Pokemon GO has seen the popular Japanese game franchise evolve into a fresh mobile form. But it's far from the first official Pokemon app.
Whilst a disproportionate number of headlines seem to concern Pokemon GO right now, it's actually only the fifth officially endorsed Pokemon app to hit the App Store.
Here's a run down of the four pre-existing Pokemon apps from The Pokemon Company on the App Store, which include an engrossing online battler and a delightful kiddie-friendly minigame collection.
Gotta download 'em all!
Pokémon Trading Card Game Online is undoubtedly the pick of the apps for Pokemon GO fans looking for more mobile Pokemon gaming goodness. That said, it's a very different proposition to GO's casual ambling.
This iPad-only affair is an engrossing card battler in the vein of Hearthstone. It's actually a digital version of a popular physical board game, which should offer a hint as to its hidden depths.
The idea is to engage in tense turn-based battles with an endless series of opposing trainers, both real and AI-controlled. You gradually assemble a powerful deck through battling, buying, and trading, which then empowers you to take on better players.
Pokemon Camp is a colourful app aimed squarely at kiddies. Which, lest we regressive adults forget, is who Pokemon is really aimed at in the first place.
You'll find six light activities to partake in here. Poke Ball Throw is like a slicker, non-AR-enhanced version of the capture system in Pokemon GO, so could be handy for honing your aim if you find yourself wasting a lot of pokeballs.
Find the Pokemon is exactly as it sounds, while Photo Booth lets you apply Pokemon stickers to your photos. There's also a couple of Pokemon quiz-style games for testing your observation skills and Pokemon knowledge.
As the name suggests, Pokemon TV is a handy portal through which you can watch the sprawling TV show that first spun off from the original Game Boy game in 1997. It's been going ever since across 19 series, so that's an awful lot of catching up (pun intended) to do.
The app doesn't offer access to all of that content, but it does offer a constantly shifting roster of shows covering all of the major periods, from the very first series to the current XYZ run.
You also get access to the various Pokemon movies that have been released across the years - all in a sharp, easy-to-navigate UI.
Pokemon Photo Booth is a slightly cynical free app designed to get people sharing Pokemon-themed pictures across their social networks. There are no actual Pokemon critters in the app - it simply allows you to overlay selfies with slogans taken from the series, in their familiar Game Boy fonts.
So, for example, you can share a picture of yourself with '... wants to battle!' or 'a wild ... appears!'
Yes, it's rather silly. But you know you want to try it out, don't you?
