History YMMV / PokemonGo

* AuthorsSavingThrow: [[AuthorsSavingThrow/PokemonGo It has its own page]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: To VideoGame/{{Geomon}}.

*** Depending on situation, a quest saying "Hatch x number of eggs," "Earn X number of candies walking with a buddy" or "Win/battle in X raid(s)" can be impossible or waste huge amounts of time to complete. For example, Legendary Pokemon only give one candy for every 20 km of walking, making it much easier to do for relatively common Pokmon.

** The transgender community really took to the fact that instead of asking the age old question of "[[MemeticMutation Are you a Boy or a Girl?]]" like the professors do in the main games, Prof. Willow instead asks you to pick your "Adventuring Style" when selecting the gender of your trainer avatar - especially since you can change your avatar's gender presentation at will, unlike in the main series at the time. Starting from ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', the main-line games would adopt this practice in the form of asking for your appearance.

** The transgender community really took to the fact that instead of asking the age old question of "[[MemeticMutation Are you a Boy or a Girl?]]" like the professors do in the main games, Prof. Willow instead asks you to pick your "Adventuring Style" when selecting the gender of your trainer avatar - especially since you can change your avatar's gender presentation at will, unlike in the main series.

*** Celesteela, Kartana, and Guzzload received [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1rpuYsEot0 similar]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvcEoCZNeI8 "recordings"]] prior to the Steel-type "Test Your Mettle" event that September. Celesteela is shown floating merrily through [[OminousFog a foggy city]] without a care in the world before ominously turning to face the people recording it, never once actually attacking anyone but looking nonetheless intimidating. Meanwhile, Guzzlord is shown eating scrap in a construction site (while mercifully ignoring the crowd watching it), only for Kartana to appear and suddenly lunge at the person holding the camera feet-first, with the person audibly starting to scream in panic before the video cuts off (which, given the type of Ultra Beast that [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Kartana]] is, leaves all manner of [[OffWithHisHead nasty]] [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe implications]]).

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr966xaQywg One of the advertisements]] for the ''Go Fest 2022 Finale'' on the 27th of July in the same year. It shows five "recordings" of Ultra Beast activities in Tokyo, Berlin, Seattle and Sapporo, and they're made in the style of classic alien/cryptid sighting recordings. The first two, featuring a woman sighting a Nihilego and a Pheromosa dashing across the streets of Berlin are scary enough because of their fuzzy quality. However, the ones after these are just terrifying. The third recording has a man recording a Buzzwole standing on top of the Space Needle, flexing its muscles before another Buzzwole jumps right in front of the man and attacks him, with the man shouting ''[[OhCrap "WHAT IS THAT THING MAN!?"]]'' before the recording cuts off. The fourth one has an office building in Sapporo suffering from a power outage... which turns out to be a Xurkitree who latched itself right next to the building, and doesn't even hesitate attacking the man recording it. Finally, we're back to the Nihilego again and when the woman recording the Nihilego tries to touch it, it almost manages to approach her [[note]][[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon If the mainline games are of any indication]], given what Nihilego does to anyone it comes into a.k.a. drives them insane while feeding on them, the implications of this ''aren't'' pleasant[[/note]] before it flies up, and there's now a ''whole swarm'' of Nihilego.
*** Celesteela, Kartana, and Guzzload received [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1rpuYsEot0 similar]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvcEoCZNeI8 "recordings"]] prior to the Steel-type "Test Your Mettle" event that September. Celesteela is shown floating merrily through [[OminousFog a foggy city]] without a care in the world before ominously turning to face the people recording it, never once actually attacking anyone but looking nonetheless intimidating. Meanwhile, Guzzlord is shown eating scrap in a construction site (while mercifully ignoring the crowd watching it), only for Kartana to appear and suddenly lunge at the person holding the camera feet-first, with the person audibly starting to scream in panic before the video cuts off (which, given the type of Ultra Beast that Kartana is, leaves all manner of [[OffWithHisHead nasty]] [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe implications]]).
** The skybox for the 2022 Psychic Spectacular event looks a lot like ''Film/ColorOutOfSpace''. Not helping is that it varies with each Pokemon encounter, so you could see a regular sky with just a tinge of pink for one and huge magenta nebulas looming overhead for another.

** This isn't the first {{Mons}} game to use geolocation to determine which ones appear, ''VideoGame/{{Geomon}}'' did it first.
** This isn't the first Mons game to use augmented reality either -- that would be the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP-exclusive]] ''VideoGame/{{Invizimals}}'' franchise, which began back in 2010.

** While his characterization is limited the fandom quickly adapted Spark of Team Instinct as a lovable goofball, if not simple-minded. If he's not a CloudCuckoolander, then he's TheStoner or a straight up AttentionWhore instead. That said, he's also frequently portrayed as an AllLovingHero, just as Team Instinct overall is portrayed.

** Team Valor, Team Mystic, and Team Instinct: [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers innocent Dungeon Exploration Teams of Pokémon Trainers]] enjoying catching and battling Pokémon and encouraging healthy competition as well as various dungeon explorations, or something more nefarious, with the silhouetted "leaders" of these teams actually being shady criminals with their members being unwitting pawns? It doesn't help that in most previous Pokémon games (aside from ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon Mystery Dungeon]]'' teams), Team ______ were almost always the bad guys ([[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Team Rocket]], [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Team Plasma]], [[VideoGame/PokemonXandY Team Flare]], etc.) [[http://scribblesome.tumblr.com/post/147412290394/hollowedskin-jewishdragon-poketipsjournal This Tumblr post]] summarizes it pretty well. (However, the correlation of the name scheme is most likely an unintentional side effect of localization: in the Japanese, the various villain teams (including this game's Team GO Rocket) are named _____-''dan'' / "_____ Gang".) However, in Japanese-language versions, the term "Team _____" (as with the teams in the ''Mystery Dungeon'' spinoff, such as [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonRescueTeam Team ACT]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers Team Charm]]) is used instead of "_____-''dan''" / "_____ Gang", assuming these teams are more the former than the latter.
** While his characterisation is limited the fandom quickly adapted Spark of Team Instinct as a lovable goofball, if not simple-minded. If he's not a CloudCuckoolander, then he's TheStoner or a straight up AttentionWhore instead. That said, he's also frequently portrayed as an AllLovingHero, just as Team Instinct overall is portrayed.

** [[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1146702-pokemon-go There is a time and place for everything.]] This quote from Professor Oak about not simply riding your bicycle just about anywhere inappropriate has become eerily prophetic and fitting, as some players have been reported to exhibit a worrying amount of carelessness in playing while traveling, or worse, while ''driving''.

** Why was ''Pokémon Go'' so popular when it debuted? There wasn't a battle system like the main games, no story and it only had monsters from the first generation. However, the idea of catching and collecting these familiar monsters in real life is a big enough draw.
*** This is especially true during the Generation III, IV and V releases, as many fan favorites such as Metagross, Lucario, Gardevoir and Chandelure joined when their respective generations launched. However, by the time those updates rolled around, the game had become much more fleshed-out, polished and feature-laden, leading to a higher retention rate.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr966xaQywg This advertisement]] about the Go Fest 2022 finale on the 27th of July in the same year. It shows five "recordings" of Ultra Beast activities in Tokyo, Berlin, Seattle and Sapporo, and they're made in the style of classic alien/cryptid sighting recordings. The first two, featuring a woman sighting a Nihilego and a Pheromosa dashing across the streets of Berlin are scary enough because of their fuzzy quality. However, the ones after these are just terrifying. The third recording has a man recording a Buzzwole standing on top of the Space Needle, flexing its muscles before another Buzzwole jumps right in front of the man and attacks him, with the man shouting "WHAT IS THAT THING MAN!?" before the recording cuts off. The fourth one has an office building in Sapporo suffering from a power outage...and turns out a Xurkitree has latched itself right next to the building, who doesn't even hesitate attacking the man recording it. Finally, we're back to the Nihilego again and when the woman recording the Nihilego tries to touch it, it almost manages to approach her [[note]]Given what Nihilego does to anyone it comes into a.k.a. drives them insane while feeding on them, the implications of this ''aren't'' pleasant[[/note]] before it flies up, and there's now a ''whole swarm'' of Nihilego.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr966xaQywg This advertisement]] about the Go Fest 2022 finale on the 27th of July in the same year. It shows five "recordings" of Ultra Beast activities in Tokyo, Berlin, Seattle and Sapporo, and they're made in the style of classic alien/cryptid sighting recordings. The first two, featuring a woman sighting a Nihilego and a Pheromosa dashing across the streets of Berlin are scary enough because of their fuzzy quality. However, the ones after these are just terrifying. The third recording has a man recording a Buzzwole standing on top of the Space Needle, flexing its muscles before another Buzzwole jumps right in front of the man and attacks him, with the man shouting "WHAT IS THAT THING MAN!?" before the recording cuts off. The fourth one has an office building in Sapporo suffering from a power outage with a man recording it...and turns out a Xurkitree has latched itself right next to the building, who doesn't even hesitate attacking the man recording it. Finally, we're back to the Nihilego again and when the woman recording the Nihilego tries to touch it, it almost manages to approach her [[note]]Given what Nihilego does to anyone it comes into a.k.a. drives them insane while feeding on them, the implications of this ''aren't'' pleasant[[/note]] before it flies up, and there's now a ''whole swarm'' of Nihilego.

* AccidentalInnuendo: One of Cliff's pre-battle lines is "Add me to your list of weaknesses". In context, it's a reference to the game's type matchups, but out of context, it sounds a ''lot'' like a cheesy pick-up line.

** When the Team Leader designs were revealed, many were drawn to Team Mystic's Blanche for having a very androgynous design. Although originally stated as female, the character designer stating they were meant to have an androgynous design and promotional material beginning to [[AmbiguousGender be more ambiguous about their gender]] has furthered this.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr966xaQywg This advertisement]] about the Go Fest 2022 finale on the 27th of July in the same year. It shows five "recordings" of Ultra Beast activities in Tokyo, Berlin, Seattle and Sapporo, and they're made in the style of classic alien sighting recordings. The first two, featuring a woman sighting a Nihilego and a Pheromosa dashing across the streets of Berlin are scary enough because of their fuzzy quality. However, the ones after these are just terrifying. The third recording has a man recording a Buzzwole standing on top of the Space Needle, flexing its muscles before another Buzzwole jumps right in front of the man and attacks him, with the man shouting "WHAT IS THAT THING MAN!?" before the recording cuts off. The fourth one has an office building in Sapporo suffering from a power outage with a man recording it...and turns out a Xurkitree has latched itself right next to the building, who doesn't even hesistate attacking the man recording it. Finally, we're back to the Nihilego again and when the woman recording the Nihilego tries to touch it, it almost manages to approach her [[note]]Given what Nihilego does to anyone it comes into a.k.a. drives them insane while feeding on them, the implications of this ''aren't'' pleasant[[/note]] before it flies up, and there's now a ''whole swarm'' of Nihilego.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: Purification became this over time. Initially it was a good idea to purify a Pokémon: Shadow Pokémon have an overall tripled cost for powering up and secondary attack, very low CP as a consequence of their low power up level (between [=Lvl1=] and [=Lvl5=]), the worst charged attack of the entire game in [[ThePowerOfHate Frustration]] (which couldn't be removed at all back then), and they couldn't be traded; Purified Pokémon, on the other hand, have a 10% overall discount on candy and stardust cost, are reasonably powered up at [=Lvl25=], one of the (then) best charged attacks in the game in the form of [[ThePowerOfFriendship Retribution]] (which could be changed with another attack by using a Charged TM), and could be traded (though the trade would count as special). Over time, however, Shadow Pokémon got a 20% attack bonus ([[GlassCannon and a 20% HP/Defense penalty in order to compensate]]) and the possibility to get Frustration removed at certain Team GO Rocket-themed events, while all Purified Pokémon got was... them being able to be mega evolved. The purification process itself is also costly: while regular Pokémon would cost between 1 candy and 1000 stardust and 5-5000, Legendary Pokémon would cost 20 candies and 20000 stardust. As a result, many Pokémon gained a lot of viability as Shadow, and a lot of players don't bother purifying Shadow Pokémon.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr966xaQywg This advertisement]] about the Go Fest 2022 finale on the 27th of July in the same year. It shows five "recordings" of Ultra Beast activities in Tokyo, Berlin, Seattle and Sapporo, and they're made in the style of classic alien sighting recordings. The first two, featuring a woman sighting a Nihilego and a Pheromosa dashing across the streets of Berlin are scary enough because of their fuzzy quality. However, the ones after these are just terrifying. The third recording has a man recording a Buzzwole standing on top of the Space Needle, flexing its muscles before another Buzzwole jumps right in front of the man and attacks him, with the man shouting "WHAT IS THAT THING MAN!?" before the recording cuts off. The fourth one has an office building in Sapporo suffering from a power outage with a man recording it...and turns out a Xurkitree has latched itself right next to the building, who doesn't even hesistate attacking the man recording it. Finally, we're back to the Nihilego again and when the woman recording the Nihilego tries to touch it, it runs and ''numerous'' Nihilego appear high up in the sky, making ominous cries.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr966xaQywg This advertisement]] about the Go Fest 2022 finale on the 27th of July in the same year. It shows five "recordings" of Ultra Beast activities in Tokyo, Berlin, Seattle and Sapporo, and they're made in the style of classic alien sighting recordings. The first two, featuring a woman sighting a Nihilego and a Pheromosa dashing across the streets of Berlin are scary enough because of their fuzzy quality. However, the ones after these are just terrifying. The third recording has a man recording a Buzzwole standing on top of the Space Needle, flexing its muscles before it jumps right in front of the man and attacks them, with the man shouting [[PrecisionFBomb "WHAT THE FUCK!?"]] before the recording cuts off. The fourth one has an office building in Sapporo suffering from a power outage with a man recording it...and turns out a Xurkitree has latched itself right next to the building, who doesn't even hesistate attacking the man recording it. Finally, we're back to the Nihilego again and when the woman recording the Nihilego tries to touch it, it runs and ''numerous'' Nihilego appear high up in the sky, making ominous cries.

* UnfortunateImplications: A post of a [[DeadlyGas Koffing]] at the [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/07/12/holocaust-museum-to-visitors-please-stop-catching-pokemon-here/ National Holocaust Museum]] went viral. The museum was [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust understandably horrified]] by the implications, and has asked visitors to refrain from playing while at the memorial (though the idea that playing video games at a place like the Holocaust Museum would be somehow acceptable no matter what Pokémon happened to be there has implications of its own).

* UniquenessDecay:
** Shiny forms are more frequent (or at least have a significantly greater chance of appearing) than in the mainline games, devaluating their value. It's not uncommon to get at least one shiny in a single walk.
** Event-exclusive moves. While the introduction of the [[TooAwesomeToUse extremely rare]] Elite [=TMs=] tampered this somewhat, Niantic still holds events where certain mons can learn their better attacks at least once per year, prompting people to hold evolving their best mons until said events arrive. This also devaulated 90% of mons with event-exclusive moves, and the exclusive moves of the remaining 10% tend to be not ''that'' special in either PlayerVersusPlayer or PlayerVersusEnvironment.

** Go to the closest Gym. There is about a 95% chance that it will have one of the Eeveelutions at it, particularly Vaporeon and Flareon. This is due to the fact that they are much easier to get then other usable mons and have quite high CP.[[note]]Eevee only costs 25 candies to evolve, as opposed to the standard 50, and Flareon and Vaporeon are on par with ''Gyarados'' in terms of potential CP. Jolteon is lower down the chain, being slightly better than a Pidgeot.[[/note]] The 0.31.0 alleviated this somewhat by {{Nerf}}ing the Eeveelutions to a degree (especially the formerly dominant [[LightningBruiser Vaporeon]]), but their power and ease of access still makes them popular choices. Another balance update is likely to make the problem worse, as Vaporeon is now the fifth best in terms of obtainable Pokémon, actually edging out two legendaries (Articuno and Mew), though it's now weaker than Gyarados.
*** As of May 2019, Glaceon is now a commonplace in gyms as it now displaced Vaporeon and Flareon as the most-useful Eeveelution in meta, due to considerable Attack and Defense as well as its Ice-type being a considerable threat to many ''overused'' Dragon-types.
** Also expect to see [[MightyGlacier Lapras, Snorlax and Dragonite]], especially as Gym Leaders, as these are the most durable powerhouses that can be obtained in the game whose CP can easily be pushed into the 2000s at levels where most others max out around 1700-1800.
** At the lower side of the CP spectrum, you can expect a lot of Pidgeot, Raticate, Beedrill, Fearow, Furret, Ledian, Ariados, Noctowl, Xatu, Linoone, Mightyena and even Altaria as novice trainers are sure to have made use of the influx of ComMons candies they've accumulated. They aren't necessarily bad Pokémon to defend a Gym with; Pidgeot has decent CP for being a three-stage evolution, and Crobat can be [[LightningBruiser surprisingly defensive]], even against its weaknesses, and Altaria has [[MightyGlacier considerable bulk]] if not the Psuedo-Legendary levels.
** Exeggutor is also a common sight at gyms, thanks to having [[AdaptationalBadass surprisingly high CP]], a wide range of moves, and being a reliable counter to Water-types like Vaporeon.
** As of the Gen II update, Blissey, a BadassAdorable StoneWall that outlasts opponents with her high HP to an excessive degree. Her CP is on par with Vaporeon, making her very difficult to dislodge with brute force, and her movepool contains Fairy and Psychic attacks to counter the supereffective damage of Fighting type. Pretty much anyone who has a Blissey will use her in gyms. Thankfully, a rework to gyms made it possible to wait for her motivation to drop in order to take a gym in addition to nerfing her stats so that weaker 'Mons can deal with her, though trying to KO a Blissey that's constantly being healed is still an exercise in frustration. After Blissey, the most common gym defenders are usually Snorlax and Chansey for their similar toughness, and Slaking, since its over-inflated CP in exchange for lackluster moves either scares off attackers who aren't aware of its mediocre prowess when it's in a gym, or invites defenders to put it there for its high CP because they don't know it's not that good.
** On the offensive side players have a habit of building up Golem, Rhyperior, and Machamp, all of which have utility against several of the more frustrating gym defenders (Rhyperior and Machamp in particular are two of the best choices for taking down the aforementioned Blissey, due to access to Fighting moves and high offensive stats).

** In theory, purified Shadow Pokémon are supposed to be stronger than Shadow Pokémon, but the data that makes this so has, for some reason, been DummiedOut since they were originally added to the game, leading to players leaving their Pokémon as Shadow Pokémon for the power boost it gives them compared to standard/purified mons (to the point that players getting distressed that they accidentally purified their [[InfinityPlusOneSword Shadow Mewtwo]] [[MemeticMutation became a minor meme]] on Reddit). Even Niantic seems to have abandoned plans to properly implement the original intended bonus for purified Shadow Pokémon entirely and made changes to facilitate this play-style: Later limited-time events would make Frustration (the charged move all Shadow Pokémon carry when caught) forgettable via Charged [=TMs=], giving players even less incentive to purify their Shadow Pokémon.
* CriticProof: It doesn't matter how much criticism the game gets, how many controversial choices Niantic makes. The game will still retain its playerbase on brand power alone. Besides, you can't go wrong with a game that's basically the closest thing to an official Pokémon MMO that'll ever exist. Over time, the game even [[GrowingTheBeard found its footing]] to become a very well-polished and extensive mobile game, possibly growing out of this trope.

** Meltan is probably the worst offender. It has ''nine'' sets of tasks that all involve catching or evolving specific Pokémon, and get rarer the later into the quest you get. Catching 5 Slugma or Gulpin is hard enough in some areas, but having to catch several Fossil Pokémon ''including an Aerodactyl'' just takes the cake.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Some of the features of this game (like multiple factions to join and bases that spawn at landmarks to capture and defend) have led people to accuse if of being too similar to ''VideoGame/{{Ingress}}''. Also counts as TheyChangedItNowItSucks because most were expecting it to be more like the main games.

** Prior to an update, Eevee was part of the 10km egg group, the rarest type of egg to find at Pokéstops and the longest amount of distance to hatch. All of the other Pokémon in that category are pretty rare in the wild, but Eevee is a reasonably common Pokémon in most places, certainly not so rare as to justify such a placement. The only upside is that egg-hatched Pokémon start out with higher CP than those caught in the wild and hatching comes with a decent amount of candy and stardust, usually enough to evolve Eevee on the spot, so it's not a total waste. Eevee has since been downgraded to the more common 5km egg group.

** Klink has taken Eevee's place as the hated JunkRare of the 10km egg group. It isn't known for being a particularly rare or sought-after Pokémon, and its final evolution Klinklang is quite bad, but if you're unlucky enough it'll end up being your most common 10km hatch.
** In February 2021, the 12k Strange Egg eggpool was updated to add Corphish, Skorupi, and Qwilfish, three Pokémon not seen as particularly desirable for the game's meta in any form (especially compared to the majority of the rest of the Strange eggpool) nor particularly hard finds in their respective preferred weather conditions, leaving the playerbase baffled as to why Niantic chose to stick them in the game's most onerous eggs to gain and hatch.
** As with the main games, a shiny version of a weaker Pokémon falls under this. Just like in other games in the franchise, there's only a roughly one-in-8,000 chance of finding one (higher during certain events). However, its coloration has nothing to do with how effective it'll be. This is particularly true for anything that's an uncommon spawn - finding a shiny Luvdisc has odds on par with hitting the lottery, but about the only thing it's useful for is pure [[BraggingRightsReward bragging rights]]. Either that, meatshielding, which is the process of stuffing a gym full of ComMons in the hope that the grind will ward enemies off, or recon on an ally Gym to see what kind of players live in your area and how to prepare when you get back.

** Taken to an extreme with the July 30th update. The glitched in-game tracking system was removed and third-party tracking websites were taken down, making it nearly impossible to track down Pokémon. In addition, the update also decreased the range of the detection circle around the avatar by about 30%, meaning you now have to get even closer to find Pokémon that you already have no way of accurately tracking, not to mention using PokéStops and Gyms. There are also other unconfirmed claims about the update, such as state Gyms and PokéStops were removed, and a drastic increase in the difficulty of obtaining Pokémon. Needless to say, the update did not go over very well. However, some people believed that such a reaction was incredibly short-sighted, which turned out to be true when the following update began to add an improved tracking system ([[NoExportForYou as long as you live in San Francisco]]) and Niantic specified that the greater difficulty in capturing was due to a bug.
** The November 7th update made spinning Pokéstops while driving prohibited. This resulted in a huge backdraft on Reddit, calling Niantic out on making it impossible for them to use their GO Pluses.

* UnintentionalUncannyValley:
** Mr. Mime returns with the same disturbing "puppet-ish miming" animation and [[StepfordSmiler perpetual creepy smile]] it had in ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY''; in fact, the combination of cartoonish, drawn-on details[[note]]like its ''entire face'', which is completely flat[[/note]] with realistic lighting and textures based off ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'''s graphics arguably makes it even ''worse''.
** Unlike Giovanni, the appearances of Jessie and James are pretty much unchanged from their ''[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Anime]]'' counterparts - their relatively oversized heads and eyes look very out-of-place in a game that uses a more realistic art style.

* UncannyValley:

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: This game is ''TREMENDOUSLY HUGE'' in Mexico, to the point where [[UpToEleven hundreds of thousands of Mexicans flocked to Mexico City]] [[https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/767670745992429568 just to play Pokémon Go]].

** Through the first four generations/regions of ''Pokémon GO'', large numbers of Pokémon were added in waves and led to nearly all of a region's Pokémon being added by the time it was time to update to the next generation/region. When Generation V was adapted, the system changed to rolling out one line of Pokémon (sometimes two) each event and pump the number of events held in the game UpToEleven. This new system severely slowed down the speed in which new species were added, and when it was time to adapt Generation VI including Mega Evolutions, Generation V was missing more single Pokémon and evolution lines than other generations were during the transition into the next one.

** Slaking with Body Slam is ''extremely dangerous'' and is even worse than its Play Rough variants since it will constantly spam it; It travels at very high speeds and Slaking will continously spam the attack. It's even worse than Snorlax's one since Slaking's attack is high enough to make Body Slam strip around 1/6 of a Raikou or Mamoswine's health bar.
** Kyogre with Blizzard will make short work of Grass and Dragon-types, which are often fielded to resist Kyogre's Water attacks, and in the former case, score super effective damage on Kyogre. This leaves other Water-types as the only things that can endure Kyogre's moveset without risk of getting one-shot, but with Kyogre itself being resistant to ''their'' attacks, this can lead to a [[PaddedSumoGameplay drawn-out battle]] which can end in a time-out. There's one outlier to this: [[TakesOneToKillOne Your own Kyogre, albeit with Thunder as a charge move]], but Kyogre still doesn't completely solve problems on its own. This is fourtunately later administered with the addition of Magnezone, which is easier to obtain than most Electric types, resists Blizzard and hits back very well with its powerful Wild Charge.

** As of the Gen II update, Blissey. [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Blissey]] is a BadassAdorable StoneWall that wins not by overpowering her opponent but by outlasting them. Her HP is such that she can simply tank attacks until the battle timer runs out, leaving attackers with a weakened Pokémon and nothing to show for her. Her CP is on par with Vaporeon, making her very difficult to dislodge with brute force. Naturally, people will ''always'' drop a Blissey into a gym and smile when she almost ''never'' gets pushed out. The {{Nerf}} to gyms thankfully addressed this issue by only allowing one Blissey in a gym at once and gradually reducing her CP as time passes and she partakes in battles. What also makes her difficult to remove is her most common moveset, which consists of Zen Headbutt and Dazzling Gleam. These two moves outright counter Fighting-types and can quickly eliminate one of the game's most recommended picks for battling Blissey (Gengar). Thankfully, the latest update severely nerfed it and it can be taken care of by the majority of Pokémon, although a Machamp being hit in the face by a Dazzling Gleam still hurts a lot.

* CriticProof: It doesn't matter how much criticism the game gets, how many controversial choices Niantic makes. The game will still retain its playerbase on brand power alone. Besides, you can't go wrong with a game that's basically the closest thing to a Pokémon MMO that'll ever exist. Over time, the game even [[GrowingTheBeard found its footing]] to become a very well-polished and extensive mobile game, possibly growing out of this trope.

** All three teams refuse to acknowledge players of the game who vandalize property with game-related graffiti as being part of a team, and instead refer to them collectively as "Team Rocket". Cheaters such as spoofers (people using special apps to give the Pokémon GO app a fake locations - ''spoofing'' the location) or botters (people using bots that do the gaming for them) are also referred to as "Team Rocket".

** When the June 2022 Deino Community Day introduced a raid that would be blocked from having Remote Raid Passes used on them (a unique 4-star Zweilous raid), the playerbase flew into a panic. Although said raid had the added bonus of spawning Deino around the gym if won, the playerbase nevertheless worried that this would set a precedent for having further raids (especially Legendary raids or raids for regional Pokémon) similarly having remote raiding disabled, or even remote raids (considered one of the game's best [=QoL=] features) being phased out of the game completely.