Pokemon Go's anniversary - lets review the biggest AR mobile game

"Pokémon Go's anniversary - Should you play, lets review the biggest AR mobile game"

 

Its been a year since Pokémon go was released and Niantic is celebrating the anniversary of its biggest mobile game which crashed servers on its launch and was credited to being the biggest if not the best game on mobile platform by Niantic. I was addicted to playing Pokémon go, I managed to install an apk file as the game was not supported in India and I enjoyed playing the game as it got me out of my sedentary lifestyle. It quickly became a global phenomenon and has been downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide. It was credited with popularizing location-based and augmented reality technology, promoting physical activity, and helping local businesses grow due to increased foot traffic.

 

 

It also attracted controversy for contributing to various accidents, as well as becoming a public nuisance at some locations. Various governments also expressed concerns over the security of the game, with some countries passing legislation to regulate its use.

 

 

Now lets see the good things coming out of Pokémon go

Pokemon Go is an always-online game designed to be played on the move which means you're dealing with cellular data most of the time which has its fair share of problems in India. The app's own issues like reconnecting or unable to connect to servers frequently left me frustrated as an early adopter.

 
Niantic has improved on this aspect in the last 1 year, as I didn't face any server issues while playing Pokémon Go in the past week. Though the game still takes 10 - 20 seconds to load, it isn't as bad as it used to be.

Niantic thought it would make things interesting by adding a randomized chance of a wild Pokémon escaping. It was incessantly frustrating to be quite frank. So it's good to see that it is not an issue anymore, and Niantic have realized their error. It's also further helped by the catch bonuses that didn't exist upon launch.
Pokémon Go keeps track of how many Pokémon you catch of each type, and displays a bronze, silver or gold badge under your profile. While it was just a record of your exploits in the early months, it now contributes to your future attempts, making them easier to catch. A bronze badge gives you 1 catch bonus for a Pokémon of the same type, while silver and gold hand you 2 and 3 respectively.

Now what's not so good about Pokémon go

Arcanine, Exeggutor, Dragonite, Gyrados, Pinsir, and Snorlax. If you were a casual player in the first couple of months, you'll remember that these select few Pokemon ruled most of the gyms, thanks to their high defensive and attacking attributes.
The game doesn’t seem to have changed much since then. There might be a couple of new additions sure - Blissey, and Tyranitar among others - but for the most part it's the same group of Pokémon that still rule the gyms, and have since the early weeks of the game's launch.
 

Niantic have sought to remedy this issue with the summer update that came into effect last week, and it seems to have helped in some ways according to reports. In some places, Pokemon Go players have been able to craft themed Gyms thanks to the new motivation feature, which involves feeding your Pokemon raspberries to keep them 'motivated' for fighting.

Conclusion

Pokémon go is a good AR based game which gets out of people's sedentary lifestyle as movement is essential to play this game but the game needs some changes in the gyms and how you progress to keep the motivation in continuing to play the game which is missing. overall its pretty difficult to justify playing the game over the initial nostalgia for couple of months.

In case you want to start playing pokemon go the link is below
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticlabs.pokemongo&hl=en


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