Tag: Niantic »

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.

Just like Benjamin Franklin said the only two certainties in life were death and taxes, there are two equally unavoidable truths about Pokemon GO. The first is that it's a phenomenon on a scale which mobile gaming has yet to see, and the second is that it's an absolute terror for the battery life of your iPhone or iPad.

We're talking about play sessions that can be measured in minutes, not hours, if you attempt to go out for a Pokemon-catching stroll without your battery indicator at 100 percent. And even fully charged, Pokemon GO eats up juice at a dizzying rate.

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:

Unless you're a complete newcomer to the world of Pokemon, you already know that one of the pleasures of playing any game from the franchise is to evolve your pocket monsters into more powerful forms. It's been one of the core concepts of the IP from the start, and it's a part of Pokemon GO as well.

That said, it's also one of the many aspects of the game that isn't explained to new players at all. Unless you already know where to look or simply stumble into the best way to evolve Pokemon, there's nothing leading you in the right direction.

If one of the goals that went into the making of Pokemon GO was for Niantic and Nintendo to get more people to go outside and be more active -- and it certainly seems like it was -- them mission accomplished. Go just about anywhere that the smash mobile sensation has been officially rolled out (apologies again to our Canadian friends) and you'll find people out and about trying to add to their collections.

That's great to see, but there are times when it's simply not feasible to track Pokemon down where they live. All of us have work, school, or some other kind of obligation that keeps us tethered to a single spot for hours at a time. Wouldn't it be great if you could get Pokemon to come to you?

Now that it seems to be working a little more often for more players,Pokémon GO is turning out to be a lot of fun. Who wouldn't want to be able to catch Pokémon out in real world environments, after all?

The one big obstacle that stands in your way is how little you're told before you set off into the world to try catching those irresistible pocket monsters. A mysterious professor simply tells you he wants help with his research, gives you somePokéballsand an incubator and is like, "Okay, good luck!"

If you've been looking forward to the release of Pokémon GO, you probably woke up excited today to find the internet abuzz with word that the game is live. That euphoria also likely turned to crushing disappointment before too long, because if you live anywhere but Australia and New Zealand, Nintendo's first real mobile game is not out. Yet.

And because Nintendo and its partners at The Pokémon Company and Niantic are still being tight-lipped about how the roll-out of Pokémon GO is being handled, we don't even know for sure if the official North American launch will be sometime today, later this week or later this month. Still, where there's a will, there's a way, and you can indeed play Pokémon GO if you so desire.

Back when it was announced that Nintendo was going to start working on mobile games, it was tough not to expect the worst. Granted we still haven't really seen anything substantial from the console juggernaut on iOS yet, but if the new trailer for Pokémon GO is any indication things might just turn out alright.