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Pokemon Go Player’s Guide to Toronto: Moss Park

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Located just east of the downtown core, Moss Park was once the industrial heart of Toronto. In the 1960s, work began to convert this area into housing project with a large park and community centre. Today, the community centre is still there, along with a baseball diamond and tennis courts.

While the Moss Park Armoury resides just east of the park, it’s not exactly a tourist attraction. Heck, many locals actively avoid the park, as it has a reputation of being one of the sketchiest areas in the city. However, if you’re an active Pokemon Go player, you might want to bring a friend in the day time and take advantage of one of the most active nests in the area.

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The Last Few Pokemon Left to Catch in My Pokemon Go Pokedex

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Shortly after beginning my Pokemon Go journey, I declared to myself that I wanted to catch ’em all, within reason. I wanted to catch all of the Gen 1 North American launch pokemon. Just over two months after the game’s release, I’m actually pretty close. Here’s what’s left, my plan for attacking the rest of them, and what I’ve learned as I went through this process.

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Pokemon Go Player’s Guide to Toronto: Nathan Phillips Square

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Attracting nearly 1.5 million visitors every year, Nathan Phillips Square is Canada’s largest city square. As a tourist, you’ll want to come by and see our unique city hall building to the north, which was actually featured in the movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Getting your picture in front of the now-iconic Toronto sign should also be in your list of to-dos. If you’re there in the winter, bring a pair of skates, as the pond is frozen over for skating.

As a Pokemon Go player, it’s also a solid, and quite possibly underrated, place to visit.

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Arcadia Review

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Arcadia is a game where each player builds their own amusement park. You’ll be in charge of hiring staff and building attractions in an effort to have the best park at the table. Are you ready to build the next Disney World?

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Pokemon Go Player’s Guide to Toronto: Jack Layton Ferry Terminal

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Pokemon Go Jack Layton Ferry TerminalWhen it comes to the most talked-about Pokemon Go hot-spots in Toronto, nothing will ever beat the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. Located at the south end of the city, it quickly developed a reputation for being the best place to catch pokemon thanks to its tightly-packed PokeStops. During its peak, thousands of players from across the Greater Toronto Area would make the pilgrimage to the promise land in hopes of hauling back a king’s ransom.

Unfortunately, the hype got too big, causing real problems with the people who showed up to actually use the ferry. A few weeks ago, a number of PokeStops were removed and the crowds dissipated. Should you cancel your travel plans now? Not necessarily.

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I Spent Real Money in Pokemon Go

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I generally avoid free-to-play games. Call me old school, but I much prefer the idea of paying for “all” of a game upfront, versus playing a game that nickel and dimes me over the long haul. In particular, I hate when free-to-play games that are so focused on milking money from you that its commerce system detracts from the game itself.

Pokemon Go, while being a free-to-play game with in-app purchases, has been much more palatable. I’ve put in dozens of hours into the game and had a blast without putting in a cent. If I wanted to, I could adjust my play style a bit and continue to play the free way. However, I recently pulled out the credit card and bought a few gold coins.

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Trying to Obtain the Perfect Pokemon in Pokemon Go

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When I first started playing Pokemon Go, my primary goal was to get a Raichu. Raichu is my favourite, and I figured I would be happy as soon as I got one. Then I started playing the game and quickly realized that CP is an important stat. Fine. I’ll aim to get a Raichu with a good CP, whatever that is.

But as I started to learn more about the inner workings of pokemon, settling with any old Raichu wasn’t good enough. In this post, we look at the other factors that determine the quality of a pokemon and why getting the “perfect” version of one is so hard.

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Pokemon Go and the Use of Tracking Apps Like Pokevision

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During my first few days of playing Pokemon Go, and impressive bird-like shadow appeared in my Nearby section. Wanting to strike before it disappeared, I rushed out of my home, trying my best to catch it. Unfortunately, I never actually encountered it. Using the old Nearby system, I wandered in circles with no meaningful way of tracking my progress. As it turned out, the game was actually glitched during that time where the steps weren’t decreasing in count as you got closer. I’ve done many embarrassing things in my day, but aimlessly walking around a kids playground as parents curiously watched me was up there.

After this incident, I started using Pokevision. Unlike the Nearby system or the crowdsourced solutions that were popular early on, Pokevision taps directly into the game’s API to show the exact locations of nearby pokemon, as well as how long they’ll be there. Whether you view it as cheating or as a valuable tool for catching them all, it’s certainly a game-changer.

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Playing Pokemon Go at Jack Layton Ferry Terminal in Toronto

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Pokemon Go Jack Layton Ferry TerminalJack Layton Ferry Terminal in Toronto shuttles 25,000 people per day to-and-from Toronto Island. Over the past few weeks, it’s also been the hottest place for Pokemon Go players to congregate and catch them all. What makes it so appealing is that there are four overlapping PokeStops that are constantly equipped with lures. Furthermore, its geographic location by the water makes it a prime spot for land and water-based pokemon.

The ferry terminal has been so hot that it’s appeared on the local news. Unfortunately, the news isn’t all good. Due to the increased traffic and players getting in the way of people that actually need to use the ferry, the city has asked for the PokeStops to be moved or removed entirely. Before Niantic shuts this down, Steff and I made the pilgrimage to Toronto’s pokemon Valhalla.

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Climbing the Fighting Game Leaderboards

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Fighting game online leaderboards are not the be-all-end-all measure of a player’s success. For one, there are cheaters out there who will scam their way to the top just to see their names in lights. Also, sitting at the top of any leaderboard doesn’t entitle you to anything when it’s really time to prove your worth at a tournament.

That being said, leaderboard performance matters to me. I use it as a means of not only measuring where I stand against the rest of the world, but measuring my own growth as a player. Furthermore, it acts as motivation to get better, as you can see what lies ahead.

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