Brace yourselves – Pokemon Go augmented reality game is out on iOS and Android!

If you see a bunch of men and women of all ages and walks of life wandering around your neighbourhood waving their phones about in the coming weeks, fret not, they’re not insane nor is there an alien invasion coming about – it’s simply the fact that Pokemon Go is now out on Android and iOS.

Pokemon Go, assuming you’ve been living in the Arctic for the past few years, is an augmented reality game from Niantic Labs, who are the makers of Ingress, another AR game. Essentially, it takes the Pokemon experience of collecting and battling other Pokemon and transfers it to the real world. It transposes your surroundings around you and highlights areas on a real world map that you can explore to find Pokemon to capture and fight. So far, the game has generation 1 Pokemon available and hasn’t spawned Legendary or rare Pokemon as yet on the map. Areas that are huntable are so far sensible areas that you can get to on foot though you’ll also have to practise some common sense and discretion when hunting of course.

It’s not officially available in all countries yet though with Australia and New Zealand being the first on the list. If you’re on iOS you will just have to twiddle your thumbs and wait until it does appear in your region. Now, if you’re using an Android phone you have, how shall we say, alternative options.

By alternative options, we mean you can sideload it by installing the game’s APK file which we do so happen to have the link right here. You’ll have to authorise your phone to accept the install from unknown sources and once you’re done, you’re ready to rock and roll. Like other free to play games, it also has a series of micro transactions that let you buy a variety of merchandise to make your game easier.

There’s some caveats though. The game currently isn’t supported by Intel mobile processors so if you own a ZenFone of recent vintage you may not be able to play it. That and it needs Android 4.0 and up. If you need to read the fine print on what devices are supported, saunter on here. That notwithstanding, it’s time to roll out and start catching them all!