Nintendo Poké Ball Plus

Nintendo Poké Ball Plus

The Nintendo Poké Ball Plus is a controller that can be used with
Pokémon Go on your cellphone and some Pokémon games that run on the Nintendo Switch platform. I don’t have a Nintendo Switch but I did recently purchase one to use while playing on my cellphone. I bought the stand alone version although it’s also sold in bundles with the software for the Switch and together with the Switch and game.

To use it with your cellphone while playing Pokémon Go just requires you charge it’s internal battery, and then pair it with bluetooth to your cellphone. Once you do that it will automatically spin Pokéstops and Gyms to collect items into your backpack. I find this particularly helpful when I am driving and can’t be playing a distracting game on my phone at the same time.

It also has the ability to try and capture Pokémon for you but you have to press the red button on the top of the ball in order to trigger this action once it’s notified you that there’s one near by. Notifications and confirmations happen with vibration, color flashes around the white joystick, and on screen messages and noises in the game application.

I started playing this game back in 2016 and wrote a blog post then wondering if it was going to just a be a fad or stick around for a while. Looks like it has stick around since 3 years is a long time for a mobile game to remain popular. I played up until around level 13 and then started losing interest. My next post about it was in 2017 when I saw how daily streaks were added to promote regular play and boost your scores. I continued to play off and on up to about level 19 and eventually my cellphone’s diminished battery life caused me to cease playing.

With the recent purchase of a new cellphone I started playing again and have found it to motivate me to get out of the house and do some walking around which is good for me. I’ve learned more about gym battles and leveling up my trainer. This controller has made it easier for me to keep a supply of items in my backpack for playing and I like that. I’m up to level 23 now and playing everyday.