If you are worried that the gaggles of children and adults waltzing down Main Street glued to their phones are brainwashed or are active in some type of gang activity, don’t be alarmed.
You’ve likely been seeing prospective Pokémon Masters immersed in the new Pokémon Go app.
Just like in decades past, Pokémon fever is back and stronger than ever.
For the 20th anniversary of Pokémon’s release in Japan, a phone app for iPhone and Android users was released that utilizes geotagging and allows players to catch and train Pokémon in their own hometowns.
That doesn’t mean it’s just people in big cities playing the game. Pokémon Go is alive and well in Yazoo County.
Because the Pokémon are spread out throughout cities, people have to physically go out and search for them on foot.
Students from the local high schools can be seen at all hours of the day walking around town with phones in-hand catching the digital creatures, which is a positive for most.
“It keeps you very active,” Jay Howard, a 16-year-old Manchester Academy student, said. “You cannot sit around the house and find them. You have to explore. It’s not a game for lazy people!”
It’s not just children who have been overtaken by the phenomenon.
One of the biggest selling points to the older crowd is the ability to stay active while also being part of something much larger.
“It definitely helps you be active, and you get to meet new people while you are being active,” Yazooan James E. Miller said.
For young parents with children old enough to experience the revolution that occurred all those years ago, it’s become a bonding mechanism, a way to bridge the gap across multiple generations.
The Pokémon Go app is based on the 1996 Gameboy games Pokémon Red and Green (short for Pocket Monsters) that were released in Japan.
Due to the success of the games overseas, Pokémon Red and Blue were released internationally on September 30, 1998, sparking massive interest in the United States.
The video game series was so popular that a spin-off TV series was created. It aired in the United States in September of 1998, and new episodes are still being churned out to this day, making it the fifth longest running animated series of all time.
Although seven generations of Pokémon exist now, Pokémon Go is based off of the original concept, meaning only 151 Pokémon appear in the game.
The name of the game, like the quirky caption suggests, is to “Catch ‘Em All.”
And with some Pokémon appearing in certain continents or geographical regions, that is certainly a tall task.
But Pokémon were not created to simply be caught. They were created to train and do battle, and that’s why there are Pokéstops and Gyms, which are scattered throughout towns in the form of community centers, religious institutes, fire departments, police stations and other notable locations in cities, like Baptist Medical Center Yazoo, St. Matthew Church of God in Christ and the water fountain at Goose Egg Park.
Like all Pokémon games, Pokémon Go starts out with a tutorial from a “Professor of Pokémon studies,” and the players is quickly given the option of three Pokémon to start out with. Just like in the original, Bulbasaur (grass-type), Charmander (fire-type) and Squirtle (water-type) are the options, and once the starter is picked, the adventure begins.
You catch, raise, evolve and battle Pokémon while earning experience and raising your own level.
Once you reach level 5, you can join one of three teams – Instinct, Mystic and Valor – and join with your new teammates across the globe to take over all of the Pokémon Gyms.
To play Pokémon Go, download the game free from the Apple App Store of Google Play Store.
