Almost one year ago, when Pokémon Go was released, millions of people got thrown back to their childhood and played the game again. This time not on the Gameboy, but on the phone. Although it has been such a long time and the hype dried up a little, I still believe it’s the most entertaining road trip game. We got pretty addicted to it on our cross-country road trip and here is why.
#1 Recalls childhood memories
When I think about Pokémon I remember cold winter days with sitting in my comfy corner of my kid’s room and playing Pokémon on my Gameboy Color. Now it has all changed – we can now play outside and can let out the inner child again!
People, who loved Pokémon back in the days, will also love to play it in this different way. It makes you feel like a child all over again. We even started watching the Pokémon TV Show again. By the way, I have never really noticed how much this teaches you about Pokémon and the real life – and damn, Brock is really falling in love with every single girl.
#2 Other road games are just lame!
Travel games like “I spy” or the license plate game are just old-school.
Pokémon Go is much more fun! When I think of, how many times I sat on the passenger’s seat, driving through a town, having both phones on my lap and trying to get the Pokéstops and Pokémon for both of us – double fun!
Other road trip games just cannot keep up with this.
#3 Staying active with a game
It forces you to actively walk around or drive around veeeery slowly – for the lazy buds. However, we used it for walking around in a new area and exploring as well. Sometimes we’ve spent hours walking through towns because there were numerous Pokéstops and Lures.
On our road trip, we made a few Pokémon Go stops. Especially on long routes, when we both got tired of driving and sitting for hours, we just loved to walk around. This time we could catch Pokémon, hatch eggs, and fight gyms while walking around and stretching our legs.
It’s the best activity for a break! In most cities over the U.S., there are multiple Pokéstops and many Pokémons to catch. The biggest problem is the phone service, which appeared to be rare in some areas.
#4 Pokemon Go increases the exploration level
It might sound weird to other people, but we also played the game in a national park once. The Badlands National Park has been one of the rare parks, where we had phone service. So we used it to catch Pokémon (I found an Omanyte there) and collecting things at Pokéstops.
Of course, we majorly enjoyed the landscape! But sometimes it actually happened, that we’ve read the name of the Pokéstop and it caught our interest. So we read the information sign – therefore Pokémon Go even keeps you educated!
#4 Pokemon Go increases the exploration level
It might sound weird to other people, but we also played the game in a national park once. The Badlands National Park has been one of the rare parks, where we had phone service. So we used it to catch Pokémon (I found an Omanyte there) and collecting things at Pokéstops.
Of course, we majorly enjoyed the landscape! But sometimes it actually happened, that we’ve read the name of the Pokéstop and it caught our interest. So we read the information sign – therefore Pokémon Go even keeps you educated!
#5 Pokémon Go makes stressful situations better
Grocery shopping can strain a relationship a lot – grocery shopping with me might not be my boyfriend’s favorite task.
Since there are dozens of Pokémon in Walmart, I can get him to Walmart without much grumbling. I quickly collect all food and he catches Pokémon – both happy and no stress. So Pokémon Go kinda saved our relationship sometimes 😀
#6 Actual socializing with a virtual game
A virtual game that has the feature of socializing – isn’t this awesome?!
Sometimes it happens that you are taking down a gym and another person comes along and helps you. You’ll get to know other people a little easier than sitting at home in front of your game console or computer.
It’s funny, how easy it is to interact with people via a game. Multiple times we saw people roaming the streets and have Pokémon Go opened on their smartphones or standing next to us and asking: “Are YOU just fighting MY gym?!” It always ends up in a little talk, and that’s why I would never hide playing this game.
Besides that you can easily recognize Pokémon Go Players:
- Somebody is hammering with the fingertip on the smartphone like a crazy person – this person is fighting a gym or tries to persuade the Pokémon to stay inside the ball.
- Somebody runs into a lamp post or something else because he/she is too focused on the phone.
The funniest situation was in Downtown Rapid City at a 4-way-stop. There were 4 Pokéstops (on each corner one) and coincidentally there were benches as well. Lots of gamers were sitting here for a good reason: People used Lures on every Pokéstop. In this situation wasn’t much interaction, but it showed the huge Pokémon community. We could’ve been sitting there for hours and catching Pokémon because people were changing and new people put a new Lure on the Pokéstops – so no break at all.
#7 For the collection lovers
I came back to Germany with 89 indexed Pokémon, even though we haven’t played every day. After a while, we kinda figured out, that every city or district has its common Pokémon. When we found a Ponyta the first time, we have been utterly happy about it! Then we made it to the West of South Dakota and after a week I had 2 Rapidashes and still 60 Ponyta Candy… Back in Berlin, I found 5000 Drowsee.
Once you stay somewhere for longer, it can be easy to evolve your Pokémon. As we were traveling through the country, it was tricky sometimes to get the Candy of certain Pokémon, for example, we were lacking Dratini, Exeggcute or Jynx. They always were somewhere, where we didn’t stay for long. But we at least have a broad collection and many many evolutions of Eevee
Now that there is the 2nd Generation, things have changed again. As I am a 1st Gen kid, I kinda had to get used to all the stupid Pokemon of the new generation. However, it still makes fun to play sometimes. Especially because there are bonuses and specials now.
In the end, it’s not the same as playing it on the road. So it definitely makes more fun as a road trip game.
