Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: Niantic, Niantic Labs, pokemon, pokemon go, Team GO Rocket

Pokémon GO Team GO Rocket Hour Review: Worth Continuing?

Niantic tested a new event in Pokémon GO yesterday: GO Rocket Hour. Pokémon GO trainers were treated to increased Team GO Rocket balloons for an hour, allowing players to battle Grunts, Leaders, and even Giovanni to earn encounters with Shadow Pokémon from wherever they were. With Spotlight Hour and Raid Hour already happening weekly, though, is this something that Niantic should make as a permanent weekly feature in Pokémon GO?

Niantic would be smart to continue GO Rocket Hour as a weekly event. The one thought that I had before the event was that one Spotlight Hour per week does feel like enough, as the sheer amount of spawns can be overwhelming. However, GO Rocket Hour was perfectly paced with Team GO Rocket balloons arriving every ten minutes. These battles generally take about a minute each, which makes participating in this hour a no-brainer. That sort of relaxed gameplay, where players can passively battle without having to search for stops and choose between the bonus and the spawns as we sometimes must do during Spotlight Hour, is exactly the kind of weekly event that would enrich Pokémon GO.

One thing that Niantic has been careful about in recent events is to not overwhelm the Pokémon GO player base. We have seen four- and five-day events take the place of weeklong events and longer buffer periods between events, giving trainers a chance to enjoy the standard Season spawns. I don't know if I see Niantic making this into a weekly thing, even though I personally feel it'd be a great addition. Rather, it seems more in their current wheelhouse to try this out as a monthly feature. However, I do think it would work beautifully as a weekly, hour-long event that gives players a fun set of battles minus the FOMO that Spotlight Hour can sometimes cause.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

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