Pokémon GO

Pokémon GO connected the real world with the virtual one so directly that within weeks of its 2016 release the app became a society-wide phenomenon – players walked through streets, parks, and squares with phone in hand, using GPS and the camera to find and catch Pokémon that appeared based on real-world location. Niantic, the studio that had previously developed the similarly conceived game Ingress, used the Pokémon license to push the idea of location-based games toward a mass audience unlike anything a mobile game had experienced before. The player gradually builds a collection, completes tasks, battles in gyms, and competes with their home faction for control of territory.

Controls are simple – the player throws a Poké Ball at the screen with a gesture to catch a Pokémon shown either in augmented reality through the phone's camera or against a simpler graphical background – and the main part of the game takes place while moving through the real world: visiting PokéStops and gyms, hatching eggs by walking, and community events that gathered crowds of players in one place at the same time.

The free-to-play model combines standard microtransactions for in-game currency, which can be spent on Poké Balls, incubators, or cosmetics, but the game can be played fully without spending a single cent. Years of updates, seasonal events, and collaborations with other Pokémon games have kept Pokémon GO active to this day, long after the initial fever subsided.

Why play it: For anyone who wants to experience a game that connected mobile entertainment with getting outside and turned public space into a playground, ideally with friends for a shared hunt.