Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: Niantic Labs, ninatic, pokemon, pokemon go, slowpoke

Pokémon GO New Year's 2021 Celebration Event Review

The New Year's 2021 event is wrapping up in Pokémon GO. Did this short event usher in the new year with an appropriate amount of hype?

What Worked for this Pokémon GO Event

• The Costumes: The event spawns as well as the raids were focused on Costumed Pokémon. There was a great balance of new and returning costumes, with all of last year's Party Hat species returning, giving trainers another shot at that absolute meme, Party Hat Wurmple. The best feature, though, was perhaps Niantic's funniest feature yet. Slowpoke showed up a year late to the party, wearing 2020 glasses. Then, when evolved into Slowbro, its glasses become 2021. That kind of touch added a cute and funny story element to the event, which isn't something we've seen Niantic do very often. The more narrative we can get in events, the better.
• The Length: An event without a new Shiny release or species release may be boring for some when they drag along, but Niantic chose the perfect length here. It was just long enough to hunt for these Shiny costume species in Pokémon GO while not lasting too long as to annoy trainers who aren't into the costumes.

What Didn't Work for this Pokémon GO Event

• The Communication: There was another issue over Shiny-capabilities here. Due to Niantic's lack of communication about Shiny odds in non-Legendary Raids, trainers were left doing their own research this weekend. The thought was that, due to extremely late verification of Shiny Party Hat Wobbuffet and Shiny Party Hat Raticate, Niantic had either forgotten to switch on these Shinies at first or dramatically decreased their Shiny rates from their initial run in 2020. Rather than supplying a response to those asking, trainers were once again left to refer to social media and do their own research. This is a lasting problem.

Overall

This was a fun, low-key event that started what promises to be a fun year of Pokémon GO gameplay off right.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!