We all remember the early days of Pokémon Go, and the world’s booming obsession with it: videos of enormous hordes of players swamping outdoor spaces on the hunt for rare Pokémon to add to their collection. Nearly a decade on, that obsession is still alive and well. Pokémon Go is still one of the most popular games in the world because Niantic is committed to keeping it fresh through new updates, events, and more.
But just because Pokémon Go is among the best mobile games on the market (and a solid choice if you’re making a list of the best Pokémon games) doesn’t mean it’s perfect. In fact, in the quest for perfection, it still has quite a long way to go, as one keen Redditor, gameheros, proves with their post breaking down a number of quality of life changes that Niantic could implement to improve the game. They make for fascinating reading if you, like us, love the game and want to see it continue to improve.
The user’s first recommendation, and of the simplest, is animation skipping. The idea is that “once you’ve watched an animation for the first time you can skip it when watching it any time in the future.” That would be glorious, wouldn’t it? The change would let you skip the animation for egg hatching, evolution, and gifts, which – for any serious player – can be an inconvenience.
The next suggestion is an overhaul of the friends system, adding gifts streaks for day-on-day exchanges (rewarding consistent gift giving) and completely changing the old UI to make it more simple and straightforward. Alongside this would be a new system for gifting, allowing for ‘bulk gifting’ which would allow you to send (and receive) multiple gifts at once rather than just one at a time, and to multiple people at once too.
Another great idea is around event timeslots. The recommendation here is that users should be able to define their own event timeslots in a day, rather than being locked to the pre-determined times. This would allow for more user compatibility so that you can arrange the event times around your own daily routine and commitments, too. You’d still be locked to one timeslot, but this would be to your choosing, meaning you can make it work for you.
As the user explains in their post, “there are a lot of things that could use some improvement,” and plenty of other suggestions (check out the full post for more details), but implementing these changes would still make for a considerable difference, and commenters agree, describing the suggestions as “all great ideas,” and, “solid suggestions.” Maybe, in the future, Niantic might take heed. While these simple improvements wouldn’t completely change the game, they’d make enough difference to increase playability and keep Pokémon Go as one of the franchise’s flagship games.
For more Pokémon fun, check out our very own Pokédex or see all our speculation about the new Pokémon game. That might get you interested in learning more about the Switch 2, or seeing our picks for the best Nintendo Switch games.