This freshly leaked Pokemon Go beta footage makes us want to hit Route 1 immediately 

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This freshly leaked Pokemon Go beta footage makes us want to hit Route 1 immediately

GAME Previews has just unveiled 9 minutes of footage following the early gameplay of Pokemon Go. We get to see a user customize his character and get started down the road to become a Pokemon master with naught but a backpack and a baseball cap to his name.

See also: Our first real look at Pokemon GO has just arrived

Thus we find ourselves following the beginnings of the adventure of the edgily-named “Darkathion” as he strikes off to visit scenic Giant Rock Stack and the local library, locations where he finds eggs, items, and gyms. The game really does seem geared to get people up and active, emulating world of Pokemon where creatures must be sought out in the wild and eggs have evolved not to hatch under warm, calm conditions, but rather only after jiggling around in a backpack after a certain number of steps. If you wanna catch ‘em all in Pokemon Go, you’re going to have to give those calves a workout.

The video also showcases a gameplay mechanic that was kind of taken as a given in the games and anime series: actually hitting the damn Pokemon with the Pokeball. We never really appreciated what an arm Ash Ketchum had until we watched Darkathion struggle to peg a Vulpix. Also on display is how the visual augmented reality aspects of the game can be toggled on the fly. Gyms are fought over by three teams, and the controlling team leaves their strongest contenders behind to face off against the competition

There’s still no official release date for the game yet, but with leaks like this trickling out, the hype train is certainly leaving the station. While we wait around for official info, let us know what you think of this upcoming free-to-play augmented reality game in the comments below!

Next: Pokemon Go footage leaked from SXSW

First rule of Pokemon beta club is don’t share screenshots. :) niantic will be monitoring and banning people who share and yes there are watermarks in the images.

Or maybe its the company that leaks these images to hype it up even more.

This is dope. I feel like 13 again. Very excited

That was amazing, there was stuff happening and you could pick a team based on no information other than a simple color palette and if you walked around other things showed up and then you did things and that would do something or not. Then random eggs would show up and give you stuff to put in your bucket to, um, do stuff with.

I especially liked the reminders to pay attention to your environment aaaaand right back into the game. I’m not sure if the music is part of the game or just background provided by the poster because requiring headphones would be the best.

Just waiting till this is on the news because some white kid walks into a black neighborhood and gets assaulted. But Mewtwo was worth the beat down. and stab wound.

I sort of wish it had location specific Pokemon. I should have to go inside next to a computer to catch a porygon, or go near water to catch Poliwag. That’s my only complaint.

How could it possibly know you’re near a computer? That shit would be creepy as.

I agree with things like Poliwag near water, but that would be really disappointing for people living ages from a bed of water.

Maybe if they made it so there were location specific Pokemon where the locations are within a specific distance, and then just random if there isn’t. Probably too technical to code though :-P

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