Return to the Kanto region and experience a classic Pokémon journey in a whole new way. Nintendo and the Pokémon Company revealled today that there are two new Pokémon games coming to the Nintendo Switch this year. While the logos and names leaked earlier in the month, the news was made official today.
The pair of games are based on the special Pokémon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition game for the GameBoy which was originally released in 1998. The games are remade with the same visual style of the latest 3DS games Sun and Moon.
The game looks like it can be played with a single joycon and catching Pokémon is done with the same motion swing mechanic as in mobile game Pokémon GO. Not only that but the game will be compatable with the mobile game and allow trainers to transfer Pokémon between the new Nintendo Switch titles and Pokémon GO.
Also during the video presentation was displayed multiplayer allowing two trainers to play at once using a Joy-Con each. A special PokeBallPlus will also be released which will be compatable with Pokémon GO and can be used as a Joy-Con for the Nintendo Switch games.
Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! will be released on the Nintendo Switch on November 16th.
It was also announced that there is also a brand new mainline Pokémon RPG in development for the second half of 2019.
Niantic Labs rolled out an update to Pokemon Go today that brings a very special retro feature to the highly successful mobile game. All you have to do is take a look at your Pokedex index screen or list of available monsters to see that their usual 3D models have been replaced with adorable “twice the quality of 4K” sprites.
Here’s the full pop-up text as it appeared in Pokemon Go today:
“Experience Pokemon GO Like NEVER BEFORE with Brand-New Graphics!
Trainers, we always want to bring you the most immersive graphics experience possible, and were excited to share our latest breakthrough with millions of Pokemon GO Trainers around the world. Experience Pokemon GO like never before with cutting-edge 8-BIT GRAPHICS! Registering approximately twice the amount of definition of 4K, the chunky squares of each pixel provide realistic detail and unbelievable definition. Your Pokedex will feel lifelike in ways previously unimagined on any handheld device ever created. Enjoy it now!”
Also the Pokedex screen changes as well with the new “4K Sprites”, sadly only the index with all of your entries, when you click on an individual monster the usual 3D model will load. Here is a look:
I’ve been playing a lot more Pokemon GO this past week than I have in the past few months – solely thanks to the addition of Daily Quests and the chance to get the elusive Mew. If they made these retro sprites a toggle like the AR/Grass mode, I’d use them all the time!
What do you think? Let me know in the comments section.
Pokemon from the Hoen region are about to find their way into our world with the rollout of pocket monsters from Generation III in Pokemon GO. Over the next few weeks, Niantic will make 50 different monsters from Ruby and Sapphire catchable in the augmented reality game.
Also coming to Pokemon GO for the first time is real-world weather that will affect gameplay. No longer will it be pouring rain on your virtual self while back, in reality, it is bone dry. Weather in POGO won’t just be cosmetic either, it will change which monsters you might find in the wild as well as other factors like combat power and stardust.
Here is what Niantic’s official press release said about the upcoming weather feature:
“For the first time in an augmented reality mobile game, the real-world weather will now be a factor in the gameplay experience. As Trainers are exploring the world around them in search of Pokémon, the current weather in their vicinity will be visible on the in-game map. The real-world weather around Trainers will impact the gameplay of Pokémon GO in a variety of ways that include changing Pokémon habitats and where they can be found, increasing Combat Power, and earning more Stardust after catching a Pokémon.”
Is the addition of monsters like Torchick, Mudkip and Swablue enough to keep you playing? Pokemon GO might not be the mega-smash success it once was back in the summer of 2016 but millions of Pokemon trainers still log in daily to catch them all!
Walking through downtown Calgary tonight I decided to login to Pokemon Go for the first time in several months and catch some spooky monsters from the Halloween event. My usual walking route contains approximately 20 or so PokeStops including a few Gyms, so when walking it forward & back, filling my item bag is usually par for the course. Except for tonight I noticed something odd – every Stop/Gym was only giving me two items. What the hell…
After some sleuthing (e.g. Using Google) it turns out the Niantic has been messing with the drop rates of both PokeStops & Gyms for at least the past two weeks. Back on October 11th Reddit user, vtmcouver reported that they had begun to see Stops/Gyms drop only two items. Over the course of that evenings one particular user collected 250 spins from across the Reddit community (that’s a lot of walking) and came to some interesting conclusions:
Gyms will only drop 2 to 3 items (not including bonuses for your team controlling the Gym or daily streaks).
The differing drop rates may be tied to individual trainer accounts rather than be based on other criteria – say trainer location.
If your account is affected there is only a %10 – %12 chance that you’ll receive a bonus third item per spin.
Some players report never receiving a bonus item at all.
These numbers aren’t exact, and I don’t expect that Niantic will comment on the item drop rate. It is a bit of a bummer – as a casual Pokemon Go player I kind of relied on regular PokeStop drops to provide me with enough Pokeballs to play. If these changes are indeed account wide, I guess all I can do is a shrug and I’ll be less inclined to play Pokemon Go as we head into the Winter months.
Are you experience fewer item drops from Gyms & Pokestops? Let me know in the comments.
Niantic and Nintendo rolled out the recently announced Gym / Raid update for Pokemon GO on iOS and Android this afternoon. Trainers haven’t been able to go to their local Gyms for a few days now, simply receiving a message that “Gyms are currently under construction” – and as of the writing of this post, this is still true in North America. In their official announcement, which you can check out here, Niantic called this update to Pokemon Go “the biggest update” the game has received yet.
Raids
Remember that stunning moment in one of the Pokemon Go reveal trailers where dozens upon dozens of trainers got together in Times Square to battle Mewtwo? That dream is taking one step closer to reality with the addition to Raids in Go. Basically, a large egg will spawn above select Gyms with a timer. Trainers have until the timer reaches zero to assemble and prepare to work together to take down the Raid Boss. Each boss will be a surprise, and as of right now we don’t know if Raid Bosses will include legendaries but it is certainly possible.
Participating in the Raid events does come at a cost, either by collecting the one free “raid pass” that you are entitled too from a participating Gym or by purchasing a Premium Raid Pass in the Coin Shop.
Here is how Niantic explained the differences between the two passes:
“Before you can battle the Raid Boss, you’ll need a Raid Pass. You can get one free Raid Pass per day by visiting a Gym, but you can only hold one at a time. You can also get Premium Raid Passes from the in-game shop. “
New Items
Defeating a Raid Boss can reward a number of new items to the participating trainers including:
Rare Candy – Can be used to generate a single Pokemon candy of any kind.
Golden Razz Berry – Greatly enhances the capture chance of a wild Pokemon.
TMs (Technical Machines) – Used to teach a Pokemon a new fast or charged attack for use in Gyms.
Gym Enhancements and Badges
Gyms are receiving a massive overhaul in the latest version of Pokemon GO. No longer will Gyms be stacked with six unbeatable 3000CP Dragonites or Blisseys that you have no hope of defeating. Thanks to a new motivation system there is also a higher chance individual trainers will be able to contribute a Pokemon to their local gyms, rather than waiting on the sidelines. Special items, badges, and other incentives will also give trailers a reason for stopping by a Gym – rather than letting it literally pass them by.
Here is a quick rundown with how Gyms are changing once construction is finished:
Pokemon in Gyms is no longer tied to their Combat Power. Instead, each Gym has six slots available to the controlling team.
Pokemon taking up the six slots will lose “motivation” over time or when defeated. As their motivation drops their Challenge Points will also decrease, making them easier to defeat.
Once a slotted monster is defeated that slot becomes open again for new trainers to park their favorite little mon.
Gyms can now be spun like PokeStops to reward trainers for visiting them.
Badges have been added that will give players a visual memento for the contributions they’ve made to Gyms during their journey.
So, how do you feel about the latest Pokemon Go update? It may not be the huge fad it was one year ago but millions of trainers still play the game – myself included. Badges and free items could be an interesting incentive to visit Gyms and I’m glad that Niantic has provided a way for everyone to participate in raids. I haven’t owned a Gym in mooooonths, since other trainers starting stacking them with so many Blisseys.
Perhaps this will spark huge crowds like in the video above? What do you think? Leave your comments below!
Niantic and The Pokémon Company have detailed their spring promotion for mobile title Pokémon GO – the Pokémon GO Eggstravaganza.
From 4:00 PM EDT on April 13th thru 4:00 PM EDT on April 20th, 2017, a greater variety of Pokémon can now be found in 2 km Eggs. Additionally you’ll also earn more Candy for every Egg hatched.
Throughout this Eggstravaganza, you’ll also level up even faster with double XP! Combine this bonus with a Lucky Egg, and you’ll earn four times the XP you normally would. Lucky Eggs will be also be 50% off in the in-game shop.
Now that the weather has started to turn around, are you getting out there more with Pokémon GO?
Niantic and The Pokémon Company International today revealed Pokémon GO’s next in-game celebration, the Pokémon GO Water Festival.
From today at 4:00 PM EST until March 29th at 4:00 PM EST, trainers will be more likely to encounter Water-type Pokémon like Magikarp, Squirtle, Totodile and their evolutions around the world. Trainers will also have a greater chance of encountering Water-type Pokémon originally discovered in the Johto region, which recently began appearing in the game, when exploring areas where Water-type Pokémon more commonly appear.
Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, and many more Pokémon are nearly here in Pokémon GO! Starting later this week, more than 80 Pokémon originally discovered in the Johto region in the Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver video games will be available in Pokémon GO.
Pokémon with gender-specific variations, will also start rolling out in Pokémon GO.
New Evolutions: Some Pokémon originally discovered in the Kanto region will soon be able to evolve—into Pokémon that inhabit the Johto region. New Evolution items will also be available at PokéStops, which you’ll need to evolve some Pokémon.
Pokemon GO is one of the few unique mainstream games that rewards players for going out into the real world and exploring. Whether they’re walking down the block or across their entire city to hatch eggs, Pokemon Trainers the world over have racked up quite the tally – over 9 billion KM have been tallied by trainers the Pokemon Company since its July launch.
If you need a comparison to help you comprehend just how massive 9 billion KM is, here is what the Pokemon GO blog said:
“We are pleased to share that—as of December 7—the Pokémon GO community has collectively walked more than 8.7 billion kilometers. That’s more than 200,000 trips around Earth! Fun fact: A commercial jetliner would take more than 1,000 years to cover the same distance. While covering this distance, Trainers also caught more than 88 billion Pokémon along the way. That’s roughly 533 million Pokémon a day!”
Even with all of this walking, Pokemon GO Players haven’t crossed the entire solar system yet – who knows if Nintendo will make an interstellar announcement once players cross the 287 billion KM mark (the diameter of our solar system).
Alongside their blog post Niantic also included the following animated info-graphic:
Niantic and Nintendo spread a little bit of holiday cheer today with the announcment of some new Pokémon coming to Pokémon GO.
Togepi and Pichu will start hatching from Eggs. Starting today, trainers will have the opportunity to hatch these and several other Pokémon that were originally discovered in the Johto Region in Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver video games.
Niantic also shared that these are the first of more Pokémon coming to Pokémon GO over the next few months.
There are about to be more catchable Pokémon in Niantic and Nintendo’s mobile game Pokémon GO soon.
The official Pokémon Twitter channel sent out a brief tweet today announcing that “More Pokémon are coming to Pokémon GO!” The tweet went on to tease the date of December 12th for more information.
There is some speculation of what the new Pokémon will be, with the assumption that it will be the second generation Pokémon coming to the game. While that is the most likely assumption, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the new Pokémon from Nintendo’s newest 3DS games Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon might not be in the mix.
It would certainly be a miss not to use this release to cross promote between the two Pokémon games.
Niantic announced today that they have rolled out their revamped nearby Pokémon feature for Pokémon GO to the rest of the continental United States and large parts of Europe today. The roll out includes the rest of Canada as well.
The new nearby Pokémon feature now includes the nearest PokéStop to the Pokémon, and zooms in to show more detail when tapped. You can also tap on the tracks on this screen and the game shifts to an overhead map briefly to show you approximately where you can find the Pokémon. The map then reverts to the normal view, however a marker is now visible on the map.
I’ll be honest. After the initial craze for Pokémon GO hit I somewhat fell off the bandwagon. I wasn’t one of those people who spent hours and days walking around seeking the elusive creatures, sucking up tons and tons of data. I’ll admit, after I let a friend without mobile data tether off of my data and I ended up going way over my monthly data, I really scaled back on my usage.
Heck, I’m only level 14.
But I have been keeping tabs on the game and am not one of those who uninstalled the game and wrote it off. I’m sure there’s much more to come.
The latest Pokemon Go update on both Android and iOS adds some great additions like daily quests and bonus XP for taking over gyms but players have found that PokeStops are no longer commuter friendly.
In the past if your character was traveling faster than what the game considers walking speed you would need to tap an “I’m a passenger!” dialogue box in-order to continue playing the game. After this latest update the dialogue box still appears but attempting to spin a PokeStop while on a commuter train or in a car may result in a “Please Try Again” message. It should be noted that these messages do not appear on 100% of available stops when traveling fast.
Can’t Spin Poke-Stops While Going Fast!
Reddit user BrandonOR did some experimenting in their city and found that when traveling at 18 – 20 Miles Per Hour the “tray again” error message was prevelant. When traveling at 25 MPH the game would allow them to claim 60% of available PokeStops.
Here is the relevant bit from that Reddit thread:
“Update: after a few more loops it feels odd, like 18-20 mph will make it say try again later but I was collecting from them at 25mph. It may be that the game is just running poorly but 40% of my poke-stops did this, that’s a big ass chunk of what I should have, and no, I am not getting stuff behind the scenes. My journal shows nothing “
User JacobRFeenstra feels for the rural users who might have limited amounts of Poke-Stops in their city but perhaps these changes have to do with Trainers being behind the wheel:
“I feel for commuters and rural players. In the Netherlands most people have at least 5 pokestops if they live in a small town and live in close proximity (10-20kms) to a larger city with an abundance of stops. I despise people who use their phone behind the steering wheel and i’m pretty sure Niantic is trying to reduce those, those momo’s are putting other people’s lives in danger. Just drive 30 minutes to a place and walk for an hour. “
How do you feel about the speed locking of Poke-Stops?
Pokémon GO is in the process of being updated for Android and iOS devices. The update includes daily bonuses.
Playing the game you’ll earn bonuses for the first Pokémon catch and PokéStop visit each day. You’ll receive a larger bonus when you do this seven days in a row. Catching a Pokémon every day will earn 500 XP and 600 Stardust. Catching a Pokémon every day for 7 days straight will earn a larger bonus of 2,000 XP and 2,400 Stardust.
Visiting a PokéStop and spinning the Photo Disc every day will earn you 500 XP and a number of additional items, while visiting a PokéStop every day for 7 days straight will earn the larger bonus of 2,000 XP and a greater number of additional items.
The eligibility of the bonuses rolls over at 12:00 AM local time.
