‘Pokémon Go’ Release Date: Japan And Australia Get Surprise Launch, When Will It Release In The US?

The long-awaited Pokémon Go mobile game surprisingly released late Tuesday night in Japan, Australia and New Zealand according to reports. These reports also confirm that both App Store and Google Play Stores have the mobile app available in those regions.

UPDATE: Pokemon Go is officially available in the U.S.. Some are reporting Canada has yet to receive it.

UPDATE: According to Glixel, Pokemon Go will come to the U.S. later today and to Europe later this week.

The Augmented Reality game from Niantec -- the creators of Ingress -- will allow players to walk around and catch and battle Pokémon.

Japan, Australia and New Zealand receiving Pokémon Go first is not surprising, considering they were the first regions to have field tests done back in March. The Pokémon Go field tests didn’t come to the U.S. until May.

You can check out Niantec’s official Twitter account for updates or keep checking the Pokémon Go apps in the App Store and Google Play Store .

However, catching and battling in Pokémon Go is very different from the main games. There is no “weakening” Pokémon to make them easier to catch, you will have to toss your Pokéballs and hit them.

Battling will be a series of attacks and dodges that seemingly involve just tapping the screen. There are no actual attacks in Pokémon Go.

There are also Eggs that you can obtain that will hatch depending on the amount of steps you take.

There is also a Pokémon Go Plus wristband that will alert players when Pokémon are nearby without having to look directly at their phone. These wristbands will cost $35.

At the time of this writing, Pokémon Go is not yet available in Europe or North America for either iOS and Android. We reached out to the Pokémon Company for comment and we will update as soon as we learn more.

UPDATE: The Pokemon Company has no comment at this time.

So when do you think Pokémon Go will appear in Europe and the U.S.? What are you looking forward to the most? Sound off in the comments section below.