Pokemon GO’s Biggest and Best Changes Since Launch

Looking back on Pokemon GO as the mobile phenomenon celebrates its 5th anniversary shows how much the game has evolved and improved since then.

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Being an instant global phenomenon hasn’t stopped Niantic’s Pokemon GO from evolving over the course of the last five years. People might not be bumping into each other whilst collecting Pokemon as publicly as they once were, but the mobile game has still added a ton of new features since release. In a lot of meaningful ways the overall experience now more closely resembles, at least thematically, the one that fans have become accustomed to within mainline games.

As Pokemon GO reaches its 5th anniversary, many of the features that have become a cornerstone of its ongoing success, either functioned differently or were missing entirely back when things started in 2016. While the core mechanics of catching a Pokemon with a well timed flick or spin of a Pokeball hasn’t changed, nearly every other aspect of the free to play game has been expanded and refined for the better.

Pokemon GO’s Gym and Raid Battles

When Pokemon GO was introduced to world in June 2016, there were a limited number of interactions players could have with the Pokemon Gyms that dotted the horizon. While the ability to harvest items from the hotspots was eventually added during the game’s first anniversary, it wasn’t until a month later that things were overhauled more significantly on a deeper mechanical footing too. That’s because with the July 2017 update, trainers across the world finally gained the ability to challenge and catch Legendary Pokemon inside gyms, via co-operative Raid Battles.

Of all the features that Niantic has added to Pokemon GO, the ability to undertake these fights is arguably the one that’s had the widest impact on the identity of the franchise as a whole. It’s no coincidence that Pokemon Sword and Shield adopted a similar mechanic in it’s Max Raid Battles, off the back of the mobile game’s success and example. Since this overhaul, the Gyms have remained largely untouched, aside from slight graphical revisions and the recent introduction of Mega Evolved Pokemon, which is a further testament to their enduring success.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that this set of updates also heralded another quality of life update for the game as well. Not only did the first anniversary celebrations coincide with the introduction of Legendary Pokemon like Mewtwo, it also brought about the chance for players to farm Pokecoins via successful Gym defenses. While microtransactions are a troubling topic for most free to play games, Niantic’s decision to allow for the farming of this currency remains a welcome accessibility option for players unwilling to invest their hard earned real world money.

Pokemon GO’s Trainer Battles

Niantic’s focus on getting Pokemon GO out into the world with a simple yet rewarding capture mechanic, above other features, was understandable at the time. It ultimately captured the imaginations of new and returning fans so convincingly, that it even went on to have a mainline appearance in Pokemon Let’s GO Pikachu and Eevee. Catching and collecting Pokemon has only ever been one key ingredient of the franchise’s charm, with battling being an almost symbiotic part of the same relationship. It’s for this reason that a lot of the biggest improvements to the mobile experience have centered around how trainers utilize their Pokemon teams.

Over the course of the last few years, a number of updates have been released that have been geared towards giving trainers the option to fight both real world trainers and AI. In December 2018, the ability for local fights between friends via Battle Codes was introduced. This proved to only be a taster of things to come, as the suite of options was eventually refined upon just a year later in January 2020, with the announcement of the GO Battle League.

Thanks to this tournament-like structure that inspired competition, trainers now have the option to fight others from across the world in simplified 3 on 3 Pokemon battles. Aside from adding new content and rewards, these battles further incentivize the training and development of a balanced team of Pokemon that’s reminiscent of that the main console installments.

While these bouts offer variety and a chance for tactical planning, it’s arguably the battles against AI opponents that are the biggest change to Pokemon GO’s suite of fighting options. That’s because in July 2019, Niantic unleashed the villainous Team GO Rocket and their army of Shadow Pokemon.

Having been missing from any major piece of Pokemon media since Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, these fights have proven to be some of the more challenging encounters within the franchise. At times the forced Pokestop takeovers and love for flying across the screen in unmissable balloons might be annoying, but this really only adds to their effective evil personas. There’s also few things more satisfying in-game than building up to a fight with Giovanni, before beating one of his shadowy Legendary Pokemon by the smallest margins.

Pokemon GO’s Community Days and Events

In recent years, there’s been a public franchise-wide embracing of Shiny Pokemon, with the once rare appearance of alternatively colored creatures now becoming a regularly promoted feature. Pokemon GO has been no exception to this as Niantic has increasingly leaned into the phenomenon, ever since the introduction of Shiny Magikarp to the game in March 2017.

In the following January, Shiny hunting really hit the big time for mobile trainers thanks to the advent of the monthly in-game Community Day event. Marketed as a way for the app to shine love on one particular creature for a few hours, everyone now knows that the real communal aspect of these events comes from the boosted odds that Shiny Pokemon have of appearing.

Ever since Niantic realized the scale of the phenomenon it had on its hands with the Pokemon GO, events that tap into this kind of live service-esque content have progressively increased in frequency. More often than not, the chance for Shiny Pokemon plays a key part in these events like the wildly popular annual GO Fest. By and large, a focus on changing content has been applied to the game more broadly as well, with rotating weekly events and seasons all helping to make the game one of the best adapting worlds in gaming. This content often adds a reason for fans to come back even if they lapsed from the day-to-day activities and questlines added to the game since launch.

Pokemon GO’s continued success ensures that the game will continue to play a key role in the franchise going forward, with further updates and new features being virtually guaranteed as a result. In recent weeks Niantic has received understandable criticism from fans regarding the dialing back of features that were added to Pokemon GO to combat the ongoing pandemic, so it’s likely that more changes will be heading to the game to compensate for this soon, one way or another.

Pokemon GO is out now for Android and iOS mobile devices.

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