Over a year ago, the pranksters at Google tricked the world into believing they made the ultimate Pokemon experience, only to have it be an April Fool's Day joke. While the video was too good to be true, deep in everyone's heart they wanted it to be real. Well, the folks at Nintendo, the Pokemon Company, Game Freak and Niantic have joined forces to turn this dream into a reality with Pokemon GO.
Revealed early September 10, Pokemon GO is the brainchild of Ishihara Tsunekazu and the late Satoru Iwata. It is a free-to-play mobile title for iOS and Android that uses location data to actively catch, trade, and battle Pokemon on your smartphone. Releasing in 2016, GO forces players out of the house and into the world around them in order to become a Pokemon Master. In addition to the free download, players can purchase a peripheral called Pokemon GO Plus. The Pokemon GO Plus cuts out the need for players to continually stare at their smartphone by using vibration and a blinking LED to notify them about certain events happening in the game such as the appearance of a wild Pokemon. It also serves as a controller for the game by helping catch Pokemon and perform other simple actions.
After watching the trailer and conference for Pokemon GO, I am conflicted. The concept is great, but there are so many questions left unanswered that I can't help but be cautious. The conference did nothing more than introduce the idea and everybody working on the project, while the trailer is completely misleading. The trailer makes you believe Pokemon GO is an augmented reality Pokemon simulator when in actuality it is nowhere near that level of detail and involvement. From the screenshots and how the developers described the game, Pokemon GO is very similar to the Pokemon RPGs everybody knows and loves, just interchange running around Kanto or Johto as your avatar with running around locations in real life.
The problem with Pokemon GO right now is there isn't enough tangible information on the final product. There are too many what ifs, especially concerning the gameplay and pricing of both microtransactions and the Pokemon GO Plus peripheral, that it's impossible to get a true feel for what the game will be upon release. As a seasoned Pokemon fan, going off of the Pokemon name alone is not a wish decision. Just ask anybody whose played the thousand of Pokemon spinoffs not named Snap, Puzzle League, or Conquest.
In all honesty, I want Pokemon GO to fulfill the dream of interacting with Pokemon in real life. With names like Shigeru Miyamoto, Junichi Masuda and the late Satoru Iwata, I want to get behind this game and champion it as Nintendo's first major push into the mobile market, but I can't. I need to see and hear more about Pokemon GO's gameplay and pricing to form a genuine opinion about the game. As it stands, I fear the initial trailer combined with the promise of an innovative Pokemon experience will leave a lot of people disappointed.
