For years, ‘90s kids and ‘00s kids have dreamed of being able to own a snuggly little Pikachu of their very own. After all, who wouldn’t want to be best friends with an electric mouse that can zap evil members of a Pokémon-stealing gang? Or, if Pikachu somehow isn’t your thing, maybe you’d prefer a Mr. Mime, a Lickitung, or a Voltorb? Whichever Pokémon you’ve always had your eye on, a new mobile game is finally giving you chance to run around your neighborhood and catch one for yourself.
The game is Pokémon Go, and if you haven’t heard about it/already downloaded it, then you either don’t care about pocket monsters or you don’t go on social media much. Essentially a scam to get kids to exercise, Pokémon Go uses GPS technology to map out where you are, and then based on local landmarks or points of interest, it generates areas were Pokémon might be hiding. When you find one, you can see it with your phone’s camera as it hops around and patiently waits for you to try and add it to your collection.
Unsurprisingly, this augmented-reality feature can cause Pokémon to pop up in unexpected places, which is exactly the sort of thing the internet loves. Deadspin collected some funny screencaps off of social media, including this nosy Psyduck:
This friendly Nidoran:
And a whole bunch of stupid, stupid, stupid Magikarp:
The game is even inspiring people to go to church, but probably not in the way that the churches would prefer. For some reason, Pokémon Go really likes to single out churches as important locations, marking them as special spots for aspiring Pokémon trainers to stock up on items.
Pokémon Go is available now on iOS and Android.