Rediscover Kanto missed a chance to revisit some of Pokemon Go’s rarest monsters

The latest Pokemon Go event is called Rediscover Kanto, and it has players meddling back to the region that started it all. But, could this celebration have been better focusing on rarer ‘mons?

Oh Kanto, it feels like only yesterday I was exploring Pallet Town and catching my very first Pidgey. Not through my powerful memory, but more because The Pokemon Company and Niantic like to shine a spotlight on Kanto more often than a Primeape gets angry.

As part of the Rediscover Go campaign, the Pokemon Go Rediscover Kanto event has fans revisiting the original 151 but with a myriad of new changes to the Pokemon Go formula, supposedly offering us a way to relive the very beginning of the game, as it goes through some sort of rebirth.

Thematically it all makes sense. But eight years into my Pokemon Go adventure, it’s going to take a bit more than the return of Bulbasaur to get a rise out of me, especially when there are other mons I’m still on the hunt for.

A Pokemon Golden Opportunity

The Pokemon Company

We are now eight years into Pokemon Go, and our pals Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle have been there since the very beginning. These stalwart companions are adorable – sure – but I’ve caught enough Charmanders over the years to use their fire to power the next Apollo mission.

Quite a lot of fans are pretty annoyed with the focus on Kanto again, which is understandable considering how much we’ve already revisited Kanto in games like Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee.

Frankly, there are actually some parts of Kanto we’d like to revisit, but they’re often not the ones getting the focus. One Reddit post succinctly titled, “If we have to rediscover Kanto for the 10th time, can we get another Mew please” quite rightly points out that there’s more to Kanto than its starters.

Meanwhile, some other Kantonian creatures are even rarer than Mew In Pokemon Go, a statement echoed by a member of the Pokemon Go community, saying “There hasn’t been a Taurus worldwide release in over 2 years.”

Many Pokemon players are still stuck on the Special Research task, ‘Earn the platinum Kanto medal” as part of the All-in-One #151 Research Ticket. All because of the elusive Tauros, a regional Pokemon currently consigned to the far reaches of North America.

In fact, bringing Tauros back could have been a fun way to also introduce its Paldean variants alongside the new addition of Wiglett and Wugtrio. If we’re fine mixing some Pokemon Scarlet & Violet with our Kanto celebration, Paldean Tauros feels like an instant win-win.

Kanghaskhan is still an Australia exclusive even though mercifully it was recently in Mega Raids, and surely a lot of folks can’t do raids because they live in rural areas, and neither can they travel to find these ‘mons. I live in the UK, and a trip to Nevada isn’t quite on the cards right now.

It’s also been a while since players could get their hands on Mew, even if Niantic did offer it up as another Paid Research Ticket, it would feel like a real celebration of Kanto.

The Pokemon Go Rediscover Go campaign is an invigorating and exciting celebration of the game, which brings in some welcome cosmetic changes (and some unwelcome ones), all while also delivering a steady stream of quality-of-life improvements that the community is appreciating.

But, while the idea to revisit the game with the very Pokemon that started it all is an admirable one, so many Pokemon Go players have been here since the very beginning and have had their fill of Squirtle et al. I’m fine with celebrating Kanto, but let’s make it all of Kanto next time?