Will Legendary Pokemon Get Us Interested In Pokemon Go Again?

     Thursday we received huge news in regards to Pokemon Go. Legendary Pokemon have finally been introduced. So how do legendary pokemon events work? Well, there will be legendary eggs that will sprout in certain locations and it will be a collective teamwork to defeat a legendary pokemon in a certain time limit. If successful, you and everyone else will catch the legendary pokemon. Sounds cool and all, but will this be cool enough to get people back into playing Pokemon Go?
      Pokemon Go was the game of the summer last year. Instead of staying indoors like usual, it made us go out into the unknown and discover our neighborhoods, dead bodies, and risk getting into car accidents all to capture that Dragonite in your neighbor's backyard or visit your local church to refresh on poke lures. not to pray or some other crap like that.
     But alas, our love for Pokemon Go was brief and just like the season it came and went. We were playing it in July and by the time Sept came we deleted our apps and put the phone down. According to Forbes by mid-July, Pokemon Go lost over 79 percent of its users. Niantic, the company responsible for the app, hasn't been hurting since the momentum of the app died down. They still have millions of people using Pokemon Go. Niantic has also been doing events to keep who was left reason to play the game like having certain pokemon appear on holidays and even adding generation 2 pokemon, and Ditto, but so far none of it has been enough spark and interest to get former players to pick up their phones and start playing again. Will the long awaited inclusion of legendary pokemon finally do this?
     Compared to the other events and announcements this is huge. We've been anticipating legendary pokemon from the beginning of the game. Even so much people had try hacking them in. For me, this does enough spark interest to re-download the app and see what's the fuss about, maybe for others as well. Will it garner enough interest to bring back former app users? We'll have to see. Luckily, we will actually see as there will be an Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago will be streamed today. At this event we will see a legendary pokemon and it will be up to participants to defeat it. Depending on how everything works out we'll see the results and if people will be outside catching pokemon for the rest of the summer and later on.

How Will Zelda Mobile Play?

For the past year Nintendo has finally decided to make the leap into mobile gaming. And mostly with success. We had Miitomo and Super Mario Run which were both hits which generated millions of downloads. Then we had Fire Emblem Heroes which had a modest success. And let's not forget the reason we all braved the outside last summer, Pokemon Go. Of course with Nintendo doing so well with their mobile titles so far, and also promising to release a few titles each year, it is only plausible that not only would the company would make mobile versions of their other bigger titles.
     According to the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo is working on a Zelda mobile game. Nothing is confirmed yet and these are just so far only rumors. How exactly would a Zelda mobile game work?
Quite well. Zelda would be perfect as the series is known to be one of the best puzzle adventure games ever. But how will it look?
     If you could imagine probably it would work you can go back to the Game and Watch version of the original Zelda. In that version, they pretty much scaled down things by taking away the overworld and mainly focused on the dungeons of the game. But of course, unlike the basic Game and Watch versions Zelda mobile will probably retain the puzzle aspects of the series that we all love. The game could work like Super Mario Run where the dungeons will be level based and have you explore dungeons with different and more difficulties as you progress through the game. Because this is a Zelda games you have to have items to help you on your quest. You could rent or buy certain items like A Link Between Worlds to help you progress through dungeons. There might even be a magic meter like in most games that wears out if you use an item too many times.
     There's the question of how microtransactions will work, because of course this will be a freemium game and Nintendo needs more money. You can earn rupees (money) buy completing certain tasks or paying for them with real money. Gameplay might also depend on the magic meter that if it runs out, it might refill over time. Also like Super Mario you may have to buy certain dungeons to get the full game experience.
    Regardless of how the game will turn out I'm sure that we will love it, and Nintendo will love us throwing money at it. However another question about the game haunts us: Where will it fit in the timeline?

What are your thoughts?

Is Pokemon Go Over?

 

    Pokemon Go is the breakout game of the summer. Pokemon Go is an app developed by The Pokemon Company and Niantic where it uses your phone's GPS and allows you find and catch pokemon, find pokestop locations for items like pokeballs and lures to attract pokemon, and fight at gym locations. If you are unfamiliar with the franchise, I would like to know how was living on the moon. When the game was available for iOS and android in July, it was 90s Pokemania all over again. It has done extremely well. It caused Nintendo's stock to rise like a Ho-Oh form the flames. It had more users on it than Tinder and Twitter. Everything seems just perfect, except it's not.
     Over the past few days Pokemon go has been in a bit of controversy. The recent update was an attempt to fix some issues with the app like the 3-step glitch. The latest update removed it all together as well as the batter-saving option. Reasons for the removal were quoted

"We have removed the ‘3-step’ display in order to improve upon the underlying design," the company wrote. "The original feature, although enjoyed by many, was also confusing and did not meet our underlying product goals. We will keep you posted as we strive to improve this feature."

     This was enough to make some fans of the game outraged. The game is still facing problems with lag and crashing. It seems like everytime Niantic, the company responsible for Pokemon Go takes one step to fix an issue, they get knocked two steps back. The features are slated to be coming back. But is the damage already done? Is this and continuing problems with the app enough to give this game a short lifespan?
     First of all there seem to be a lot of issues with Niantic. We were basically handed a broken game when it had server issues in the beginning and even now. They weren't prepared. They are however acknowledging the problem and Niantic's CEO John Hanke says they are working tirelessly to making improvements. All problems can be fixed, with the right people fixing the problem.  So is the app officially dead? Not really. Luckily for them people are still using Pokemon Go. It is obvious that  there is some serious work done. Hopefully the problem is fixed soon, and especially before Gen 2 pokemon get here.

Will Pokemon GO Be The Next Miitomo?

     Ladies and gentlemen Pokemon GO is finally out. It was released over a few days ago and everyone seems to be downloading it like crazy. Pokemon GO is a new app game brought to you by Pokemon Company and Niantic. It links to your phone's GPS posts spots where you can catch AR images of pokemon outside. It is as real as real life pokemon we're going to get, sadly. Pokemon GO is just the recent release in Nintendo's plan to make games for mobile phones with more titles coming out this year and next. Whether or not Pokemon GO ends up being successful, you could draw comparison to it and the previous app game Nintendo released, Miitomo.
     For those who haven't heard of Miitomo, it marked the Nintendo's debut in the mobile gaming market. In it you designed a Mii and communicated and make friends with other people's Miis, whether by the app itself, Twitter, and/or Facebook. Think of it as Miispace. You also could collect and buy clothes for you Mii and that was just about it. Since the end of April, over 10 million people downloaded Miitomo. in the long run the Miitomo  excitement over it was short and it got boring rather quick. The question is will Pokemon have more longevity than Miitomo did?
     For one thing that sets GO apart from Miitomo is that there are a ton of things to do other than catch Pokemon in parks and on the street. Unlike Miitomo Pokemon GO does have a lot of things to do. Of course you can catch pokemon and fight other people. You can also join teams and pretty much mark your territories by claiming gyms and being gym leaders. The game also does have a huge thing with exploration that Nintendo is really about recently. It encourages you to go out and visit certain spots in your neighborhood and even landmarks to catch them all. It does seem the the Pokemon Company does have plans to keep players interested in playing. So far we have only generation one pokemon available, but they can release other generations of pokemon in the near future. They can even have legendary pokemon sightings at certain landmarks a la pokemon giveaways for the handheld games. There is a lot they can do. Whether or not this will be too much we can't tell.

What are your thoughts?

Nintendo and DeNA: A Smart Move?

     Earlier this week we learned that Nintendo is making a partnership with DeNA in order to make games for smartphones. That's right! Nintendo is starting to make games for your smartphone. Director and president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata stated:
     "One of my goals here is, now that we are challenging ourselves with this endeavor by making use of Nintendo IP, to produce multiple hit titles at an early stage after we start releasing our software on smart devices. Also, until now, when we said, “platform,” it meant a specific video game platform. Now that we are going to release games on smart devices and make use of globally widespread PCs and smart devices for our new membership service, we would like to offer more consumers with software that is suited to their tastes. In other words, we are challenging ourselves to redefine what “Nintendo platforms” mean."
     This means that soon you will be able to play Zelda or Super Mario on your iPhone. Aside from just releasing games on smartphones, Nintendo will be using its partnership with DeNA to create a membership service that will connect all devices, smart devices and game consoles. Meaning that you could have ccontent that could connect your 3DS, Wii U, or even the new Nintendo NX they announced as well this week with your iPhone or iPad. There have been some indications in the past that Nintendo will be doing this or that they were testing the waters. Not too long ago, we had Nintendo announcing they would be releasing a Mario Kart 8 app on smartphones weeks before the game came out. We also have a crossover with Mario and the popular Puzzle and Dragon series in Japan which will be coming here to the US in the near future.
      Whether or not you feel that this will help Nintendo, this was a decision that they desperately needed to make. It was no secret that Nintendo was facing some problems over the past years. The company has reported financial loss for the past three consecutive year due to the Wii U and the 3DS underperforming.Super Smash Bros, the Majora's Mask remake, and Mario Kart 8 Nintendo did well. They brought up sales Wii U and Nintendo 3DS sales as well as help sell the New Nintendo 3DS, but it is still not enough. Nintendo needs to do more to get them back to the top again.
There's a great chance that this could work for Nintendo. Here in the states, with games like Flappy birds and even the game from her whom we shall not speak of, mobile gaming is becoming a new medium to play games almost like handheld was years ago. This is more evident in Japan with the success of mobile games like Puzzle Dragon. We've come a long way from Minesweeper on you old Nokia phone. Nintendo sees this is becoming a big thing and know that this is where they need to go. It will be interesting to see that they are thinking forward on doing something like this. They are excited to go further with DeNA, hoping that there will be a mobile game at the end of the year. Whether or not it will work, we will have to see.

What are your thoughts on Nintendo and DeNA's partnership. Will it work for Nintendo?