The already huge hit Pokémon Go, was finally released July 7, 2016 and with already thousands of downloads and counting, this highly anticipated game is sure to blow your mind. This game is perfect for children and parents who grew up watching, playing, and collecting Pokémon and for so many amazing reasons.
This is the first app game that gets up up and moving and motivates you to actually burn some calories while in the mindset of a Pokémon trainer. Do you remember as a kid when you would throw your plastic Poke-ball at the wall because you and ONLY you saw that creature there just asking for it? This game brings that very inspiration to life by using your location and GPS to send you on adventures around your town or home to catch that same Pokémon. It motivates you to walk by withholding certain levels until you made it a certain amount of steps. It also pinpoints certain parks and businesses as battle gyms and PokeStops so you can meet new people and explore new places in your city.
We can’t forget that this app has another really cool feature called the Pokémon Go Plus, a wearable device that lets you know about events happening within the game even when you’re not looking or playing on your phone or tablet. It connects to a smart phone through bluetooth and says the details of things like the description of a Pokémon nearby. They then press a button to catch that Pokémon. It is that simple and quite frankly makes a lot of Poke Parents jealous this wasn’t around when they were younger. Kids love this little accessory.
With obesity in children (and adults) rising every day, it is about time someone figured out how to combine so much greatness into one thing. There really is an app for everything these days isn’t there? Allowing just 20 minutes a day to get up and move around enough to feel like you did something to help your body thrive is what our kids need to know. If they see their parents involved in the same practices, then is is more than likely they will continue those with their own children.
Pokémon Go is a game that can truly bring everyone together for more than the health benefits and fun. As technology continues to grow better every year, this type of game technology will too. Pokémon Go was a perfect start with in that world because for us super geeks and those hidden nerds that loved and still do love this show, card game, toys and collectors’ items, the game makers are surely only going to expand on this game and make it better just as Apple did with its iPhones.
Another great thing about this game is the social aspect. If your child has a hard time getting social, this is perfect for getting to know people that enjoy something they do too. At each PokeStop or Gym, they meet up with the people playing the game and can either have a match or collect items for the game. When my son went on his first Pokémon adventure, he ended up at a park close by where there were 12 people just for that alone plus those showing up as he left. Normally there is no one at this park but I say that is quite the social circle of Poke players.
