Buddy Pokémon Confirmed by Niantic for Pokémon GO

Great idea, can't wait.

Sounds great. I wish we knew when we'd get it

Now just who is going to be my first buddy...

Toy Story reference "You got a friend in Me" to "You got a friend in Meowth". Randy Newman song of course.

Well this game certainly wasn't made by Nintendo then, something was confirmed.

Would it kill somebody, anybody, at Nintendo to send out 1 of these 2 tweets:

The Pikmin game shown in yesterday's ND is the Pikmin 4 game discussed last year.

The Pikmin game shown in yesterday's ND is not the Pikmin 4 game discussed last year.

That's all it would take, 1 tweet. And it doesn't even have to mention NX.

This is an amazing update, in my opinion maybe even the best update so far. Being able to pick a buddy Pokemon and then essentially train by walking around? Awesome. That was my main reason I stopped playing the game: Great! I caught this super rare Pokemon but now I only have 3 candies for it until i find another one in 2 or 3 weeks or so, basically making really rare Pokemon useless to people that do not want to spend hours walking around trying to find that same Pokemon again. Im really excited about this. I'll totally start playing again.

Giving users a choice in starter Pokemon never made sense because they were all so low CP that they were useless. So this would've been great to gradually level up our starters rather than giving it to that butcher Professor Willow who grinds them up and turns them into candy to turn you Pokemon into cannibals. (yes. That is exactly what happens when you trade in Pokemon)

Can't wait for this! I'm going to walk my Bulbasaur around so that it isn't useless anymore, we're friends anyway though.

Glad to see more updates. Perhaps I'll start playing again.

@rjejr
They want to keep everything about Pikmin 4 a secret so Sony or Microsoft can't steal their ideas, lol.

So finally a way to get candy and power up/evolve rare Pokémon you never come across in the wild (like my poor starter Squirtle)! Excellent. :]

@Luffymcduck What would they steal that they couldn't have "stolen" from previous installments in the series?

This is the first actual mechanic addition since the game's release (although it would be nice if you could interact with them in some way). The other change was the removal of tracking, and appraising, which doesn't actually change the game.

Don't send friend requests plz

...I hope the amount of candy you get is decent...and for that Pokemon. Would make things easier since I have rare-ish Pokemon that aren't in my area. >.>
(...also Magikarp, lol)

wow. this is pretty awesome! Would be cool if we could interact with our pokemon though. maybe like something like Poke-Ami from X and Y where we can pet, feed and play mini games with our Pokemon.

Yeah baby! Woo!

Gen 1 strikes again!

So the Pokemon show on the profile screen, but will they show up walking with the trainer? That'd be sweet. Actually I'd like to ditch the generic trainer entirely and just be a Pokemon. lol

This looks like a good addition. It would be nice if there were Pokemon Centers to heal Pokemon...

I love the idea simply because it is quite useful when not abused. But sadly I equally hate the idea because I know there will be abuse. Hear me out.

Instead of finding more of the same pokemon to get candy, people will have the choice to just find one and the run circles around their block until they get enough to evolve it. Then they just need to catch a ton of Rattata to grind dust and power up them.

Now if they do trading and enable pokemon trading, we'll have another D3 AH. Where you'll not want to find "more and more" but just "that one piece that will help get the one I really wanted"

tracking?
whats tracking?
lets add tons of new features EXCEPT the original feature presented as the anchor of the app.
sheesh!

@rjejr
Either way, my guess is that Miyamoto just spilled the info and no one else at Nintendo was planning on announcing it anytime soon. I think the official tweet is "Please don't remember anything Miyamoto may or may not have said about Pikmin games since the release of Pikmin 3"

Every little feature will bring people back over and over. Me, I'm in the middle of still enjoying it. This is fun though the strategic point of it isn't quite clear... well, more candy I can get behind so I guess that's all that it needs!

I still won't be playing it I think but this is a nice update

Awesome! I can get my starter Pikachu trained up at last!

Would have been nice to have at the start. Maybe my poor Bulbasaur would have been used :/

I don't play the game anymore mostly because there aren't enough things to do once you hit level 20. Gyms are just not worth the hassle. I was hoping they'd add in something more substantial, but hey, baby steps~!

@aaronsullivan No, the official tweet is "Please understand". Or maybe it's #pleaseunderstand ?

@Luffymcduck Yeah, Sony spent $400 on PSVR and they are releasing Neo, but its really all just a ploy as they wait on Ntineod to unveil NX so they can steal their big idea - a handheld with tv out.

I cant believe somebody replied to you after both an lol and a

@aaronsullivan touché on the tweet. In all seriousness, if there is a Pikmin 4 the only way to surprise us with it and add it to the excitement of the NX launch is if we don't know for sure it's coming.

Wait a minute — silly scenario: "Miyamoto got a little tipsy and blurted out that Pikmin 4 was coming out and we are moving that to the NX launch! Quick, what can we get out before the NX announcement for the 3DS to keep it a surprise?"
"Pikmin 2D?!"
"Pikmin 2D on the 3DS... perfect!"

Well one can hope... The good news is that during the lifespan of whatever the NX is this split platform problem should be greatly diminished. This is the only fact-ish thing to hold onto about the NX.

The problem with the app is that most people, myself included, are on Team Mystic and create an unbalance inside the competitive part of the game. Pushing that aside, I think this might be a step in the correct direction for Niantic.

@ThomasBW84
You've got a friend in Meowth,
you've got a friend in Meowth,
Vict'ry Road looks rough ahead
and you're Pokémiles
from your Pallet Town,
you remember what the Professor said
"Boy, can't use your Bike in here"
yeah, you've got a friend in Meowth.

You've got a friend in Meowth,
you've got a friend in Meowth,
you will teach me, and I will teach you
Technique or Hidden Machines, you know, you do you
we stick together and can make it through
'cause you've got a friend in Meowth
you've got a friend in Meowth.

Some other folks might be
a little bit better than I am
better at the League too, for sure (looking at you, anime writers)
but none of them will ever train you
the way I do, it's me and you, Meowth
and as the years go by
our friendship will never die
you're gonna know it's my destiny
we're gonna catch 'em all,
sorry, that's the wrong theme song,
you've got a friend in Meowth!

@AlexSora89 slow claps kudos to you. I'm walking my arcanine.

Well I finally started playing this when I got a new mobile phone a month ago, and since I've pretty much only caught an army of Voltorb and a whole bunch of Magnemite. I guess I'll make my Electrode a buddy?

Finally I can evolve Pikachu into Raichu.

Maybe fix tracking first?

@MegaMari0
Thank you, kind sir.

@Mayoo If they set the +candy values fine then there shouldn't be any abuse.

My impression of this addition is that it's for people that have a rare pokemon that they can't power up like Snorlax. Being able to get one power up a week for a Snorlax would be pretty good, and one power up is just 4 candy if your in the mid 20's.

I'm pretty sure that anyone who thinks they can circle their block and turn 1 Abra into an Alakazam in a week is going to be sorely disappointed.

I'm hoping that candy reward will be based on egg distances. Snorlax is in a 10km egg, so 1 candy for 10km. Pikachu is in a 2km egg, so 1 candy per 2km.

Niantic's spanish news post had an extra pic with a Charmander and 0 of 2km.

Haha imagine the amount of stardust needed to power up your starter pikachu. It wouldn't be worth it. Buddy system is good for a rare catch with a fair amount of CP though.
But ffs, fix the gyms. Anyone with enough time and revives can take over a gym with pure brute force. Yet trying to build up your own gym is an ultimate PITA.

I wish i had a meowth

@AlexSora89 You went above and beyond with this!

@Wandman5612
To infinity and beyond, you mean!
My stuff is just random junk I make up to make NLers laugh, though. There's not that much to it.

@AlexSora89 It's still really amazing that you can create this kind of stuff, though. And it's just for the Nintendo Life audience!

@Wandman5612
It's fun to write, but I'm glad it's also fun to read!

Yeah, keep up the good work!

still can't play cause my phone isn't supported