Google must really love April Fools' Day. The Google Maps Pokemon Challenge is quite possibly the best April Fools joke ever. Google even made a totally legit YouTube video to announce the challenge. Of course, to make it a prank, Google had to pretend it was for real and call Pokemon Master a new job title (wouldn't that be a great job?!?).
The premise of the promo video is that people from all over the world must travel to remote locations in search of rogue Pokemon. While some contestants don pith hats and go on safari in search of the elusive Pokemon, others scope out caves and scale buildings in hopes of becoming Google's Pokemon Master.
In reality, you don't actually have to go on location to capture Pokemon, nor will you see their mischievous faces in person at the exact moment before they elude capture. You just have to go download the new version of Google Maps and catch them remotely on the map. Still, that's the best part of this April Fools' Day joke. Although you won't start making millions catching real Pokemon for Google, you can enjoy this awesome new game Google made for you.
Apparently there are 150 Pokemon running around on Google Maps and you only have until April 2 at 2 p.m. PST to catch them all. Although finding just 150 Pokemon may sound like a walk in the park, the world is actually pretty huge, so it's a bit tough to find them all. When you do catch all these little Pokemon, Google may not applaud your efforts, but the blogosphere certainly will.
Google is a huge fan of April Fools' Day and has been pulling amazing tricks ever since the company started. Still, this Pokemon Master Challenge might just be the best one yet.
