by something, it may appear on the app as an icon that you can click and receive items from. You can also receive items from Pokemon stores which haven’t been implemented into the game as of yet, but have been confirmed by game creators.

·         Capturing Pokemon is rather unique in this app. When a Pokemon appears it will have a colored circle around it – each Pokemon’s circle is different.  Touch the circle and your ball will be thrown, resulting in a hopefully successful catch. Touch outside the circle and the Pokemon will most likely not be caught.

·         As a trainer you level up by catching Pokemon, fighting, and bumping into circles that level you up automatically. 

·         The fighting system appears to be the same, however, Pokemon only have two moves. An example of this was Porygon only having Thunderbolt and Quick Attack.

·         You can also obtain Pokemon by receiving eggs. From how it appears, you can have more than one egg with you. These eggs hatch into Pokemon from the original 150.

·         The gym is something I’m still trying to wrap my head around. From what I understand, you enter a gym and proceed to join a team (Red, Blue, or Yellow) to fight the gym leader. You select a Pokemon to fight with. Once that Pokemon is fighting in the gym, it cannot be taken out until the match is won.

Thank you for reading tonight’s entry. If you enjoyed it, feel free to subscribe, share, comment, and critique.

So tell me, what are your thoughts about Pokemon Go?