Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: "Let's Play" Nintendo Spring Fashion, Delightful Days, pokemon

Pokémon GO Fest Brought The Adventure to Life in Jersey City

With Pokémon GO Fest now available annually as a global event, are the in-person versions of this mega event still worth attending?

Ahead of the global digital version of the event, I attended Pokémon GO Fest 2025: Jersey City. This in-person version of the event brought GO Fest to Liberty State Park, where I was able to attend thanks to Niantic… in exchange for an honest review. So was it worth going? Would I recommend it to a paying customer? Let's get into it.

Pokémon GO Fest 2025: Jersey City Features

• To say that the presentation of GO Fest 2025 was an improvement over that of GO Fest 2024 in New York City would be a massive understatement. Comparing New York's 2023 and 2024 GO Fests showed a massive decline in effort being put into the game. Much of that effort was back in Jersey this year. From the oversized Pokémon to the physical representation of the various habitats, it was clear that the team was attempting to create a real-life representation of the Pokémon world for its trainers.
• Now, it's no secret… GO Fest is largely a Shiny hunt for many trainers. Niantic followed through on that in a big way this year by making it so the same in-park Shiny rates were still active throughout Jersey City and New York City during event hours for the weekend.
• The park itself was beautiful with simple, easy-to-walk pathways which was also an improvement over the New York location in previous years. Back at Pokémon GO Fest 2023 and 2024, taking a wrong turn would lead to park workers blocking your entrance, as there were many one-way paths… for seemingly no reason. All of that was gone this year, creating and easier and less frustrating experience.
• On the content side, we got a Special Research featuring Volcanion and raids featuring Zacian and Zamazenta. We were able to change Zacian and Zamazenta into their respective Crowned Sword or Crowned Shield forms… which enable them to be used in Max Battles despite not being Dynamax Pokémon. That was a very fun perk.

• The costumed Pokémon were fun and creative. Pikachu got multiple different suits and Falinks was… well, it was a train, pretty much. I can't say I didn't get a bit irritated at how big Train Falinks was on the map, but I admit that was only after I got my Shiny. It blocked the map a bit too much and made it difficult to click on other spawns, but I wouldn't have enjoyed the event as much without that silly encounter.
• Now, as far as what I personally got, I was satisfied. I played about three hours in the park and two outside of the park and ended up with 12 Shiny Pokémon and a Crowned Sword Zacian.

What Pokémon GO Fest 2025: Jersey City was missing

• Not including Gigantamax Battles in the actual park was a truly bizarre move. Gigantamax Battles featuring Cinderace were an advertised part of this event but were exclusive to outside of the park… but remember how difficult these battles are. 20+ trainers are often needed to take down a single boss. The closest Gigantamax Battle was hosted at the rideshare pick-up for the park, and there were rarely more than four or five trainers waiting in the lobby to see if they could gather the massive group needed. Further, you could not remote to these battles from within the park!
• The transportation situation left a bit to be desired. There was mild confusion throughout the park about where to go to get to the shuttle that was transporting people to a destination where Uber and Lyft could access the park.

Overall, Pokémon GO Fest 2025: Jersey City was a great time. I'd recommend attending one of these in-person events to anyone who has ever enjoyed playing the game. While the Global event is always fun, there's something special about traveling to place where you can hunt in person with other people working on the same tasks. Niantic has done a great job bringing Pokémon to life in the real world, and GO Fest may be the best example of how that works.

Be sure to check back on Bleeding Cool for daily updates on all things Pokémon GO.

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