Under Attack? Singaporeans Gone Gaga Over Pokemon GO, Hit Gyms Fast -- My Theme Song

Have you played Pokemon GO?

If you haven’t caught the bug (pun intended), you’re quite likely to be in the minority.

And if you don’t know what it is, just look out for “zombies” every which way you turn — these are gamers with eyes glued to their mobile screens and moving haphazardly. Watch out though — some might just bump into you!

Many of the players can be seen walking around mindlessly (as part of the game involves looking at a map to go places). Some of them might park at one place long enough, making a harmless crowd engrossed in game play.

Have a peek into their screens to see what they are doing 🙂 Gotcha!

But what’s that got to do with anything WittyCulus? Well (and of course — it’s to be expected) there’s my song parody inspired by Nintendo’s famous and enduring game. More on that later; let me share my thoughts first…

Apparently, Nintendo had a breakthrough idea to refresh its trademarked Pokemon game, first released on the Game Boy in 1998, for the new generation of game players. It was such a phenomenal success when the game was brought to mobile phones and tablets with loads of player interactivity. So much so that the company added a cool 7.5 billion dollars to its market cap overnight!

And this happened not too long ago. In July. This year.

Millions of ordinary folks, not just video game players, are already hooked on the game. And millions more are joining in the fun as roll outs in different countries take place. Downloads for this game called Pokemon GO broke all records. As I’m writing this piece, I can see 100 million downloads, with 4.75 million reviews, on Google’s Play Store!

Big deal? You bet it is.

Now, I did read about the Pokemon GO launch in Australia which was well ahead of release in the home country of Japan. Really looked like something exciting. And when the Japan intro seemed to be threatened with delay, gamers there got stirred up somewhat.

Luckily, the Japanese fans didn’t have to wait too long and very soon had their hands — and eyes! — on the unique game.

Even so, I didn’t give much thought to Pokemon GO coming to Singapore. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn it had landed on our shores on August 6th.

To put things in perspective, this game isn’t what people call a viral app — it’s more! Pokemon GO had gripped entire nations within days of the local launches; and our Little Red Dot wasn’t about to be spared.

Within just a couple of days, various news were being reported about this very very hot game. Unfortunately these tended to carry negative content — the Snorlax craze in Hougang is possibly the most representative of such. Read the news report here in case you haven’t heard.

This hot spot in Hougang has 4 PokeStops within range for a huge crowd to gather. Nearby, in the park across the road, was where Snorlax was spotted!

To be honest, I had never found the Pokemon type of game play, known in game parlance as RPG (or role playing game), interesting. What with their various requirements like gaining experience points, knowing which elements counter which and the evolving of monsters. My impression: so tedious and unexciting.

I remain amazed that my elder son could like Pokemon so much. Case of “like father, unlike son”. Or is that the other way round? Lol 😉

In fact, the closest I got to playing a game of this kind was “Angry Birds Fight!”. I tried this version of the AB franchise a few months ago, after getting bored with their regular game. True enough, Fight’s game play was rather mundane and repetitious. I promptly uninstalled the game after one week.

But Pokemon GO sounded different — and fresh — with its augmented reality (AR) feature using the mobile phone’s camera and location-based game play. (I soon realized AR was just gimmickry, not required at all to score but a real battery charge drainer!) The call to give it a try was beckoning…

Indeed, my curiosity was piqued. I downloaded the game on launch night and now have barely two weeks of RPG gaming experience as a complete newbie.

And I have weaved this into my song parody of ABBA’s “Under Attack”. What an apt title for lyrics with a gaming theme 🙂

Without much ado, here are the words I wrote about Pokemon GO. And I dedicate them to all die-hard fans out there. Gotcha covered!

(I’m wishing secretly… may this become Singapore’s Pokemon GO theme song 🙂 )

———-

Note that in the original song, the verses can be hard to sing due to the unusual tune. I had carefully crafted lyrics to match the cadence, so singing should be equally difficult; or easy. It depends on your angle, lol.

As for the chorus, no issue there since it is melodious, characteristic of most ABBA songs.

———-

As found on Wikipedia, “Under Attack” is the last widely released single by ABBA. This Swedish group has produced so many top hits in their career it’s hard to count just how many — I can easily name 10 songs without much effort 🙂

Intricate harmonies and catchy melodies are the mainstay, any ABBA fan would tell you. And those guys in the group write superb lyrics too. Though this song tends to have wordy verses if I might add.

Enjoy singing along to the video here, with my Pokemon GO-inspired lyrics of course 🙂 Yea!