Home Gaming Pokemon GO announced, a real-world pocket monster mobile game

Pokemon GO announced, a real-world pocket monster mobile game

2 min read
26

Pokermanz (2)

The best Pokémon experiences have come from the handheld games over a 20 year period that has been split across several generations. Essentially, Pokémon has always been a hyper-quick RPG where battles can be fought quickly and on the go. And that’s a formula which should work on mobile devices when you think about it.

Well clearly, Nintendo has been thinking about it, as they just announced Pokémon GO, a pocket monster game that will force players to expose themselves to fresh air and natural sunlight. “The day has finally come when Pokémon appear in the real world,” Pokémon designer Junichi Masuda said at the Pokémon press conference. Here’s the trailer for it then:

Currently being developed by Niantic, who previously made the AR smartphone game Ingress, Pokémon GO has been in the works for a year already. The game will ship with a watch-like peripheral, which will feature in the Pokémon Go Plus version of the game. Basically, you’re going to venture outside and actually catch your own Pokémon.

The peripheral will pair up with your smartphone, feature a rumble device to alert you of nearby Pokémon and also features parental pairing options, for kids. One other detail to take note of, is how previous core Pokemon games have been influenced by real-world locales. Pokémon X and Y for instance, was heavily influenced by the landscape of France.

Pokermanz (1)

And thus the franchise is coming full circle, by using the actual real world for inspiration. Neat. “I’m thinking about how this game will connect with titles in the main series of Pokémon games,” Masuda said, hinting at some sort of cross-pollination between games.

While I doubt the game will look anything like the trailer above, I’m kind of keen for it.

Nintendo actually had some great ideas for AR with the 3DS, as anyone who played around with that function on the handheld can attest to. The hardware in the smartphones of today, are more than capable of recreating Pokémon in the real world with some augmented reality trickery. If it’s anything like Ingress, Nintendo could have something special here.

Pokémon GO is slated for a 2016 release, on both iOS and Android.

Last Updated: September 10, 2015

26 Comments

  1. O boy… the Pokefanboy in me is gonna escape… RUN while you still can!

    Reply

    • HairyEwok

      September 10, 2015 at 10:45

      Just think how awesome it would be though. Pokemon according to the biome around you. Subways have diglets and dugrios, urban areas have pigeot and rattata, Eskom power stations have pikachu and voltorbs.

      Reply

      • Ottokie "Yahtzee"

        September 10, 2015 at 10:47

        I am just not gonna walk into alleyways in this country that’s for sure xD Team Rocket do not chase people with knives as far as I know…

        Reply

        • HairyEwok

          September 10, 2015 at 10:52

          Yeaaaah this in our country though would be so dodge especially if you need to walk around with your 10k phone out slowly looking for pokemon. I can see people in Japan going crazy over this though.

          Reply

          • Ottokie "Yahtzee"

            September 10, 2015 at 10:56

            Japan has all the fun…

          • Marc O Polo

            September 10, 2015 at 11:11

            Of course they do… They have Japanese school girls

          • Ottokie "Yahtzee"

            September 10, 2015 at 11:14

            You are going to summon the trolls with this… 😛

  2. HairyEwok

    September 10, 2015 at 10:38

    Would be great if the user experience is what the video shows. But in order to get that you would need VR.

    Reply

    • CypherGate

      September 10, 2015 at 11:16

      and have a nice pair of google glasses to see them that way lol

      Reply

  3. Alien Emperor Trevor

    September 10, 2015 at 10:42

    Reply

    • Ottokie "Yahtzee"

      September 10, 2015 at 10:43

      I miss this show xD

      Reply

  4. Splooshypooh

    September 10, 2015 at 10:48

    I’ve got goosebumps all over 🙂 The ad oversells it a little, but i’m so onboard with this i’m overboard!

    Reply

    • Ottokie "Yahtzee"

      September 10, 2015 at 10:49

      Yea this is a big hype train, but the idea is very nice.

      Reply

  5. MySpaceBarBroken

    September 10, 2015 at 10:55

    yeah.. that looks great it those cities.. cant wait till Pokemon Go leads the player into Middle on Gugulethu to catch a Bunnelby and player gets raped robbed and probably stabbed..

    Reply

    • Ottokie "Yahtzee"

      September 10, 2015 at 10:57

      At least your space bar is fixed so that’s a plus xD

      Reply

  6. VampyreSquirrel

    September 10, 2015 at 10:58

    I can’t wait to see a bunch of idiots standing around making funny gestures at nothing!!!

    Reply

    • Ottokie "Yahtzee"

      September 10, 2015 at 10:59

      Hey, I wanna be one of those idiots 😛

      I wanna be the best idiot there ever was!

      Reply

      • VampyreSquirrel

        September 10, 2015 at 11:01

        Hahahaha… no comment…

        Reply

        • Dutch Matrix

          September 10, 2015 at 11:03

          But that is a comment…

          Reply

          • VampyreSquirrel

            September 10, 2015 at 11:58

            Yes. Yes it is.

  7. Dutch Matrix

    September 10, 2015 at 11:02

    “…parental pairing options, for kids.” Isn’t that what parents pair for in the first place?

    Reply

  8. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    September 10, 2015 at 11:18

    10/10 can’t wait for this… Definitely going to try it out!

    Reply

  9. Ghost In The Rift

    September 10, 2015 at 11:31

    Gonna be interesting to see some one running around a mall chasing something you cant see, looking forward to allot of youtube funny’s.

    Reply

  10. Raptor Rants

    September 10, 2015 at 11:50

    I NEED THIS GAME NOW!

    Reply

  11. DrKiller

    September 10, 2015 at 12:17

    All I want is a proper 3D pokemon game on Xbox…. Hopefully some day this’ll happen…

    Reply

  12. J_Joestar

    September 10, 2015 at 19:57

    this just makes want to be the very best! like no one ever was!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

The Nintendo Switch Version 12.0.3 was released and then retracted after just a few hours

The update was only available for a few hours before Nintendo pulled it all back, offering…