Ever since we were fresh young trainers, off on our first virtual Pokemon adventure, we've dreamt of the world of Pocket Monsters (as it was originally titled in Japan) becoming a reality. Imagine really having a little Pikachu who'd follow you around as best buddies, off on your adventures? Now it looks like our dream may actually come true (or at least, more true than it has so far…), as yesterday, The Pokemon Company announced their plans to release Pokemon GO, a game that uses the location on your iPhone or Android device and the power of augmented reality to let you discover virtual creatures living in your area, and battle, catch, and train them as your own. You'll also be able to challenge others to a battle, just like in the Pokemon video games. The app is free, but the Pokemon GO Plus device (a wristwatch-like accessory) which can optionally pair up with your smartphone via Bluetooth will most likely have a price. One that we will no doubt gladly pay! As the press release puts it:
"Pokémon GO will use real location information to encourage players to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon."
We have about a billion questions swimming round in our heads right now, but we've managed to focus on 5 key ones we hope to find some answers to! If you haven't seen it already, it's probably best to have a quick watch of the trailer below, so you can get a feel for what Pokemon GO is:
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As the trailer shows, Pokemon GO will encourage us to get out into the great outdoors, and travel around a bit to find different Pokemon. Presumably different Pokemon will prefer different terrain, like in the games, and you wouldn't expect to find a Magikarp flopping its way down Euston Road. But will they go as far as to make certain Pokemon only available in specific countries? If they do, fingers crossed it'll only be the rare ones, or even certain legendaries that fall into this category, otherwise we can see us racking up plenty of air miles way too fast. On the plus side, we're assuming that you'll be able to trade your Pokemon globally with players around the world, so this shouldn't pose too much of a problem in reality. On the other hand, imagine if certain places do get assigned specific Pokemon - like a gamescom exclusive Cyndaquil or something. Pokefans would be falling over themselves to attend.
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We're assuming the holograms of the Pokemon shown in the video are just for advertising purposes, and not what we'll actually be experiencing when we finally get our hands on the game (if not, then we're REALLY impressed!), but what about the action of throwing Pokeballs? Will we need to physically do this, rather than simply tapping an option on our phones? It'd certainly add to the "Let's Get Active" message this game is putting across. Seeing as you'll also be able to buy a Pokemon GO Plus bluetooth watch-type-thing, it shouldn't be too hard to make it work, either.
- This one is a question of many parts (we told you we had a billion of them!) about the dynamics of being out and about and battling. How will we know if other trainers are in the area? And how will the battle system work? Will fights with legendary Pokemon really be 100-on-one affairs, as shown in the trailer? And can we run from a trainer battle (without physically legging it, and looking like we've just robbed someone)? How do we heal our Pokemon? Will there be actual Pokemon Centres and Poke Marts? Perhaps this could be done by the implementation of specific hotspots in city centres? Maybe your local branch of GAME would become your Poke Mart? Of course, there's at least one obvious place that could work as a Pokemon Centre in Japan...
- If there are legendary Pokemon (we assume there will be!) will only one person be able to catch it (at least for a limited time)? Or once caught, will that Pokemon never appear in the wild again? And whilst we're on the topic of legendaries, will they move around if we fail to catch them, or will they stay in the same place? Where will be the UK's equivalent of Cerulean Cave, where you can find your Mewto? Wookey Hole, perhaps?
- Will there be an in game currency that can be won from defeating other characters? If there's to be some sort of Poke Mart available to buy items from, then there needs to be some sort of currency - although like most "free to play" games, we're expecting a heavy reliance on microtransactions.
Even though we have no idea quite how the game's going to be monetised so far (and seeing as the developers have already confirmed Pokemon GO will use microtransactions, we're sceptical to say the least), the concept at the very least has us excited, as there are so many possibilities. Imagine if Pokemon GO were to utilize phones like the Sony Xperias, which have been designed to be waterproof, encouraging people to search underwater for Pokemon? And imagine the backlash when a hundred muppets jump into the sea with a not so waterproof device…
In fact, the general public's general lack of common sense may come back to haunt Pokemon GO. We already have people driving their cars into the sea because they were following their sat navs religiously - imagine news stories like "boy falls off cliff chasing mystical Pokemon", "woman breaks leg after falling from tree trying to "catch an Eevee"", with the papers assuming an Eevee must be some sort of new psychedelic drug. Here's hoping any city-dwelling Pokemon avoid the traffic heavy areas, which we probably shouldn't be encouraging people to be hanging around.
Still, jaded journalist hats aside, we love the idea that Pokemon GO will get us off our sofas and out the house, exploring outside like we did before video games were introduced. It looks like Pokemon GO will give us the best of both worlds!
