Play Pokémon on a Plane

The Pokémon games have had a long portable tradition, which today on the video game front continues with the games on the Switch, possibly considered Nintendo's ultimate console achievement to date. With that portable tradition, the games can be played almost anywhere, including on an airplane. The latter is a perfect way to get rid of boredom, especially on very long transcontinental flights. And yet, there are a few ways that playing Pokémon on a plane might be realized, so I want to take this post to explain about them.

On a plane, I can always play my games, as in the ones I possess with the consoles to play them. I've done this in the past with a few of the games I played on the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance, perfectly using up time on a flight if I don't take that time to do other things, particularly to sleep if I'm worn out. One caveat that may apply with modern consoles like the 3DS or the Switch is that depending on the flight and plane, their connectivity features, which involve wireless connections of some sort, may have to be turned off unless, for example, the plane offers Wi-Fi and is easily connectable, which could be an extraordinary case. Whatever the case, the games may remain playable regardless, and that should be a great thing.

Some airlines and airplanes, however, may have in-seat entertainment, which should contain a smattering of games, and if one is lucky, one of those games might be a Pokémon game on a virtual Nintendo console. This last bit has a particularly long history of its own and helped to introduce me to a few other games on Nintendo consoles. The last time I've been on a flight with in-seat entertainment offerings is a real long time ago, but on one such flight, I found that I could play Pokémon Gold (Game Boy Color) of all things, which I only played briefly before resorting to do other things. Still, with this as a possible inclusion, it helps to expose players to Pokémon games, just like it had done so earlier for other games for me.

Beyond console (video) games, Pokémon is playable in other forms, but it seems they may not take too well on a plane. Pokémon Go is obviously so, as it needs a persistent connection to play, and plane connections are limited as per the above and cellular connections are restricted; there is no hope of playing it anyway on a plane since planes move way too fast, unlike a train. The TCG is offline and fun to play, but it may require more space than is available for one in most flights, especially without paying a premium. Therefore, what seems conceivable to be played are truly offline Pokémon games and physical ones that don't take up much space, which should still provide an outlet for some Pokémon fun.

On the video game front, there may or may not be ways to play Pokémon on an airplane, though this may depend on the games and/or consoles involved. On the front of other games, this may be incredibly limited but there may still be some ways to play on a plane. Pokémon remains something that is intended to be playable on a portable basis somehow, and so long as this can happen, it seems rather appreciable. And if this can happen on an airplane, it becomes all the more so, not to mention potentially exciting for a Pokémon fan traveling by air.

One year ago: A Tropius Keychain

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Three years ago: Shuffling Stages