What’s old is new again

Childhood franchise Pokémon makes a huge comeback

A+Team+Mystic+member+and+a+Team+Valor+member+starting+a+heated+argument+while+a+Team+Instinct+Member+is+preoccuping+his+time+with+a+Pikachu.

Graphic by John Ty

A Team Mystic member and a Team Valor member starting a heated argument while a Team Instinct Member is preoccuping his time with a Pikachu.

Grab your textbooks, sharpen your pencils, and pick up your Pokéballs. It’s time to go to school and catch somePokémon along the way.

“Pokémon Go” is a popular mobile game that encourages players to go outisde and capture pokémon in the real world. The game has been sweeping the nation, with players from every walk of life, and now it’s made its way to Cal High.

Though it is known that  many students love Pokémon,  the question is which students spent their summer hunting these pocket monsters?

Of the 100 kids polled, 13 out of 16 freshmen reported playing. The sophomore class had 16 students who played out of 33 polled.  Out of 38 juniors polled, 23 played. The senior class had the least amount players, with one out of 13 playing.

Freshman had the highest percentage of students playing, at 81 percent. Seniors had the least, at 8 percent.

Cal students may play the popular mobile game, but they might not be playing it on campus. This might be because pokémon do not often spawn in or around the school. The famous Pikachu is one of the few interesting pokémon  to show up on campus. The rest that appear are the ever so common Pidgey and Rattata.

According to International Business Times UK, the app has been downloaded as more than 500 million times between Sept. 8 and its release in July, filling the world with players determined to be the very best.

But the number of current Cal players seems to be dwindling.

“It got boring, at a certain point,” said senior Jacob Steffen.

Juniors Summer Jackman and Juliette Mohr agreed. The game appears to have been a mid-summer hype. Many problems have arisen since the game’s debut.

“The server was slow,” said Mohr. Sophomore Cameron Fitzpatrick said the in-game cheating and hacking should be fixed.

“People walk around and look like zombies and idiots,” stated Steffen.

“There should be more pokémon,” said junior Daniel Grays-Yang.

The wait for more fun is over. At some time in the possibly near feature, the second generation of pokémon will be put into the app. Some say to be included are Espeon and Umbreon, two of the currently eight eevee evolutions.

Other anticipated pokémonfrom generation two expected to make an appearance in the app are the evolution from Scyther to Scizor, Onix to Steelix, and Slowpoke to Slowking.

Generation two pokémonalso offer pre-evolutions of pokémon, or “baby pokémon”. These include Pikachu’s pre-evolution Pichu, Cleffa, the pre-evolution of Clefairy and Clefable, Igglybuff, the precursor to Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff, Smoochum, which turns into Jynx, Electabuzz’s baby version, Elekid, and Magby, the pre-evolution of Magmar.

Recently added to the app has been Buddy pokémon.

“Trainers will now be able to choose one of their pokémon to be their buddy.  A trainer can earn Candy for their Buddy pokémon by walking a certain distance,” according the creators of the game, Niantic.

With the new features yet to come, many “Pokémon Go” players are excited for the new updates.