Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: Poké Ball Prep Rally, pokemon, pokemon go, pokemon go tour, Pokémon GO Tour: Johto

Pokémon GO Event Review: Poké Ball Prep Rally 2022

Today, the current Poké Ball Prep Rally Event wraps up in Pokémon GO. The intention of this event was to prepare players for Pokémon GO Tour: Johto, a special ticketed event happening tomorrow for remote players. Let's see how successful and indeed how fun this event was.

What worked in this Pokémon GO event

• Buddy Gifts: The strongest aspect of this event by far was the increased Buddy Gifts, which allowed us to rake in more Poké Balls than the completely underwhelming Special Research and Field Research.
• Hisuian Electrode: I personally like how Niantic has been doing tiered releases. When they withheld Sirfetch'd from the initial Galarian Farfetch'd release, it felt genuinely exciting when we were suddenly able to evolve Galarian Farfetch'd during the debut release of Galarian Ponyta. This adds some hype to what would've previously been a single release of both Hisuian Voltorb and Hisuian Electrode at once, adding to what was otherwise an event with very little to do.

What didn't work in this Pokémon GO event

• The Special Research: The Special Research offered an unbelievably measly Poké, Great, and Ultra Ball payout and nothing else. For an event meant to prepare trainers for Pokémon GO Tour: Johto, this aspect of the event was completely underwhelmed. It felt like an annoying afterthought, completely void of the excitement and build-up that we used to see in Pokémon GO leading to major events.
• The Field Research: Let's get this straight. To earn Poké Balls and Ultra Balls, we have to do throwing tasks… using our Poké Balls and Ultra Balls. Unless you absolutely grind this event all day and night, this was a completely useless aspect of the event and functioned more as an item drain than an item buff.
• Nothing much to do: Worst of all, with research that didn't offer anything much worth grinding and uninteresting wild spawns, there was virtually nothing to do in Pokémon GO for a full week outside of raiding Deoxys, Espurr, and Druddigon which was completely unrelated to the event.

Overall

Pokémon GO used to utilize hype perfectly, saving their major events and releases for intense, Special Research-driven build-ups to major events. Now, it seems as if they have begun to make the game boring for a week before these bigger events, which has been a trend since Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto. It's completely killing enthusiasm at a time when it seems that enthusiasm should be easy to build.

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