Google Maps Pokemon Challenge Coming Soon!
And you thought the era of Pokemon had ended. Earlier today, Google released a YouTube video showcasing a new Pokemon Challenge game designed for Google Maps. If you own a Nexus 5 or any other Android-powered smartphone, you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for Pokemon Challenge, as the demo video looks pretty impressive — and that’s coming from someone who’s not your typical Pokemon fan.
Screenshot of Pokemon Challenge for Google Maps.
Once you’ve downloaded and installed Google Maps you’ll have the opportunity to hunt down all 15o of these cute yet ferocious creatures in real-world locations. Yes, you are the Pokemon Master, and you’ve gotta catch them all! As you browse around different locations on Google Maps, you’ll see colorful icons that represent new Pokemons. You must catch them by snapping a photo of the location, at which point it removes them from the map and saves them to your pokedex.
The YouTube video can be found here. As you can see, it shows otherwise ordinary people blasting away digital creatures using their Nexus 5 device. And if you successfully capture all 150 Pokemon, you’ll earn a ticket to GooglePlex along with a job at the Mountain View company’s headquarters — at least that what the video says. Sounds too good be true?
According to the YouTube description, the new Google Maps Pokemon game features:
“Dozens of wild Pokémon have taken up residence on streets, amidst forests and atop mountains throughout Google Maps. To catch ’em all, grab your Poké Ball and the newest version of Google Maps for iPhone or Android. Then tap the search bar, “press start,” and begin your quest. And, follow Google Maps on Google+, Facebook or Twitter for hints and tips for the most dedicated trainers.”
It’s April.
In case you were wondering, today is April 1st, so there’s about a 101% chance that this is an April Fool’s Day joke. Google is known for pulling off some rather interesting pranks on April 1st and today is no exception.
But the Pokemon Challenge reveals the gaming possibilities of using Google Maps. While this specific video is likely a prank, we could see games with similar geo-targeting capabilities released in the future. Using this formula, we could see scavenger type games and other “hunt em down” games used in conjunction with Google Maps.
Would you like to see geo-locational games like this in the future? Let us know in the comments section below!
