We mentioned in our Pokemon Go Kanto Tour post-event wrap-up that there were some bugs, glitches, people who got the event without paying, and a promise that there’d be a make-up event. Well, that’s now been announced, and people across social media aren’t thrilled. The main issue is that it seems like the bonus event just means one more month to get an item bundle, which includes Elite TMs, Remote Raid Passes, and a few other premium items.
The problem is that people were actually more interested in an actual make-up event for the catching/raiding they missed out on. That isn’t terribly surprising, as my own research indicated that players were willing to pay for long-form events the most, with individual items being much lower on the list.
Sadly, this isn’t the only event Niantic has given some disappointing information on.
The previously announced Searching for Legends event got an event page with more details, and oddly missing from the news is, well, legendary pokemon. The biggest features seem to be a chance to find Alolan Geodude and Diglet outside of eggs again, shiney Nosepass, and more Beldum – but without access to its much-needed Community Day move. Considering the slew of events scheduled for the month, Niantic may simply be building up to that final Special Raid Weekend featuring (unannounced) legendary, but using “legendary” in the name of the initial event but not the potential finale seems like a huge marketing error.
Finally, it’s easy to miss under all the other news, but Niantic did show off some work with the game and Hololens. While the goggles look terrible and seem to be affecting the users’ vision (or maybe just the way they hold their heads while looking at the camera), the function isn’t too bad. There are multiple pokemon present, but I don’t think they’re interacting with each other, just going through idle animations. There’s talk of a battle, but it never occurs. The berry feeding is minimal.
However, Pikachu does follow behind Hanke as he moves about the garden, and that’s actually a detail I’d love to experience. While digital bloodsport is what the game series is known for, the IP feels more about bonding and caring for your animals. There are regularly main-series additions to aid this, and I’d argue the revamped buddy system rewards players quite well for playing with their virtual buddies, if you’ve got time to treat them a bit more like real pets or like a tamagachi that doesn’t poop. If petting, ball throwing, and pokemon-to-pokemon interaction were in, I think there’d be cause to be more excited, but hey, it’s still a proof-of-concept – not for consumers.
3/4 Update: While we’d asked PR if there might be special spawns involved that were announced, Serebii.net has the Timed Research details and they do not look promising.
