After rolling out to countries like Australia and New Zealand last night, Pokémon GO has finally made its way to the U.S.
Pokémon GO is now available on both Android and iOS in the U.S. The augmented reality game uses your smartphone’s camera to show you Pokémon in the real world. You can then use those Pokémon to battle at gyms, which are like Pokémon in that you’ll find them in the real world. These gyms can be held by one of three teams, and you can either help to defend a gym if it belongs to your team or fight to defeat it if it doesn’t.
Some Pokémon only appear in certain locations, like water-based Pokémon that appear near bodies of water. There are also PokéStops in the real world that you can visit to get Poké Balls for catching Pokémon, as well as other items.
Pokémon GO is made by Niantic Labs, the same company behind Ingress, another popular augmented reality game.
Pokémon GO is free to play, but it does offer in-app purchases that you can use to buy PokéCoins to be used toward power-ups and other extra items. Additionally, you’ll soon be able to buy the Pokémon GO Plus device that’ll connect to your phone over Bluetooth and notify you when you’re near a Pokémon, so that you don’t have to constantly look at your phone’s screen. The Pokémon GO Plus will launch in late July.
Finally, it’s worth noting that on Android, Pokémon GO requires Android 4.4 or higher and at least 2GB of RAM. It’s not compatible with Intel-based phones, and compatibility with tablets isn’t guaranteed. On iOS, you’ll need a device running iOS 8.0 or higher.
Have you tried Pokémon GO yet? If so, what do you think of it?