Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: giratina, halloween, Niantic, pokemon, pokemon go

Pokémon GO Event Review: Halloween 2022 Event Part One

The highly anticipated Halloween event has wrapped up once again in Pokémon GO. This, along with the Holiday event, is considered the most exciting non-ticketed event of the year by players, which means that there are high expectations annually when it rolls back around. Since we got a two-part event this year, let's take a look at each part to see if Niantic delivered Pokémon GO fans a worthy celebration for Spooky Season. First, Part One…

What worked in this Pokémon GO event

• Vibes: This is an imperfect positive point, but it's still enough to mention here. Niantic delivers strong spooky vibes with its nostalgic Lavender Town-themed music during the event. The autumnal changes to the map were also great for setting the tone of the event. One thing I miss from years' past, though, is the event starting late at night so it could be kicked off with a hunt in the dark.
• Mega Banette: Due to a Tier Five problem that the Halloween event has had for two years straight now, it's been great seeing interesting and useful new Mega Raids making up for that. Mega Banette was a terrific way to make raiding interesting at least for the first few days of the event.
• Dual Shiny release: Shiny Galarian Yamask through raids, eggs, and research and Shiny Noibat through Eggs made this first week what it was: a strong hatching event without very much else to offer. I found that this Shiny drop made it worth it, but I do wish other aspects were stronger.

What didn't work in this Pokémon GO event

• Research: This year, we had a free Special Research and two paid Timed Researches. The free Special Research was decent, the paid #1 Galarian Yamask-themed Timed Research was strong, and the paid $5 research was abominable. When all is said and done, the three of these felt less eventful than the free Special Research questlines given out in years past.
• Spiritomb: That's it? We hardly had a chance. After the Shiny release of Spiritomb during a previous Halloween event, it would've made sense to give us more of a chance to hunt this highly coveted Pokémon considering it's not around during the rest of the year.
• Wild spawns: These were incredibly stale, as Niantic was holding the real bangers for Part Two. I would've loved some of the previous costumed Pokémon to be included here so that Part Two could focus on the new costumes.
• Tier Five: As I mentioned, Tier Five raids used to be the most exciting part of Halloween. Shiny Mewtwo was released for spooky season, Darkrai descended on raids as an unofficial Tier Six… and then, three years ago, something shifted. Niantic seemed to stop including new releases in Tier Five and now just throw Darkrai and Giratina at the events because they're spooky. Guzzlord, the Ultra Beast coming to raids in November, would've been a better Halloween raid boss. Just switch 'em!

Overall

When all is said and done, the Halloween 2022 Part One event was both fun and frustrating. Let's see how Part Two measures up.

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