The hype train is live and taking over the world! But before that, let’s start at the beginning, my beginning. Being a fan of Pokemon ever since the anime first came out, I was more than ecstatic to play this. I was really hyped when it was announced and even developing jealousy when I saw friends on the early beta/early regions/hacked copies. I refreshed my Play Store constantly around the time it opened up. It was when I was on my commute on the Bart home when I was finally able to download and start my adventure.

Like my Red Version back in the day, I started with my favorite starter, Squirtle. At the station, I was able to catch a couple more before I went to my car. I still didn’t know the ins and outs of the game, but all I know was that I was excited to catch pokemon in Augmented Reality.

Before you knew it, I was going through my daily routine with the App open constantly. The only downside is that (as of this post) the app is a huge battery drainer. My Bart commute is about 45 minutes. I would start with 100% and end my trip with about 20%. I was addicted. I may have even had it on constantly while at work. I know, I know, but I still got my work done.

After getting one of my coworkers equally addicted to the App, we took to the streets of San Francisco to see what we could find during our lunch. This was my first of what I would predict to be many outings with friends, using the app. Right away we started catching several Pokemon and to my surprise, walked by several people doing the same. This may be the easiest ice breaker ever, because I was greeting everyone who I assumed was playing as well.

Watching social media, this game has sparked the latest social craze ever. Scrolling through Facebook, I would see several posts about friends going out, meeting people, posting about pub crawls and meetups. This game is literally everywhere. I can’t wait to see what comes next!