Was The Pokemon GO Tour: Kanto worth it?
I want to start this by thanking Mikey of PXR for buying my ticket to The Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto, allowing me to play this event. I purchased a ticket for one of my kids to play the opposite version along with. This is our story.
The Park

The event started early, so my day had to start earlier. I had my destination picked, my two boys had their tablets charged, the snacks were packed. The weather was brisk but a nice change from the -50 degrees we had the week prior. We hit the road and reached the park. Open up Pokemon GO and there it was, the Tour: Kanto event in all its glory. Confetti filled the screen, and mysterious trainers dressed as Pikachu, Eevee, and even GO Rocket members, were all around waiting to be challenged. Multiple spawns all around us. The Today View had multiple Collection Charts to fill and tasks to complete. Music composed by Junichi Masuda was playing in the background. It was a little overwhelming at first. Where to begin?
Quick catch everything near by and start filling the Collection Chart for the first hour, Pallet Town. My kids are having a lot of fun catching everything, even though only one of them had a ticket to the event, the spawns were crazy for all of us so the other kid didn’t mind. Just then I hear a cry, “SHINY!!!” My eldest, with the ticket, caught the first shiny of the day, an Electabuzz. We tried beating some of the Trainers who were modeled after real Pokemon GO players who won a Twitter contest. These Trainers were standing at Pokestops just like Team GO Rocket Grunts. I found their difficulty a little higher than your average Grunt, but not overly hard. Oh, a task was completed by beating them cool. Looks like this will be easy.
Looking around at the Gyms nearby, there is a Raid happening at all of them. We decide to take on a Moltres and see if anyone else would join us. The park was mostly deserted, only one other car in the parking lot, and we didn’t see anyone else around. But in a few short seconds, two other people join us. My kids and I invite some people and we easily have a Raid of 10 people. The boss falls fast and we claim our rewards and add another check on our Collection Chart. Time to head to the car and warm up. Gotta catch more Kanto Pokemon before the hour switches over. OH!? Shiny Hitmonchan on my screen. Less than an hour in and two of us have Shiny Pokemon. This is gonna be great.
We head back out for the second hour, Pewter City. The music has changed and the spawns are all Rock Types now. We walk to another Raid and my youngest, without the paid ticket, finds a Shiny Onyx. I’m relieved that no one will be left without a Shiny today. But this is where I notice something alarming, my phone battery is dropping, fast. The early morning weather is chilly, and I’m hot spotting two tablets. I didn’t not think this through. We make our way through the park hitting as many Raids as possible before my phone dies. An hour and a half into the twelve hour Kanto event, and my phone has had enough. Time to head home.
Playing From Home

Time to charge the phone, turn on another Incense, and continue catching everything. Cerulean City spawns means water types everywhere. The next few hours seem like blur. I remember the music playing and a continuous array of Pokémon to catch. Each hour the spawns and music changed to match the theme. There is gym by my house that has a new raid every 30 minutes and that really helps me complete my Raid Collection Chart. Only thing I notice that is a little disappointing is, because there is no Pokéstops near me, I’m not able to battle Trainers which is required for the timed Research, so I know that I will be unable to complete that.
Each Collection Chart, based on the hourly themes, had 10 Pokémon to catch. If you didn’t catch them all in that hour, you would get a second chance five hours later. The second round was great to complete each chart. Finishing the charts rewards you enough items to keep catching and playing without having to spend money on Incense and Pokéballs. The final two hours of the event included all Pokémon from the Kanto event. If you didn’t have everything by this time, now was your chance.
My son and I had them all by this point so we focused on our trades. Each version had six exclusive Pokémon that could only be caught using Incense. This required you to trade your six for the six from the other version. Since we had caught all The Pokémon and had completed the themed Collections Charts, we took this time to do our trades.
Ending The Day

The kids are in bed and I am tired. Twelve hours of Pokémon GO is exhausting. I have one Collection Chart left, the Evolution Chart. 72 Pokémon to evolve. I am very methodical when it comes to doing this. Start with Bulbasaur, and move down the list. Thankfully, four and half years of catching these Pokémon, I’ve acquired enough candy to evolve everything. One itty bitty problem however. When clearing space in my Pokémon Storage, I got rid of an Ekans that was traded to me. Turns out I didn’t have one of my own to evolve. Anyways, I move on and evolve 71 Pokémon leaving a lone Arbok left to complete the Collection Chart. Fear not reader, the week that followed, had a Research Task that rewarded an Ekans, so I was able to finally complete it a few days later.
Final Thoughts

The event was amazing. More than I could have expected. The task rewards offered more than enough items to keep playing. I never felt like I was going to run out of items. At one time I had almost 700 Pokéballs. My only concern with this is I was constantly way over in my storage, (I also purchased 200 more storage before setting out for the day) so I was unable to get field research after a while. I did get a few at the start of the event and they reward a missive amount of candy for some of the Pokémon you need to trade for.
The spawns were plentiful, even without an Incense. I do wish there was a little more variety within the hourly themes. There were some hours where I had seven of the ten spawns show up on screen at the same time.
The timed Research was not a good play by Niantic. They claimed the event could be played at home but unless you lived on a Pokéstop, you would be unable to beat the Trainers. As you progressed though the Research, you had to defeat more and more Trainers and at one point you needed to beat them using your buddy three times. My suggestion, if they were to continue using this is to reverse them. Start by needing to beat five, then work down. Only reason for this, is people are more likely to go out at the start of the day, where they are able to play more, and end the day at home where the gameplay is limited. I understand to thought behind increasing difficulty and if they want to stick with that, then have the Trainers show up in balloons similar to Team GO Rocket.
The Collection Charts were well laid out and easy to see what was needed. I think having ten of them was a little much, but I do appreciate that over one massive chart. The Special Research was a good mix of tasks will happen over time and some you need to work for. The rewards were great, and having them end with a Shiny Ditto was a great way to end it. The Mew Challenge is going to take a while and I am so ready for it.
Overall I was very impressed with the Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto event. Yes there are some changes that need to be made, but I trust the Niantic team will look into criticism and make the appropriate adjustments to balance fun engaging gameplay and a user friendly experience. I have lots of faith that this was the first of many ticketed events this year. With the Season of Legends coming in a few days, we could see a Legendary event to wrap that up, or perhaps a Johto event in the future. What ever comes I know my kids and I will happily participate in any and all upcoming Pokémon GO events.
See you around, Genesect!
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