By David Provost
Staff Writer
Have you ever pondered being the very best? Well, with the University of the South’s new revamped student organization, now’s the time to put that consideration into action. The Pokémon franchise is more than 20 years old but is finding new life thanks to the Sewanee Gaming Club, which has created the Sewanee Pokémon League.
Anyone interested in getting to know more about Pokémon is encouraged to come to a Gaming Club meeting and challenge Sewanee’s Elite Four, four students with teams of Pokémon, based off of challenging opponents in the Pokémon television series. Those with the Pokémon Go! mobile app, free for smartphones, can also participate on the hikes that Sewanee’s Pokémon League takes in order to catch new pocket-sized monsters around the Domain.
The series revolves around a role-playing universe where powerful monsters of any size can be caught and trained as the player navigates obstacles and builds a team-level stratagem to ultimately triumph over evil. The franchise recently resonated with adult fans once again when Pokémon became available to play through smartphones. That exciting new game, Pokémon Go, combined with a new set of games called the Sun and Moon version, created a new wave of excitement for Pokémon on Sewanee’s campus.
Each Pokémon game explores a fictional region that mimics real-world nations. In the Sun and Moon version, players can trade and battle in the land of Alola, a fictionalized version of Hawaii. The new set of games focuses on making a fun video game for its target audience while maintaining a steady group of fans who grew up on the original games from the 1990’s.
“Nintendo and the game developers have recently put an emphasis on the characters and story. Combining that with the new mechanics they’ve added to battling, they have created a game that appeals to both younger and older players. While a younger gamer may not understand some of the details in the plot, it allows an older audience to experience the game in a new way,” said the president of the Sewanee Gaming Club, Suzanna Yancey (C’19).
Gaming Club meets at 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Contact Yancey at yancesr0@sewanee.edu or Secretary Megan Espy (C’18) at espymn0@sewanee.edu) for more information.