In a location game you have to leave the house to experience an adventure in the ‘real’ world. For example, you have to look for monuments, strange creatures that you can only see through Augmented Reality, or look for treasures in nature. In this article we list some fun location games.
- pokemongo
- Picmin Bloom
- Ingress Prime
- Zombies, Run!
- Geocaching
- Jurassic World Alive
- Super Cops
- More location games
#1 Pokemon Go
Of course, we can’t start this overview without mentioning Pokémon Go. This is the hit game with which the genre has definitively broken through. Since 2016, people have been looking for Pokémon en masse, covering many miles and meeting new friends. The technology had been available for some time, but it wasn’t until Pokémon Go that the real breakthrough took place. Perhaps because it appealed to the right audience: people who grew up with Pokémon in their youth.
#2 Pikmin Bloom
This new AR game from Nintendo and Niantic is all about walking, collecting Pikmin along the way. Pikmin are small creatures in different colors, with a seed above their head that slowly grows into a flower. In Nintendo’s Pikmin games, you use an army of Pikmin to explore planets, collect items, and defeat enemies to return home. In Pikmin Bloom, the creatures play a slightly different role. Although you also collect Pikmin in this game, they now mainly serve to give the world some color and make flowers bloom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZeIQEZIPv8
#3 Ingress Prime
Looking for something more competitive? If you like Pokémon Go, you should also give Niantic’s first GPS game Ingress a try. This game is now called Ingress Prime and revolves around a hidden world in your everyday environment. In the location game Ingress you compete against other gamers with an iPhone or Android device. You join one of the two teams, after which you start hacking portals in the real world. These portals are hidden with ‘real’ works of art, which means that you have to walk to a museum for your hack, for example. By claiming a portal you score points. The greater the number of portals of your team, the higher the score. Ingress is also packed with unusual storytelling, where YouTube videos teach you where these mysterious portals actually come from.
You can play Ingress alone, but the most experienced players go out with teammates. This way you can hack a portal together at lightning speed and continue again, to create a gigantic field for your team about your village or city. Special Ingress events are sometimes even organized for this purpose.
#4 Zombies, Run!
Also a classic: the running game Zombies, Run! This game is still regularly updated and is ideal for people who want to start running, but often find it a bit too boring. You are being chased by a horde of zombies and you have to run. There are missions and rewards that motivate you to go for a run. The game has over a million players. There are more than 200 missions in it, so you’ll be busy for a while.
#5 Geocaching
Geocaching has been in the Dutch App Store since 2010, but is actually much older than that. In fact, this location game existed years before the first iPhone appeared. Back then you used separate GPS receivers and a whole pile of paper. Give us the iPhone app: in Geocaching you go looking for treasures in the real world, hidden by other players. You do this by visiting locations on the map, solving puzzles or answering questions about the environment. By playing well you get the right coordinates, with which you can go to the real hiding place of a cache.
As with other community-driven apps, you depend on what other players have been up to in your area. However, experience shows that a lot of caches are hidden in the Netherlands. Even in less populated areas, we found multiple nearby treasures, which meant we could almost always go out and look. As far as we are concerned, that justifies the somewhat high price tag of the app.
#6 Jurassic World Alive
It is not as popular as Pokémon Go, but has had a solid fan base for several years: Jurassic World Alive. You must set out to find dinosaurs and collect their DNA, the driving force behind the game. The game is also easy to understand for beginners, because you get a lot of explanation. You can level up, participate in real-time battles and breed dinosaurs. In addition, the game has much more to offer. The nice thing is that you can see the dinosaurs walking around in your own environment.
#7 Orna
If you like classic round-based RPGs, Orna is for you. You have to take turns fighting, there is a multiplayer system where you can become strong enough to become the Duke of your neighborhood and you can challenge other players. You can also form groups and specialize in a certain class. You’ll get into dungeons, defeat bosses and collect over 1,000 items.
#8 Super Cops
OK, one more then. Belgian developer La Mosca released The Target in 2015, a location game that you can play with a group of friends. The game now has a new name (SuperCops), but the principle is still the same. In this you and your friends take on the role of spies and you open the hunt for each other. It doesn’t matter where you play: as long as there’s a map for your area, SuperCops will create a playing field for you and you’ll know which way to run. You can play the game with up to 18 people. It is a fairly expensive game, but if you divide the costs among yourselves, you will lose a few euros per person. More something for a group outing. Try it out by playing solo against virtual agents before playing with your friends.
More location games for iPhone
Also nice to try:
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Randonautica (Free, iPhone/iPad + IAP, iOS 12.1+) – It’s a bit hard to explain what Randonautica is. It’s a kind of geocaching, but with a little more mystical elements. You make choices that take you to different places in your own environment. It’s about discovering new locations. Adventurous!
- Unfortunately, we cannot display the correct data at the moment, Download – This Witcher-based mobile game features elements familiar from Witcher, such as bombs, potions, and more.
- Unfortunately, we cannot display the correct data at the moment, Download – If you prefer The Walking Dead, you can turn your own environment into a wasteland with this game. However, you don’t always have to leave the house for this. However, if you want to defeat zombies and find unique items, you will have to take to the streets.
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Landlord Business Tycoon Sim (Free, iPhone/iPad + IAP, iOS 12.0+) – This is like Monopoly, but in the real world. You start with a mountain of money that you can invest to become a real estate magnate. You earn virtual money by buying buildings, companies and the like and charging rent.
