Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: Helioptile, Niantic, pokemon, pokemon go, Power Plant

Pokémon GO Event Review: Power Plant Event Part One

The first part of the Power Plant event has now wrapped up in Pokémon GO. This event was inspired by the Power Plant from the Kanto region in the original main series games, but it also included the release of a new species from Kalos. Let's take a look at what worked and what didn't.

What worked in this Pokémon GO event

• New release: Helioptile is one of my favorite Pokémon of all time, so I was thrilled to see its release with this event. It felt like the right move, especially in an event that didn't have the hype of a Shiny release. While part of me greatly misses big waves of generation releases, I do admit that the one-off releases have allowed Niantic to keep new content rolling in and allow players to laser-focus on one species to earn Candy.
• Storytelling: While storytelling has never been a major part of this game, the Season of Heritage is using some narrative elements in the marketing for the event as well as the themes they're building from. More on that in the what didn't work section, though.
• Switching gears: With nothing much to hunt in the wild, it was a terrific idea for Niantic to switch the event into high gear with a Team GO Rocket second part, ending the first part before it could get boring.

What didn't work in this Pokémon GO event

• Ain't no such thing as halfway crooks: The narrative element of this event was such a good idea… but it was only used for the event's marketing. What's with the half measures? Why don't we get Timed or Special Research storylines that actually make the narrative happen in the game? This should be a staple of every event, but it felt like such a missed opportunity this time especially.

Overall

Helioptile made this a decent event, but Niantic should go all-in on narrative by giving players more to do.

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