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3 CommentsPokémon Go players have walked enough to circle the Earth 200,000 times
As we near 2016’s end, Pokémon Go developer Niantic is reflecting on just how far the game has come since its July launch — and how far its players have traveled. To collect some of the game’s most astounding data points, Niantic made the video above, showing off some wild stats from the past five months.
Chief among those wild Pokémon Go numbers is just how many kilometers players have walked while playing the game. As of Dec. 7, Niantic says that they’ve traveled 8.7 billion kilometers just by walking outside in the search for new Pokémon to catch. The developer put this another way, to convey just how far that is: That distance is comparable to more than 200,000 trips around the Earth.
During all that walking, Pokémon trainers caught a total of 88 billion monsters. On average, that’s...
Cover Story
Issue
24
November 4, 2016
Blizzard’s prodigal son returns
How one of Blizzard’s co-founders left the company, why he decided to come back and what it means for the future.
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18 CommentsSuper Mario Run’s most polarizing mode is Toad Rally
Despite millions of downloads, Super Mario Run has received a mixed response thus far, and players fall most divided on one of its two main modes. Toad Rally, the time attack-style, asynchronous multiplayer feature, is the cause of just as many Mario fans’ ire as it is their affection.
Toad Rally exists as supplemental to Super Mario Run’s main campaign, World Tour, drawing on preexisting levels and adding a competitive element to them. Mario races against a ghost of himself (culled from another player’s data) to collect coins, perform stylish moves and win the approval of as many Toads as possible in order to claim victory.
It sounds simple enough, but players have found plenty to hate. For one, Toad Rally requires the use of collectible tickets in order to start playing. These can be...
News
8 CommentsPokémon Go adds more Pokémon to rural areas
Pokémon Go players may start finding more Pokémon around than usual, according to the game’s official Twitter account. An update hints that rural and urban areas are seeing an increase in their Pokémon populations, effective immediately.
Trainers, we've observed increased numbers of Pokémon sightings in parks and other outdoor locations in urban and rural areas.— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) December 16, 2016
This is particularly good news for players out in the countryside, where PokéStops are often few and far between and Pokémon are hard to come by. That’s long been a big issue with Pokémon Go, which requires players to go outside and track down Pokémon in the real world.
Pokémon tend to congregate in denser areas and are attracted to PokéStops and other notable locations....
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44 CommentsWhen’s Super Mario Run coming to Android? (update)
Super Mario Run is out now in hundreds of countries on iOS devices, which must be very nice for people with iPhones and iPads. Only own an Android phone? You’re out of luck: Nintendo hasn’t said when the game will be out on Android beyond sometime in 2017.
We’ve reached out to Nintendo to be just a little more specific about the Android launch window, to which a representative simply told Polygon that “information about that version will be revealed in the future.”
Since Super Mario Run made its global debut during a fall Apple event, it’s not surprising that the tech supergiant gets first dibs. Veteran designer Shigeru Miyamoto recently explained in an interview with Mashable that security was a big reason for the early Apple exclusivity.
“The security element is one of the reasons...
News
14 CommentsSuper Mario Run is live
Super Mario Run, Nintendo’s first official Mario game developed for a phone, is now live on Apple’s app store for a penny shy of $10. You can also download a free demo of the game featuring the first three levels if you want to give it a try before you buy.
Nintendo wasn’t exactly clear when on Dec. 15 its chubby little plumber would make his premiere on the iPhone and iPad, leaving some to speculate (OK, hope intently) that it would be exactly when the day started ... in New Zealand.
The anticipation continued as the day rolled over around the world. Once it was Dec. 15 worldwide, people started wondering if something had gone wrong.
The official Nintendo Twitter account in Japan simply stated Super Mario Run was coming to iTunes on Dec. 15 “Pacific time.”
The game has players...
News
6 CommentsLook for these eggs to get new Pokémon in Pokémon Go
Pokémon Go’s new Pokémon can’t be caught in the wild, unlike the original monsters. Instead, players have to rely on Pokémon eggs, which require their owners walking a whole bunch of steps before they’ll hatch into one of the adorable, second-gen baby Pokémon. The rub with eggs is that each one must move a different distance in order to hatch, and the Pokémon inside is a surprise — unless you know which Pokémon tend to come out of which eggs.
After months of paying close attention to the hatching patterns of the various types of Pokémon eggs, one Reddit user has a complete guide on how to find the new baby Pokémon.
Pokémon Go player and artist Alejandro “Alex” Gil made and posted the following chart to help players identify which eggs to bother carrying around in the hopes of...
Culture
1 CommentThe cutest new Pokemon Go feature: Holding those sweet, baby Pokemon
An update to Pokémon Go made the game about a thousand times more adorable yesterday, especially for fans of some of the tiniest, most popular Pokémon in the Pokédex. Baby Pokémon mark the first new monsters available in the game, and trainers who have begun to hatch them from Pokémon eggs are discovering an especially cute quirk these babies brought along with them.
When selecting one of the six second-generation Pokémon players have confirmed are now included in Pokémon Go to be a Buddy Pokémon, they’ll do more than sidle up next to the trainer. Just like a real infant, a player’s in-game avatar will cradle the baby in their arms, carrying them so they don’t have to put their tiny paws on the ground.
Niantic/The Pokémon Company via Reddit
Lookit tiny baby...
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9 CommentsThese are Pokémon Go’s gen two monsters to look out for (update)
Pokémon Go’s most exciting update ever launched today, heralding the arrival of the second generation of Pokémon. Although most players expected the game to receive all 100 of gen two’s monsters, it turns out that we’re only getting a few.
Niantic and The Pokémon Company are playing coy about the majority of new Pokémon that players can hatch from eggs, but there’s a pretty big hint. The pair did mention Pichu and Togepi as two of the Pokémon players can now add to their Pokédex, pointing to a theme with the update: baby Pokémon.
What are baby Pokémon?
Generation two added a whole new class of monsters to the game, courtesy of breeding. In Pokémon Gold and Silver, Pokémon were assigned genders, and two Pokémon of the same species and opposite genders could get together and make some...
News
30 CommentsIs Pokémon Go available in your country?
Pokémon Go has kept players rapt since it launched on July 6 — at least, players in those countries lucky enough to already have the game. Several major regions are left in wait, anxiety building within Pokémon fans worldwide who can do nothing but hope that today is the day.
Is today your country’s day? We can make no promises, but peruse our list below to find a "yes" or "no" answer to this question for the citizens of many different countries around the world. If the odds are not yet in your favor, keep checking back — we’ll be sure to update when Pokémon Go has become available in another country.
North America
Is Pokémon Go out in the U.S.?
Yes! The game exploded stateside on July 6, rolling out to Android users slightly before players on iOS got to check it out.
Is Pokémon Go...
Video
1 CommentMessing up some space dragons in EarthNight
In a world where dragons took over Earth, one girl and one man in space must punch them in the eyes.
So I gather from EarthNight, a roguelike runner where you launch yourself from dragon to dragon, running down their winding spines before poking them aggressively. The goal is to eventually reach Earth’s surface to end this dragon plague once and for all. Each dragon is procedurally generated, and contains multitudes of monsters, platforms, and collectibles.
According to the developers, each dragon has 125 potential layouts. You’ll see a few different kinds of dragons in this video. You’ll also notice that the game is challenging as heck. Even when we had what we thought was a good run — well, you’ll see. In this gameplay video, captured at PlayStation Experience, we conquer a few...
News
12 CommentsNew, gen two Pokémon are making their way to Pokémon Go right now
Pokémon beyond the original 151 can now be found in Pokémon Go, announced developer Niantic and The Pokémon Company today. Baby Pokémon like Pichu and Togepi, who made their debut in Pokémon Gold and Silver, will now pop up in the hugely popular mobile game.
Players won’t be able to catch them in the wild like the average Pokémon, however. Instead, they’ll have to visit PokéStops to collect Pokémon eggs, which may include one of the new finds when they hatch.
Niantic and The Pokémon Company named Pichu, Togepi and “select other Pokémon” as the newest additions to Pokémon Go. Players found code for the entirety of generation two — numbers 151 through 251 in the Pokédex — last month.
Also available in Pokémon Go starting now until Dec. 29 is a special Pikachu. The holiday edition of the...
News
5 CommentsTelltale’s Walking Dead returns a great video game hero to the spotlight
Telltale Games' adaptation of The Walking Dead returns Dec. 20 titled not as "Season 3," but A New Frontier. A two-part episode will be available at launch, reintroducing players to Clementine, and pairing her with a new protagonist, Javier.
Clementine is one of the all-time great slow-burn video game heroes, emerging from the frightened grade-schooler for whom you put your life on the line in Season One, through an expedited adolescence where she accepts very hard lessons about people in Season Two. Now, as a teenager, she's acting first, and no longer being acted upon by this cruel world. Zombie stories are best when people realize the will to live and fight for it, and that is the truth of Clementine’s character.
Javier is her companion and another playable character, the first time...
News
5 CommentsPokémon Go’s nearby tracker undergoes another change in worldwide expansion
The updated version of Pokémon Go’s local Pokémon tracker is now available to players across the globe, and with it comes some additional changes meant to appease those who didn’t love the new feature when it first launched. While Pokémon Go fans acknowledge that Niantic, the game’s developer, is listening to their complaints, the revised Nearby Pokémon tracker doesn’t seem to have squashed them all.
“To provide a better experience when searching for Pokémon in the real world, we have also made some changes to the way the Nearby Pokémon feature functions when there are only a few PokéStops in range,” the development team wrote in a blog post.
Since the Nearby tracker relies upon players having a variety of PokéStops in their vicinity to work, the update brings back a system that...
News
3 CommentsSuper Mario Run was inspired by speedrunners, and other fun facts
Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo’s famed design team is well-known for taking inspiration from a wide variety of sources — the idea for the ghost-like enemy known as Boo came from the wife of co-designer Takashi Tezuka, Miyamoto said years ago. That remains the case for Super Mario Run, Nintendo’s first proper video game on mobile devices.
Mario games are very popular with the speedrunning community, where people compete to race through games as fast as they can. In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Miyamoto said Nintendo noticed that these “super players” always had to keep moving; the skill in speedruns comes primarily from jumping at the right times. Thus was born the idea of Mario in an endless runner — in Super Mario Run, the only interaction with the game is tapping on your smartphone...
News
8 CommentsPokémon Go leaks point to big Starbucks event in the works (update)
Pokémon Go’s first big sponsored promotion could launch later this week at Starbucks, based on images shared across Reddit. Several users have uploaded screenshots of special Starbucks iconography appearing in the Pokémon mobile game, which point to a Dec. 8 launch date.
Based on the leaked images, which come from a webpage purportedly accessible by Starbucks employees, a large number of stores will become PokéStops or gyms as part of the event. Players who swing by their nearest participating Starbucks can pick up a unique item: the Pokémon Go Frappuccino Blended Beverage.
Starbucks will reportedly sell an actual version of the drink during the event’s duration. The Pokémon Go Frappuccino is vanilla bean-flavored with raspberry syrup, freeze-dried blackberries and whipped cream,...
News
6 CommentsSony is bringing PaRappa the Rapper, Hot Shots Golf and more to mobile
Sony Interactive Entertainment is branching into mobile, and it’s taking some beloved PlayStation franchises with it. ForwardWorks, its publishing arm dedicated to mobile games, will release titles based on Hot Shots Golf, Arc the Lad, PaRappa the Rapper and more starting next year.
Heading to smartphones first are versions of Hot Shots Golf and the PlayStation Portable puzzle game What Did I Do to Deserve This?, which are due in spring and summer 2017, respectively. These and other ForwardWorks games will be available on both iOS and Android; the company has yet to announce Western release plans.
ForwardWorks released trailers for each title to give fans a sense of how they’ll translate to mobile. Here’s Everybody’s Golf, as it’s known in Japanese:
This is a slightly longer teaser...
News
8 CommentsBatman: The Telltale Series concludes next week (update)
The finale of Batman: The Telltale Series will arrive Dec. 13, publisher Telltale Games announced today.
Here’s the synopsis from Telltale for “City of Light,” the fifth and final episode of the series’ first season:
In Episode 5, the leader of the Children of Arkham prepares to execute the final act of a plan to destroy the Wayne family name, and the people closest to you are in their path of vengeance. Can Batman’s ultimate secret be kept — his very identity — when it is causing chaos and death in Gotham? The fate of the Wayne family and of the city itself rests on your choices. What will you do? How far will you go? Which mask will you wear?
Telltale noted that the finale will begin in “very different places” depending on the choice that players made at the end of the fourth episode.
...
News
5 CommentsPokémon Go update makes transferring Pokémon way easier
Pokémon Go received another version update this week, adding a few tweaks to the mobile game. Chief among these changes is a welcome quality of life improvement: Trainers can now transfer multiple Pokémon at once.
Players can select as many Pokémon as they’d like to transfer by pressing and holding on them in the Pokédex screen. Previously, they had to go to each individual Pokémon and run through the menu options one at a time.
Transferring Pokémon is akin to releasing them back into the wild, as longtime players are well aware. Well, it’s a little more gruesome than that in Pokémon Go: Sending monsters to Professor Willow will net players a single candy in return. Those candies can build up, giving players the goods needed to evolve or power up their best monsters.
Also part of the...
News
7 CommentsNew Pokémon are coming soon to Pokémon Go, Niantic confirms
Pokémon Go has big news coming Dec. 12: More Pokémon are coming to the mobile game.
Niantic Labs made the announcement this morning, along with news about a collaboration with Sprint. The announcement of new Pokémon didn't tease who would join the game, or how many, but it's widely expected to be the introduction of generation two Pokémon to the game.
Back in early November, dataminers discovered references to Pokémon numbered 152 through 251 in the Pokédex, setting the stage for their arrivals.
Additionally, Niantic announced a partnership with Sprint that will turn more than 10,000 Sprint locations into PokéStops and Gyms. Sprint and Boost Mobile stores and Radioshack also will include charging stations for players who show up to battle or gather Pokéballs.
That announcement tracks...
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