It’s safe to say as a kid I was a little geeky. Fuck. I was and still am a huge geek. I liked Pokémon, I played hundreds of hour’s of Pokémon Blue and Yellow. I watched the anime every Saturday morning and was first in line for the film (well i went to the cinema to see it anyway). Then I grew up. I stopped watching Pokémon shortly after that film (I ain’t into there being more than 151 Pokémon, screw that), got my RPG kicks from Final Fantasy and started watching shows for grown up people, you know like Power Rangers.

I tried playing later games in the series. Black was my first attempt and more recently Y but they never really worked for me. They were filled with Pokémon I didn’t know and I just didn’t find it any fun. Then along came Pokémon GO, there was no way a 28 year old man would be interested in a game where you walk around parks pointing your phone at thin air all in the aid of catching fake monsters. Right?

Pokémon go is at its base an Augmented Reality game where you walk around and every now and again your phone will beep. The beep notifies you that there is a Pokémon near you. You then quickly get your phone out of your pocket, point it at nothing (hopefully its nothing, don’t go pointing your camera phone at random kids please…that shit will get you in trouble). On your screen you’ll see one of the original 151 Pokémon (minus 5 which are currently being held back for unknown special magical… bull shit reasons), you then throw Pokéball’s at said ‘mons until you catch them. Then that’s it. Yep the base of the game is walk, encounter imaginary ‘mon (I hate that i’m calling them “‘mon’s" too, its just quicker to type OKAY), swipe the screen and now you own imaginary ‘mon. That’s your game. Fun right…….right?

Surprisingly yes. Well. Sort of. It’s extremely addicting, Niantic (the company behind this new craze) have peppered in a few more things for an aspiring Pokémon trainer to do don’t worry, it’s not that basic. You can visit certain landmarks and collect item’s. Those landmarks are called Pokéstop’s in game. At the Pokéstop’s you can collect more ball’s, potion’s, revive’s and also egg’s.

The egg’s are used to hatch more Pokémon. You have to walk 2, 5 or 10km (depending on the egg) and after that distance is travelled the egg will crack open and you will get yourself one more Pokémon. You can also evolve, level up Pokémon and fight them in Gyms (also found at certain landmarks). That’s about everything the “game” has to offer.

Your character (which you create at the start) has a level. That level governs what power Pokémon you catch, which also have their own level that can increase (CP). So basically the higher level you are the better your ‘mons will be. So grind your arse off. Okay so that really is it.

The main question is, is this game fun, erm to be totally honest. I’m not that sure. It’s addicting, oh man is it addicting. But fun…..eh not really. Its a nice time waster and something to do when you have to walk somewhere, but I don’t think I would call the game in itself fun. Where the fun lies with me is going out with my girlfriend just sat around chilling, talking shit and catching Pokémon. It’s meant we have done different things than the usual, we have had a picnic in the park and gone out on random late night walks. That’s what I like about this game, its been something that we can do together. Some common thing we both enjoy.