Sudbury gamers get hooked on Pokemon Go

The popular Pokemon franchise is making a major comeback in the form of a new smartphone game called Pokemon Go and people in Sudbury are getting hooked.

While thegame was just released earlier this month, it already has dedicatedplayers around the world.

Pokemon Gois an augmented reality gamethatallows players to capture, battle, train, and trade virtual Pokemoncharacterswho appearin real places in the real world.

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For Jamie Lafrance, who moved to Sudbury two months ago, the game has helpedhim to explore his new surroundings.

"At first I'm like, 'Oh, I actually have to walk around and catch things? I'm over this,'" he said.

"But then you catch one and before you know it, you've walked to the other end of town."

The 23-year-old has since explored neighbourhoods such as the Laurentian campus, New Sudbury, Bell Park and the downtown area while playing Pokemon Go. He's even been able to meet new friends from the game.

"Being new to town, that's kind of nice," he said. "You make friends playing sports. It's kind of like making friends in playing this game together."

Game isn't even officiallyavailable in Canada

Pokemon Go is not available in Canada for iPhones and Android systems,and can only officially be played in the United States, Australia and New Zealand

But according to Mike Daoust, organizer of the Sudbury Game Design Challenge, Pokemon Go is already so popular that players are finding ways around their phones to play.

"In short, people are able to spoof their iTunes account or download a separate file for their Android device, to get around the almost arbitrary country locks that are placed on the game right now," he said.

As a result, player accounts have already been banned for those who play Pokemon Go before it's officially released in Canada. However, Daoust says he doesn't see serious repercussions for those who play it in advance.

"Every time a video game like this comes out, there's always server issues that go wrong with any popular game. It's a sign of success more than anything else," he said.

As for Lafrance, playing Pokemon Go brings back memories of childhood when he played Pokemon on his GameBoy.

He's says he's also not concerned about repercussionsfor playing Pokemon Go in advance.

"[Pokmon] is probably the most popular series across the planet. You can't just release [the game] in one spot and not expect people to find a way to get it if they don't have access yet," he said. "It's going to come out here eventually."