Pokémon GO has kicked off June with raids featuring Gigantamax versions of Rillaboom, Inteleon and Cinderace. These Pokémon are debuting in the game nearly five years after their core series appearance in the Isle of Armor DLC for Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. So, if you’re a Pokémon GO player now you can tackle these titans! However, there are a few problems for anyone who hasn’t been playing one of the Pokémon franchise’s worst spin-offs. So, is it worth putting in the time and diving head first into Pokémon GO?
For starters, if you have not acquired a Dynamax capable Pokémon, then you’ll have to complete a brief tutorial and gain your first: a Wooloo. That single Wooloo unfortunately won’t be strong enough for you to tackle this high-tier content that just released! So you’ll need to build your library of Dynamax Pokémon! Sadly, that will take a lot of time. You can only have a limited amount of Dynamax Particles, without paying money, per day. So, you are tasked to spend a month building your repertoire, and you can now enjoy the newly revealed Gigantamax events! Except by then the events have come and gone.
Pokémon GO is nearly half a decade behind the times. Yet it somehow only has access to roughly 75% of all the Pokémon that have been released to date. So there’s no real benefit to playing the mobile game over the main series. Legendary Pokémon are available via highly limited raids, or monthly events. But building a team of Pokémon strong enough to handle raids takes an immense amount of effort. The amount of time it takes to accomplish anything major in Pokémon GO is nonsensical. Unless you’re an established player — or have friends who are willing to champion you into easy success — Pokémon GO is a horribly slow and lonely grind. From mechanics like hatching eggs by walking to the Shadow Pokémon from the Pokémon Colosseum games. There is so much packed into this mobile game, but much of it gets left unexplained or easily missed.
Fun fact: Shadow Pokémon get a 20% damage boost to their attacks, but take 20% more damage as a trade-off. Pokémon can learn up to two “charge moves” and choose which one they want to use during battles and raids. Initial Values, or IVs, don’t matter much in determining a Pokémon’s strength. Pokémon GO has compatibility directly with Pokémon Scarlet & Violet! Unfortunately, it’s just a once-per-day exchange you can make with minimal benefit for both games.
I’d say if you’re a hardcore fan of the Pokémon franchise, Pokémon GO is probably not worth your time. But if you want a fun free mobile game with Pokémon in it, then play away. However, if you’re interested in anything deeper: you’re better off in the core games. As a Pokémon GO player, I am baffled by decisions that are user-unfriendly and borderline hostile to the player-base. I guarantee you are better off sticking to the main franchise games and getting whatever Pokémon you’d like in a matter of hours, instead of months.
Do you think Pokémon GO is worth the massive time investment required? You can let us know over on the Boss Rush Network’s Discord!
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Nintendo Pow Block – A Nintendo Podcast by Boss Rush
Nintendo Pow Block is a weekly Nintendo podcast hosted by Edward Varnell, Corey Dirrig, and their friends from around the internet. Each week, they dive into the latest Nintendo news and rumors for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, new and upcoming releases, updates to Nintendo Switch Online and the Nintendo Music app, and discuss what they’ve been playing in the Playing with Power segment.
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