Pokémon Go Game - Augmented Reality At Its Best

I was walking in the middle of the night in the deserted alley and suddenly face a monstrous creature. It seems that it is ready to attack at any time. I have no time to loose but to either flee or try to confront the creature. I throw my weapon at the creature and it was a miss.

Doduo on Car Steering

The creature seems angry and about to pounce but luckily I was ready this time. I throw the ball and capture the creature.

You might be wondering what this is all about? Welcome to the world of Pokémon short form of Pocket Monster and its latest edition of Pokémon Go. The mobile app which merges game with augmented reality.

Pokémon Go

Pokémon first conceived in 1995 by Satoshi Tajiri. Since then it is a media franchise owned by The Pokémon Company. It is a Japanese consortium between Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures.

Ash Ketchum

I grew up watching Pokémon series where a protagonist boy Ash Ketchum travel across the pokeworld to capture different monsters in Pokeball, train them and contest with Pokémon Gym leaders to earn badges to get in world Pokémon competition.

Pokémon Go is GPS based game which leverage GPS (Global Positioning System) and Augmented Reality to show Pokémon in real world scenario.

Pokeball                   

Pokémon Go is free and can be downloaded from App or Play store. However, due to server load, it is currently restricted to selected countries.The company developed it is Niantic and published by The Pokémon Company as part of the Pokémon franchise. The release date was July 2016 for iOS and Android devices.

Initial release date: July 6, 2016

Developer: Niantic, Inc.

Series: Pokémon

Publisher: The Pokémon Company

Genre: Augmented reality

Platforms: Android, iOS

                                Source: Wikipedia

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is an upcoming technology where the real world scenarios are seamlessly merged or sometimes enhanced with animation, motion capture or special effects, giving an illusion that what you are really seeing through Augmented Reality (AR) Device is real and exist in real world.

Game Play

Once the game is installed, you will be asked to create your in-game avatar to represent you.

Map to Pokemon

The game shows the player near vicinity locations like Google Map on their mobile screen and possible locations of Pokémon. The Pokémon appear throughout the real world map, to capture them players have to use the GPS and Mobile Camera to see the Pokémon. Pokémon also can pop up in unprecedented location and can take players in surprise.

Pokemon Captured

Capturing the Pokémon is quite different from previous editions. Instead of the battle system, we have to throw the poke ball in the right direction, force and distance at the right time to catch a Pokémon. once captured you will get the Pokémon.

Evolution of Charmander

Each Pokémon can be evolved which is denoted in its evolution tree by using Candies for that particular type of Pokémon. while candies are only required to upgrade or evolve your Pokémon you will need stardust as well as Candies to increase you Pokémon Combat power. As player level up, they get to fight higher level, they will encounter higher CP Pokémon.

Pokémon  go is not the first Augmented reality game for e.g. Ingress became quite popular earlier. Though Augmented reality has its own perks and makes players more engrossed but associated disconnection with the real world is a major issue here. AR is helpful to connect with the real world if used in control or controlled environment. but there is news where ethe users get so indulged in the game that the got themselves in difficult situations, an annoyance to public or get themselves hurt. consider a situation that you get a rare Pokémon in the middle of the road or in someone backyard, will you go ahead and take the risk or just leave it, the decision is yours. Another instance comes up in the news where a guy uses a drone to survey an area connected with his VR and Mobile to capture the Pokémon. 

In my opinion, AR has a lot to offer and it will be the future where we leave the screens and see the enhanced reality. But we should be aware of its effect on us until that time, enjoy the game and gotta catch them all!!!