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Together with Nintendo, The Pokémon Company today announced a slew of new games for various platforms, one of those being an app powered by AR technology called Pokémon Smile.
The app is geared towards kids, and was designed as a game to take brushing your teeth and turn it into a fun activity. Kids aren’t always the most motivated when it comes to things like brushing teeth.
With Pokémon Smile, kids are encouraged to brush by saving their little Pokémon friends. The AR tech within the app analyzes kids brushing techniques and then uses that to save Pokémon from evil bacteria.
Pokémon Smile helps you catch Pokémon by brushing your teeth
While the technology behind the game uses a camera and augmented reality to make things work, what kids are going to pay attention to is the Pokémon they can see on screen.
As they brush, the augmented reality will determine if kids are brushing their teeth good enough. When they do they can defeat the bacteria and catch the Pokémon.
Pokémon are depicted in a more playful design than normal, with large smiles and active personalities. In addition to the Pokémon, kids can see themselves wearing a Pokémon-themed hat. Which looks to be an option kids can select from prior to starting the game.
Kids can fill up the Pokédex as they brush
To keep kids interested for quite some time, there are actually quite a few Pokémon to collect here. In total there are over 100 Pokémon available within the game.
As kids brush and have the chance to catch them, they can fill up their Pokédex just like they would in a normal Pokémon game.
Kids can also collect Pokémon caps, which are the themed hats they see themselves wearing on-screen as they brush. The app also features things like brushing guidance to walk kids through the proper way to brush teeth. As well as more fun features like the ability to snap photos with Pokémon.
There’s even more stuff to collect. The more kids brush and the better they do, they can earn brushing awards and become a brushing master. The app even offers up useful tips to improve brushing the next time around. These pop up after each brushing session so it seems that they appear regardless of whether or not kids execute things perfectly.
Pokémon Smile is a free app that can be downloaded onto smartphones and tablets, and is already available in the Play Store.