Pokémon Is All Grown-Up & Coming To A Phone Near You

Pokémon first landed back in 1995. With a TV show, trading cards, and video game to fuel our obsession, it quickly became a hit with millennial kids everywhere. Now, 21 years later, we're all grown-up and Pokémon has grown up, too. Pokémon Go, a free mobile game, will be available on iOS and Android phones this July. Announced during the second day of the E3 gaming conference, the new Nintendo game isn't like the Pokémon games you used to play on your Game Boy back in the day. This one is an augmented-reality game. It centers around spotting the little monsters in the real world around you, using your smartphone's camera. How cool is that? The Verge, which got to test the game early, says the basic premise of the game will be to travel around to capture, train, and battle your Pokémon. The battles will take place at "gyms," which are located at notable landmarks near you. But you can also take it a step further. If you want to take your Pokémon gaming to the next level, you can buy the Pokémon Go Plus, a wearable that will let you play the game without even pulling out your phone. It's basically a red-and-white button that glows blue when a Pokémon is near. Press the button to try to catch it — if it glows in rainbow colors, you've caught it; if it blinks red, you failed. The wearable can be yours for $35, but won't be available for purchase at the time of the game's initial launch. This sounds like all our millennial-kid dreams coming true. We seriously can't wait to catch 'em all.