Two weeks ago, Pokemon Go took the nation by storm, and it was more than just your standard Pokemon fan who was pumped. It’s been so popular that people who haven’t paid attention to the franchise in years were suddenly completely taken by the game. This left Harry Potter fans feeling a bit cheated. Why does Pokemon get all this special treatment, but Harry Potter is left in the dust?
Harry Potter fans have petitioned Niantic Labs, the creator of Pokemon Go, to make them their own augmented reality game. The petition, called “Accio Harry Potter Go: We Want a Harry Potter Version of Pokemon Go,” was launched by 23-year-old Ashtyn Hannon, a self-proclaimed Harry Potter fanatic for over 15 years. Though she admits she hasn’t played Pokemon Go, she would totally be on board if it was Harry Potter themed.
Would Harry Potter even work as an AR video game?
Both Harry Potter and Pokemon appeal to ’90s kids but of vastly different breeds. Harry Potter always felt like it was for the more bookish, quiet kids — the future literary greats. It is a book after all! Yes Pokemon was a video game, but it was also an early Saturday morning cartoon, and we’d watch it as we stuffed our faces with sugary cereal while our moms were still sleeping. Our Pokemon experience seems a lot less refined than our time spent quietly reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Anyone who was 10 years old in the early ’90s can tell you that Pokemon was extremely competitive. Those playground battles didn’t win themselves, and they were brutal! Pokemon has all the makings of a great AR video game. It’s something kids are passionate about and adults have fond memories of, something people are competitive with, and it’s something that is actually a video game franchise. Harry Potter is not.
There’s nothing worse than a bad video game based off of a great movie. So many movie franchises have made the mistake of creating a rushed online game or app to promote the films. It always feels cheesy, and as much as we want to love it, we never do. Harry Potter has never done anything that felt like a cash-grab, but a random and rushed video game would feel like just that.
Doesn’t Harry Potter have enough going on? With the upcoming release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and the already successful play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, the franchise definitely has enough good things happening.
If you want a Harry Potter AR game, you can put your name on the petition next to the almost 6,000 other Potter fans who just want Harry Potter in real life.
