Pokemon GO Fan Makes Nostalgic Discovery on Old Phone

Summary

A Pokemon GO fan has found one of the oldest versions of the massively popular monster-catching mobile game on an old phone.
The photo features the game’s classic Gyarados loading screen, used for the first few months following Pokemon GO’s official release.
Pokemon GO ushered in a new era of success for the franchise’s mobile games, sparking more games from the series across multiple genres.

A Pokemon GO fan made an unusual find when booting up the game on an older phone, discovering a version of the game shortly following its launch. The massively popular monster-catching mobile game has seen many changes in the nearly nine years since Niantic and The Pokemon Company first debuted their ambitious collaboration to the world. The game saw a frenzy of popularity following its launch and has continued to add fan-requested features from Remote Raids to trading Pokemon with friends and plenty more. Now, one fan’s older phone still holds a piece of the game’s early days.

Pokemon GO took the gaming world by storm following its official release in July 2016, with the game quickly amassing a staggering player base. Pokemon GO racked up more than 500 million downloads from players around the world by the end of 2016 and flourished in the years following, with more than 1 billion downloads to date. The game also helped to establish developer Niantic as a mainstay in mobile gaming, later releasing popular games like Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now. A longtime Pokemon fan is now reminiscing about the mobile game’s early days.

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Reddit user DeltaP42 shared their nostalgic discovery on the official Pokemon GO subreddit, sharing a photo of an older phone. The phone displays the “No internet connectivity” message atop one of the oldest loading screens for Pokemon GO, used after the game’s 2016 launch. The photo also includes Pokemon GO‘s staple safety message, encouraging players to be aware of their surroundings while walking around playing the game. The iconic Gyarados loading screen was only present for a short duration after launch, cycling out for a Halloween-themed graphic in October 2016.

Pokemon GO Fan Finds Old Version of the Game

The classic Pokemon GO loading screen saw plenty of nostalgic vibes from fans looking back on the game’s early days. Many proposed that the game’s older loading screen and artistic style should make a comeback, potentially aligning with Pokemon GO‘s tenth anniversary next year. Others shared their own memories of playing the game, including one fan reminiscing on the “footstep radar” originally used to track the player’s distance from different nearby Pokemon.

Pokemon GO‘s popularity helped to usher in a new era for the franchise, with many mobile games from the series looking to follow in its footsteps. Pokemon has debuted a wide variety of mobile games in the years since GO‘s debut, from puzzle games like Pokemon Cafe Remix to lifestyle-based games like Pokemon Sleep. The Pokemon TCG has even seen a major presence on mobile devices, with TCG Live as a direct adaptation of the physical card game and TCG Pocket as a faster streamlined version. Pokemon GO set the franchise up for success in the mobile gaming market, even from the game’s earliest days.