I’ve settled, with time, into mobile gaming. I’m not playing Clash of Clans or eagerly awaiting the next iteration of Asphalt from Gameloft, but sometimes I will break out my phone before bed to play through a little Pokemon Shuffle or Final Fantasy Record Keeper . Hell, I’ve even spent real-world money on the latter because I wanted to show DeNA some love. The free-to-play, microtransaction formula works well on mobile because these typically aren’t games that we’re playing for long stretches of time. That’s not to say we’re not headed that direction, because I think we may be, and mobile games are starting to get longer, better, and more fun.
That’s why I was particularly excited about Pokemon Go . On the surface it sounds like the perfect mobile experience for Pokemon fans. Phones are to the point where even two to three-year-old models are capable of pushing out really decent visuals, and the processors are generally pretty beefy, so it’s the perfect time for a killer mixed reality Pokemon experience, right? And surely the industry has matured to the point that developers know exactly how to balance free-to-play monetization and a “full-game” experience. Surely next month we’re finally getting the real-world Pokemon game we’ve always wanted.
Or maybe we’re not. Early impressions of Pokemon Go from beta testers have been mixed. Most recently I was reading up on on a conversation I found on Polygon between Allegra Frank and Nick Robinson, who have been playing the game for a week; they were pretty underwhelmed. Their complaints have legitimized a few fears I had about the game, and for those of you who may not have seen the the footage from Nintendo’s Treehouse coverage at E3, I feel like I should offer up a few warnings.
First of all, this isn’t going to transform your daily commute into a real-life Pokemon RPG. Even though I should have known better, I set myself up with the expectation that this would be a Pokemon game first and foremost. I legitimately thought that I’d be walking around outside and, feeling my phone buzzing in my pocket, I’d whip it out to see a wild Pikachu peeking out of my hydrangeas. A battle would ensue, and I’d have to wear the Pikachu down with my starter Pokemon (most likely a Bulbasaur), and when it was low enough on health I imagined myself actually throwing something to catch it. What the hell else is the Pokemon Go Plus device supposed to be used for?! After I had caught all 150 original Pokemon , I’d dominate my neighborhood as the reigning master. People would flock to my driveway to spar like I was Ip Man, and I’d destroy them all with my Gengar and Kadabra.
Well, none of that is going to happen, and Niantic wasn’t trying to recreate the Pokemon experience from the main games in Pokemon Go . CEO John Hanke said so himself, calling the idea “silly.” The only battling you’ll be doing with other Pokemon, at least initially, will be at gyms located at various real-world landmarks around the country. The game is very much like Niantic’s first game Ingress in that way, and the you’ll be tasked with going out and claiming gyms for one of three factions: red, blue, or yellow. You’ll do battle with AI representations of other factions’ Pokemon, and they with yours, and whichever faction has the best success rate in battle will claim the gym as their own. This sounds like the main focus in Pokemon Go , which basically means that Niantic fit a shiny Pokemon aesthetic over its pre-existing game and network.
The rest of Pokemon Go – the finding, capturing, and raising of Pokemon – sounds like a chore from everyone who’s played so far. You do not weaken Pokemon before casting your Pokeballs; you simply toss and pray. Pokemon are evolved by feeding them excessive amounts of candies, which are acquired by capturing duplicate Pokemon, or otherwise purchasing them with real-world money. So mundane and monotonous is this aspect of the game that Nintendo has developed a $35 wearable that saves you from having to open up the app and carry on with all that grinding. With Pokemon Go Plus, you simply press a button to attempt to capture Pokemon, acquire items at Pokestops, or track steps to hatch eggs containing rare Pokemon. Someone needs to tell John Hanke that a Pokemon game you can play by pressing a single button is silly.
Is anyone out there still looking forward to Pokemon Go? I’m going to download it and give it a shot, but I doubt I’ll be investing in the Plus wristband. This sounds like the next Miitomo : ten million users strong out of the gate, and a month later no one will be talking about it again. This is such a large project, and Nintendo and Niantic have spent so much money on marketing this (hello, Super Bowl commercial). I doubt very much that they’d let it fail. I’d wager that we’ll see continuous updates for Pokemon Go for at least a year or two. Who knows, maybe by then it will be the game we all thought it was going to be, but we’ll have to temper our expectations for now.