Immersion Mode in Mobile Pokémon Games

Since Pokémon Go became a success, more and more Pokémon games have appeared on mobile platforms (Apple iOS and Android). One way they take advantage of the capabilities of the respective platforms is by having the games completely take up the full screen (like other games on the platforms do), but along with that, they also merge with or completely hide the upper status bar and lower navigation controls. The latter is what I term as "immersion mode", and there is not much to it, but at least some of it can be explored for how it has applied.

Most games on these platforms are already of the second kind, hiding both of these upper and lower portions of the screen. Unite, TCGP, Masters EX, and Home all do this in their mobile versions. Even so, for Android in particular, these portions of the screen can still be made to appear temporarily by swiping from the respective edges, which is also necessary to close the games if the need arises. In this way, total focus is placed on the main content of the games, and that is furnished by that kind of "immersion mode".

Then, there is Pokémon Go itself. A recent Android update had made it possible for the game to have the "immersion mode" of the first kind, where the status bar appears transparently over the game itself and the lower navigation is hidden, which may also becomes a distinct change for some Trainers who are used to use the latter. Even so, those on iOS have already enjoyed this kind of near-total immersion for a long time with the upper statuses already transparent, so in a way, this might be considered a way of equalizing experiences.

Pokémon in itself has a way of providing immersion through its games; that includes the ones on mobile platforms, as the ones mentioned above. Of course, it can and does take a little bit more technological trickery to make that immersion more complete or "total" in some way, and the above games have accomplished that with their "immersion mode" implementations, particularly given their presence on their respective platforms. Further immersion may lie in more games and content for them, but the mode surely helps out with that.

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