Pokémon Go

Ok, so it's officially a phenomenon. This is the game that everyone has been waiting for since they teased it with a CGI trailer late last year.

[Wikipedia Link]

The premise... To be able to catch pokemon in the real world, so to speak. The trailer and the actual game aren't as close as we'd like but the out come is still pretty awesome. Using your phone's or mobile device's camera and some Augmented reality overlay you get to see the pokemon as if they've appeared in our world. Then, using your items, pokeballs and such, you'd capture them and add them to your collection.

The whole process is pretty slick and works really well. The only problem is that its become the biggest mobile game launch of all time and the Niantic servers (developer of the game) were slammed and continue to be slammed at almost all times. This leads to the game freezing and dropping out and other bugs. Hell, nothing is perfect but for a game thats barely 2 weeks old its pretty good. Not all the info has come out about how many are available or how to get any of the legendary pokemons but I'm sure we'll hear more in the coming months.

At level 5 you become high enough to attend Gym Battles and also you need to pick a team!

The 3 teams are Valor (Red), Instinct (Yellow) and Mystic (Blue). The act of attacking or defending a gym is pretty straight forward. If the gym is owned by an opposing faction then you take a team of 6 to assault the gym. Each win lowers the Prestige points the gym has and if you defeat the leader then the gym becomes vacant. You can occupy a vacant gym by placing one of your pokemon in the gym to hold a place. Gym level determines how many people can actually place pokemon in the gym to defend it. The Pokemon with the highest CP would be the "Boss" as it were and the last one to fight in a defense. To raise the gyms level you need to train and win battles at your own color gym.

As for me, I joined Team Instinct along with the rest of my family. I mentioned it was a phenomenon right? My wife and 2 daughters all play and we're all on the same team. Figured it would make things be more of a team sport. We go out looking for pokemon together and help eachother out. Occupy the same gyms when we take them over. It's pretty fun.

I know I have a long way to go and I'm just going to continue at the pace that I've been moving. When I find a game I like I typically don't like to rush things. I'm currently a Level 15 trainer and I'm about to hit 16 really soon. I've been saving my Lucky Eggs for a quick XP burst from evolving and catching and hopefully I can blow through 16 as if it was never there. Apparently the higher your level the more rarer pokemon they will send at you. I can only hope this is true. The meme's that have been popping up involving GO have been pretty funny and the news stories seem never ending. A lot of people are hailing the game as one that will get us off our butts and out of the house... Others are reporting about the negatives, like people finding dead bodies while hunting for pokemon or that someone lost their life in a car accident when they were playing instead of watching the road. Those stories are heartbreaking but its ultimately the end user's fault. The loading screen implores you to pay attention to the world around you and not the game.

Happy hunting all and I hope to see you in the game...