Yesterday was Machop Community Day, the first of 2021’s monthly month Pokémon GO happenings. Did the choice of this Kanto Fighting type Pokémon restore this once highly anticipated event to its former glory?
- Candy XL: Machop Community Day, and the Roselia Community Day of February, will essentially serve two purposes. Newer and more comfortable players may be excited about the chance of a Shiny, but coaches who have been in the game since the beginning have had years of chance at a Shiny Machop to develop into a Machamp with a better attack than this exclusive move. The only attraction of this day, other than “I haven’t had the shine yet”, was the chance to farm Candy XL for a useful species. Now many people can maximize a Machamp to level 50, and absolutely no other Pokémon, otherwise with the possible exception of the ubiquitous Pikachu because it is an unobstructed mechanic. Last year, Niantic dedicated community days to PVP in the first half of 2020 and to species that Megas gets mainly in the second half. If they decide to dedicate 2021 to species for which we want to hone Candy XL, the community day will never be the amazing event. A grind can be rewarding, yes, but there should also be fun, exciting elements.
- Trading distance: the extended trading distance, which was added at the last minute, probably due to social media clogged with frustration regarding the state of the community day, was a wonderful addition that enriched this flawed day.
- The bonus: Triple Stardust is always the best. Yes, again, but this has more practical benefits than Candy XL currently has.
What did not work in this Pokémon GO Event
- Machop: another Kanto community day when we have six perfect generations in the game. Another species with its shiny already released. Another attack on Community Day that will not change anything. That would be enough if Niantic made it one of the recent downgrading of Community Day, but doing all three at the same time could be an existential problem for this event.
- The move: offering some coverage to Machamp is cool, but it already has Rock Slide to bait screens and OP Charged Attacks. The only thing he can do now that this has not been done before is Psychics hurt, but any Psychic can deal damage very quickly with their Fast Attack before Machamp can get a refund. It may have used niche, but nothing like previous Community Day moves like SmackDown, Meteor Mash, Rock Wrecker, Hydro Cannon, Blast Burn. You know what was expected earlier and was normal.
- The stinginess: the paid research offered less Stardust and fewer items than ever, with the same asking price. A microcosm of Community Day as a whole, to be sure.
Overall
Play Pokémon GO is never not fun. The problem is that, having made Niantic Community Days so fantastic in the past, a sudden story on various aspects of the event will make players feel that their thinking and care is not being put into a game that is pumping billions into the player base. . Niantic needs to stop and listen to the current track they are on.