Tag: Pokémon GO »

Rest in peace, Pokemon GOunofficial companion map apps. And long live those same apps.

The run enjoyed by apps like GO Gear and services like Pokevision.com was a fun one. They worked by using Niantic's API for Pokemon GO, essentially peeking behind the curtain to determine exactly where different Pokemon would spawn and how long they'd stick around.

While some players decried them as cheats, there's no doubt that having the info they provided made the game a lot more purposeful than simply stumbling around and hoping to find pocket monsters you'd never encountered before. But as the saying goes, all good things come to an end, and with the game's most recent round of updates, Niantic more or less neutered those apps, explaining that the extra strain they added to the game's servers was hindering the experience of the masses.

Thus, Pokevision has gone from essential to useless just like that, and apps that worked in similar fashion have also been cut off at the source. What hope is there now for Pokemon location apps?

Forget big, splashy content additions for the time being. Pokemon GO received an update over the weekend, and it mostly came with a whimper instead of a bang.

That's not to say it wasn't welcome. The update, which hit both iOS and Android, fixed one of the more annoying things that didn't work with the game for most of its existence, made a key activity simultaneously easier and more difficult, and introduced some unintentional humour (we think) into the mix.

Now that we've settled into something of a Pokemon GO status quo, the number one desire of most players can best be summed out by modifying a quote from Rod Tidwell of Jerry Maguire: "Show me the Pokemon!"

That's because we've reached the point where many people have gotten the basics down and are out to track down specific Pokemon for leveling purposes or simply to acquire some they haven't encountered to date. Wandering around aimlessly and visiting new places can help, but it's much better to have more information at your fingertips.

Unofficial Pokemon GO map apps have been proliferating to fill that need, and a new one has entered the fray from Celadon Software, the makers ofPokéBuilder. GO Gear is a paid (99 cents at the time of this article) map app that does what several free apps do, but also adds enough important features to make a potential purchase very interesting.

There's no question that candy is dandy in Pokemon GO. You need big quantities of it to evolve your Pokemon, and when combined with stardust, it can be used to power up your favorite pocket monsters as well, making them more formidable for the gym battles that await you.

But the dilemma facing many players is which of those purposes is best suited for your candy. Since it only takes a single piece to power up any Pokemon, using it that way doesn't seem too wasteful.

As it turns out, the consensus from people who have been playing Pokemon GO nonstop since launch is that even a single piece of candy devoted to powering up Pokemon is probably a piece of candy wasted. Here are some compelling arguments for why you should rarely, if ever, power up your Pokemon.

The biggest thing that Pokemon GO players want to know is where to find the Pokemon they don't already have. The crux of the game is catching 'em all, so tracking down elusive pocket monsters is generally task number one any time someone fires up Nintendo and Niantic's smash hit.

A number of unofficial companion apps have popped up in the wake of Pokemon GO's release to serve as aids to locate specific Pokemon. We've covered a number of them here on 148apps, and while some of them are very promising, most share one common trait: They rely on players to provide the Pokemon location data to help you find the Pokemon you seek.

Let me know if this scenario sounds familiar. You've got a Pokemon GO gym battle within easy walking distance, and you've visited it many times. Maybe you've even dropped one of your Pokemon there to help defend the place and reap the benefits.

Inevitably though, one of the other teams always comes and beats up your squad, flying its colors proudly. And since the Pokemon they leave there are impossibly tough, there's not a darn thing you can do about it.

Pokemon GO had a scheduled appearance at this year's San Diego Comic-Con for a while, but it was only relatively close to the show that it was upgraded to a spot in Hall H. That's the biggest venue at SDCC, one usually reserved for the largest movie and television panels.

Such is the runaway success of Pokemon GO that no one really batted an eye when the game's panel, which featured folks from the game's developer, Niantic, including studio chief John Hanke. While he and his team spoke this weekend about when has happened with the game so far, the big draw was everything they hinted at that is yet to come.

By now, almost everyone should be hip to how to evolve Pokemon in Pokemon GO (and if not, there's a guide for that). Just gather enough candy of the appropriate type, feed them all to the Pokemon, and evolution happens. It's a miracle that would astound Darwin.

For every rule, though, an exception lurks in the shadows. And when it comes to Pokemon evolution, that exception has a name: Eevee.

Playing Pokemon GO without walking is sort of defeating the purpose. Nintendo wanted Niantic to help it create a game that would get people up and moving about, and darned if that isn't exactly what they got.

Nowhere is that more true than when it comes to hatching Pokemon Eggs. As we've told you previously, there are three kinds of eggs, each of which takes a different amount of walking to hatch. Or maybe we should say "walking" in quotes, because despite the developers' best intentions, there are ways around doing 10 km on the shoe leather express.

One of the more frustrating aspects of Pokemon GO in its first few weeks of release is that it's unquestionably been a victim of its own success. The vast number of people scrambling to catch 'em all right off the bat has made server outages and lag a regular thing, and that's even without hackers trying to take the servers down.

Naturally, where there's a service to be given, there's an app developer or two ready to jump into the fray to assist. With that in mind, we check out two unofficial Pokemon GO companion apps to see if they can really help you determine if the game's servers are down in your area.

Clearly, Niantic and Nintendo don't need any advice on how to create a popular mobile game. Pokemon GO fever has swept not just the nation, but the entire world. Except Japan, ironically, where it's not out yet.

On the other hand, even the developers would have to admit that there are ways that the game can be improved. It's not the deepest Pokemon game ever, and since it's on mobile, content updates will be not just hoped for, but absolutely essential to keep it relevant for the long haul.

There's no real rush to get ahead in Pokemon GO. Even if it starts to fade a little after its ludicrously fantastic launch, there are millions of people who will be just getting into the game over the weeks to come. Maybe you're one of them -- after all, the game just launched in Canada, and Japan is still waiting for it.

But while others may proceed at a leisurely pace to catch 'em all, let's assume that's not for you. If the thought of having other teams control the Gym near your house makes your blood boil, or you simply have dreams of becoming the very best (like no one ever was), you're going to need to level up faster.

It was probably inevitable that with the runaway success of Pokemon GO, a number of unofficial apps intended to help players with the game would spring up in the App Store. That is indeed what's taking place, and one of them PokeFinder - for Pokemon GO, has elbowed its way into the top 10 on the U.S. app charts.

Outside of the general caution one should have when dealing with apps that are obviously not official companion apps, we decided to dive into PokeFinder to find out what it is and whether you should consider downloading it to aid you in your trainer adventures.

In your Pokemon Go adventures, one thing you're bound to realize is that Pokemon Eggs are the real deal. Not only do they encourage you to get out and walk around -- after all, you can drive to a PokeStop, but you pretty much need to hoof it to hatch those Eggs -- they provide an alternate method to catching Pokemon on a slow day.

If you've found enough of them, you've also undoubtedly realized that the Pokemon Egg comes in three varieties, distinguished by the distance you need to walk to incubate each one. Some Eggs require just a 2 km jaunt, while others need you to walk 5 or even 10 km to see what's inside.

If you're a lifelong Pokemon fan who appreciates the way that Pokemon GO celebrates the original 151, you've probably ended up asking yourself one big question: Where are the legendary Pokemon?

Specifically, we're interested in the whereabouts of Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos. The three legendary birds are part of that initial group of Pokemon a few decades ago, and they just so happen to look a lot like the emblems of the three teams you're asked to join: