Pokémon Go
It happened over the summer. Came like the plague. Pokémon Go.
You probably saw people running around town, eyes glued to their phone screens. Shouts of excitement as they found the Pokémon they were tracking and then a bunch of people swarming their location.
The feedback of the game has been overall positive, but some are not too keen on it.
Olivia Stensrud, junior, is an active Pokémon Go player. She chose to be on Team Valor, and for a very special reason.
“When I think of Valor, I think of being strong and tough,” Stensrud said. “I really chose it for my sister because she is in the Marine Corps and is keeping strong. I picked Valor because I want to be as strong as her.”
Stensrud’s favorite part of the game is that different Pokémon are location exclusive. For example, the Pokémon Tauros is only available to find in North America. The game does have some downsides though.
“When you don’t play for awhile, they delete your account,” Stensrud said. “That’s what happened to me.”
All in all, she says she’d still recommend the game to people. Stensrud said that it gets people out of the house and builds community between players.
“It’s still fun, even if you don’t know Pokémon really well,” Stensrud said.
Hannah Berven, senior, used to play quite a bit when Pokémon Go was first released, but the excitement has died down for her. She felt the game was extremely repetitive and it bored her.
“It seemed like a trend that people usually get over within a month,” Berven said.
Berven feels like a lot of the kids playing now don’t even know about the original Pokémon, the kind where you popped your VHS tape into the VCR and watched excitedly as Ash, Brock, and Misty went on their next adventure.
Berven feels that people only play because their friends do.
“If they’re really dedicated to Pokémon though, I’d recommend it to someone,” Berven said.
Berven loved Pokémon when she was in elementary school and was an avid collector of the card game.
Her favorite Pokémon is Mewtwo because in the card game he did 50x more damage. Stensrud’s favorite Pokémon stems from Pokémon Go though.
She likes Snorlax because they’re not super rare, but people are impressed if you have one.
The game may not be for everyone, but many find joy in it.
It has a few bugs but the company, Niantic, is constantly in the works of updating for better results. Whether you’re a Pokémon lover or not, they game may be worth a try. For any of the trainers out there: go catch ‘em all!
