Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: holiday event, Niantic, pokemon, pokemon go, Season of Mythical Wishes

Pokémon GO Event Review: Winter Holiday 2022 Part 1

Niantic rang in the winter season this year in Pokémon GO with one of the most highly anticipated annual events: the Winter Holiday Event. Did Part 1 of this event live up to the hype of previous years or did Niantic pull some truly Scrooge-like tricks that left us all feeling like our Poké Balls had been filled with coal?

The Winter Holiday Part 1 event was mostly decent compared to previous years. We got a Shiny release with Bergmite, which was readily available in the wild throughout the event. This Shiny release also dramatically boosted the fun of Bergmite Spotlight Hour, which happened toward the end of Part 1. We originally expected a non-Shiny Spotlight Hour for that slot, but this was a welcome update.

The wild was strong with Holiday Carnival Pikachu, Holiday Scarf Spheal, and Holiday Bells Stantler returning as wild spawns. Less exciting were the 7KM Eggs which had Sneasel, Smoochum, Amaura, Bergmite, and Crabrawler. I would've liked to see more Holiday-themed Pokémon, including other costumes in those.

The worst part of the event by far was the egregiously dry-ticketed Timed Research. First of all, asking Pokémon GO Trainers to pay for Timed Research seems stingy. Why time it? Historically, Ticketed Research has been Special Research which means that it doesn't go away if not completed during the event. That was the least of the problems that this Ticketed Research had. The only solid offering in this questline was two Galarian Mr. Mime encounters. Now, the infamous Galarian Mr. Mime research from two years back was already panned by Pokémon GO players and now we're essentially getting the same, but two years later and with nothing new or interesting added? This ticketed unfortunately served to underline what can no longer be denied: the team at Niantic planning these events has lost touch of what interests players. I didn't agree that the Keldeo Special Research earlier this month was unfair, but this? This easily tops the list of Niantic's least interesting, least fair, and greediest moves. The fact that such a barren Timed Research was sold for money is a true shame.

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