Heathrow airport has launched a Pokemon Go style application to entertain children, whilst moving through the airport. They drew inspiration from the Mr Men and Little Miss book series, to come up with characters for their augmented reality treasure hunt. At various points after check-in and security, you can find badges with characters from the books. When you find a character, you can just like in Pokemon Go take fun pictures with it. It also allows you to collect real limited edition badges from the information area, find a person dressed in a purple Heathrow uniform to find out more, is how the website explains it.
The objective of the game is to create a sense of discovery for the next generation of explorers, says an airport spokesperson. The game is called Around the world with Mr Adventure. If it was a true adventure though, I wouldn’t want the locations to be given away, which you can find on the same webpage, you even know which one you will find where. Equally big stickers on the floor help you find the locations. To me that would be a bit of a spoiled game, missing the element of surprise. But maybe in the interest of not causing tantrums because they didn’t catch them all, it may stop families from missing flights when the children are playing.
Off course I have downloaded the app, and will be keen to play on my next trip through Heathrow. I will let you know how it goes in the comments. The application is also supposed to help with tracking footfall, but not sure how that works in practise. Mr Adventure and Little Miss Explorer books will off course also be on sale in the regular book stores in each of the departure lounges. For families looking to keep their young children occupied, it has potential. For the more discerning or experienced Pokemon Go player the game play may be too easy, but maybe the limited edition badges may be a driver to take part in any case.
Augmented reality treasure hunts seem to be here to stay, I just hope the gameplay is not given away by publicising the locations in too many take off’s from the original game.
