The Sinnoh Tour ran in Pokémon GO over the weekend. What worked and what didn’t? MeinMMO author Max Handwerk comes up with a mixed conclusion.
For me, the Sinnoh tour was generally a positive experience. In my opinion, the free event did a lot right and provided a framework in which you could use most of the event’s content, even if you couldn’t use 16 hours of the weekend for it.
To be honest, the event might have been better if you didn’t plan 16 hours for it. But one after anonther.
What was good about the Sinnoh tour?
For me there were three salient positive points, but also one major problem. I’ll summarize them here for you.
Point 1: Lots to do – but not too much
From my perspective, the Sinnoh tour had a lot to offer for a non-ticketed event. For one thing, there were a lot of Sinnoh and a lot of Hisui Pokémon that you could grab. For a player like me who loves collecting above all else, this is ideal.
A highlight for me was the surprise of being able to collect the trio of lakes. This finally filled a gap in my Pokédex that had been gaping for years.
I also found it positive that there was a half-distance bonus for the eggs. This was a major criticism of last year’s Hoenn tour, which has been addressed this year. This helped in finding the regional Pokémon that were in the 10km eggs.
There was also the code for Rotom, which appeared during the events surrounding the Sinnoh Tour, and of course the legendary original forms in the raids. I was also able to encounter some Hisui monsters in raids and research that I was still missing, and the white-lined bar villain on routes and Regigigas in the party play tasks were also motivating.
Praise also goes to the idea of integrating Team GO Rocket so much into special research and then carrying it out, for example by having the Rocket leaders rate the Pokémon. I also liked the visual changes to the map with the space-time anomalies in the game.
It’s the little things that can make events stand out from everyday life – and that’s what happened here.
But my actual point is this: At MeinMMO you are logically involved in the Sinnoh tour in terms of work. Nevertheless, I was able to take a lot from the event in the time I had. I don’t feel like I missed much. On the contrary: the times that I was able to play were well filled and I would have liked to play a little more.
This is the advantage of offering the event over a total of 16 hours over two weekend days: you have enough time to choose when you play. The alternative to this are stories like the Cupids raid during the week or other events that don’t fit in the timing.
At the same time, I can imagine that the second day without a new feature was a bit uneventful, especially for players who played the first day completely. If you aimed for the full 16 hours of gameplay, you’ll probably have seen everything in half the time at the latest. If that was the case for you, tell us in the comments how you perceived the event.
Another point of criticism would be that there was little to catch in the wild if you already had most of the Sinnoh monsters. However, this depends on the nature of the event. But: An increased shiny rate for more monsters would probably have provided a bit more motivation here.
But: back to the positive things.
Point 2: Meaningful integration of new features that motivates
Here I would like to briefly address the topic of “routes” and “party play”. Both features appeared in 2023, but I rarely use them in everyday life because there is little motivation to do so. Zygarde cells on routes are simply too rare, Mateo only offers partially worthwhile rewards, and there is usually no reason for me to party play either.
This weekend was different. The white-lined barrage on the routes was a quick motivation for me to look for one or two routes and run them. Party Play brought candy for the Regis and an encounter with Regigigas, as well as an important attack bonus in the raids against Ur-Palkia and Ur-Dialga.
I have to say: I liked both once I used them for the first time. It felt worthwhile to use the features – and it didn’t take that much. Maybe an approach that Niantic could take more often to make the two features generally more interesting?
Point 3: The event works – at least in the city
That was the most positive point for me: When I was out and about today on Sunday, I came across several groups that were playing the event. The raids against Ur-Palkia and Ur-Dialga practically filled themselves; you could constantly see trainers playing with their cell phones in their hands.
People nodded at each other, exchanged a word, were happy when someone won a raid or caught something cool. That was really nice and probably what Niantic always has in mind when they talk about playing outside together more.
So I could run from arena to arena, do raids and collect the monsters that were still missing. I really liked that.
But: The whole thing is also connected to my biggest criticism of the event. Because it only worked that way on Sunday and is also due to the circumstances, which may not be the case for everyone.
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Where was the Sinnoh tour problematic?
My circumstances on Sunday looked like this: I had a little more time, the weather outside was good, and I also had a few on-site raid passes from the past that I could spend. On top of that, I live in a densely populated part of a larger city where there are lots of arenas, stops, and coaches apparently playing.
Under these circumstances, the principle of “go out, play, raid” works great, without question. On Sunday I was able to collect some original forms without any problems.
But Saturday was a different story. I didn’t have much time, the weather was worse and there weren’t many players outside when I could quickly go out to do a raid.
Under such circumstances the event works noticeably less. And especially if you live in smaller towns, with fewer stops and fewer arenas nearby – then it becomes a nuisance.
The most annoying thing for me was the following: On Saturday I took part in two long-distance raids so that I could at least secure Dialga and Palkia with their attacks. Everything worked just fine with Dialga, which also had some noise – but I also chose Diamond.
The Palkia, on the other hand, fled coldly after the raid. This was frustrating because it was hard enough to even get a raid together that could beat it. Then not getting the Pokémon is annoying.
In addition, the first Palkia that I caught on Sunday didn’t have the “space strike” ability – and yes, that was intended so that there was only a “chance” that the monster would have the attack, but that was also frustrating.
I was ultimately able to make up for it on Sunday because I got good raid conditions and was able to swap with my girlfriend to get the variants we were missing.
But: If I didn’t still have on-site passes, I would have had to buy them or remote raid passes. If I hadn’t had so many arenas here, I would have had to see how I could get appropriate raids. And if I had had a little less time, the escaped Palkia and the one without space strike might have been the same.
The fact that the most exciting feature of the event is behind raid passes, which you have to buy first if in doubt, is difficult but usual. But then not having a guaranteed attack is annoying, and if the Pokémon actually flees completely after all the effort, that’s the wrong approach for me.
So much for the critical point. But: Overall, I had a very positive experience of the Sinnoh tour and hope that the larger events will work similarly well in the future.
How did you experience the Sinnoh tour? Tell us in the comments! And what’s coming up in the rest of February can be found in the event overview for Pokémon GO in February 2024.