(The Vintage Tempest)
Taking part in these back-to-back Pokémon GO events can be exhausting. Not everyone has to participate, but they do anyways. Part of the reason is that most long-time players want mega candies for specific ‘mons as spawn rates are increased for a few days. I’m after more Magikarp candy myself. They help evolve the lil’ beasts beyond level 40.
The only aspect of the game which keeps me going are the weekly special event completion quests. The rewards are decent. This week’s celebration of the release of Pokémon Snap for the Nintendo Switch is okay at best, and the one-time special field research tasks are incredibly broken. It’s easy to photograph the same wild beast over and over to breeze through the tasks. There’s nothing unique to “photographing” your ‘mon with the real surroundings, other than to post on it twitter with the #gosnapshot hashtag that you’re is participating in this four-day event. The purpose is more about showing off your trophies and so far, all I got was a shiny Lotad. I’ve done a lot of photos of wild pokémon and only had one Smergle show up out of 60 or so snapshots. The rate seems better after random creatures are caught though. It’s hilarious that I can recursively photograph this artist and get another appearing on top over and over.
In a world that is supposed to be in lockdown because of the third wave of covid-19 cases, we shouldn’t be encouraged to leave home and find these pocket monsters. Technically, it can all be avoided since parks and outdoor spaces allow for distancing.
After two hours, the four level timed research tasks are simple to finish. I would’ve preferred stardust rewards than item and rare pokémon drops. If the “celebration” is to acknowledge the place the Snap game exists in, the dust makes more sense. I’m only imagining the shine and glitter which follows the paparazzi culture trying to capture celebrities at their finest.
At least next month looks more promising. My hope for the upcoming Routes play feature includes attempting player submitted paths than those created by yourself. While it’ll be easy for one person to do, it may not for another–especially if they’re not as fit. I can imagine some individuals fashion a mountain hike and assigning a hard difficulty and others creating a simple follow this chip trail at a recreation facility.
Since we have yet to see a variation of Duck Hunt or whack a mole in Pokémon form–the idea would be cool to introduce mini games on top of the regular–I’m sure Space Invaders can be given the Pokémon-style window dressing. I can imagine tossing massive amounts of pokéballs to stop a horde of Pidgeys and Bunearys coming after you. Niantic Inc made an arcade game. Instead of a trackball to toss the balls around, we have a trackpad. Adding variations of certain classics to the mix isn’t that hard. It just needs approval from The Pokémon Company.