By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Updated: Jan 28th, 2021
Pokémon GO is off to a good start this new year. I’m playing a lot more because the first Community Day with Machop and triple stardust for every critter caught is exactly what I wanted. Toss on a Star Piece, and I was swimming in powder after playing for the full five hours. Hopefully, these types of triple offerings will pop up a touch more often.
But as for the augmented reality part of this game, I still keep the camera off. The feature still struggles with knowing the difference between three-dimensional objects, a wall and the floor. It’d be cool to see a Pikachu around the corner, and the player has to slightly chase after it in order to catch, but the various surface detection algorithms don’t work that way. This feature was supposed to roll out late last year, according to engadget, but it seems very little progress has been made. I’ve tested the option on an iPad Mini 5 and Samsung S20 FE. On both, the critter thought the curtain was a flat horizon surface–whoops!
The game continues in its yearly incremental improvements and some of them were way overdue–namely the chance to finally go beyond level 40 for the player. Additional features include a new type of candy (XL) to push the pocket monsters beyond this tier, an improved Player vs Player online battle system and much more. With the former, every (hardcore) player has catch everything. Giving the high level ‘mon a sugar rush is important to make the very best.
The promotional materials for bonus clothing items aren’t merely window dressing for cosplayers. At first, I thought they were available in select regions, but that’s changed and there’s very little fun when everyone has access. The codes can be found online. Screen Rant has the codes for the Verizon clothing promotion and Comicbook.com for the North Face x Gucci Avatar Gear for example.
Other features are welcomed in these pandemic times (and for winter), but it seems the increased range to touch gyms for raiding is deceased. I have to get slightly closer than stay far away. I feel an extra bump is better. Anything within a one block radius makes more sense than to tighten up.
Long distance raid passes are the new currency because they come at a cost of either grinding for the coins to use or spending actual money to go at it 24-7. The choice is okay; if the player wishes to spend actual money, it’s their prerogative.
However, there are still specific improvements I’m wishing for.
- A filterable nearby radar. I like to know if specific Pokémon are close whenever I fire up the game. Getting alerts takes away from the fun. If that ‘mon isn’t too far, I’ll jump into my sneakers and go after it!
- Randomized Shadow Pokémon to catch after beating up a Team Rocket Grunt or Leader. It’s often the first but sometimes, the last ‘mon is what I want to see left behind to grab.
- Getting those still missing Pokémon from the Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova region in the game instead of delaying. Not all of them sound very powerful to be meta game unbalancing, but completionists are waiting.
- Niantic experimented with adding options on how much coin players can earn daily. But instead of doubling, a measly 55 coins per day was not enough. If this aspect of the game allowed players to earn 100 coins per day, I’m sure more players would be more interested in accomplishing gym battles and side-quests than to see it nerfed some months later, after testing. I offer these suggestions:1) Having an in game market to sell Pokémon or items a player has a high abundance of (and not available to buy in the store) but the other doesn’t.2) A banking system. Earn monthly interest in the money saved for a rainy day.
