Calgary teen gets Pokémon Go shout-out on Good Morning America

Pokémon Go launched in Canada on Sunday, but a Calgary teen has been playing a do-it-yourself version of the game for several days now. A video he posted to Twitter has now gotten a shout out by the national U.S. morning show, Good Morning America.

The game sends players into the real world to search for the mythical digital pocket monsters known as Pokémon, who appear onscreen when users hold up their smartphones in various locations at various times of the day. Prior to Sunday, it wasn't available in Canada.

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Albert Wick couldn't wait.

"While I was waiting for the actual game to be released, the Poké Ball was just sitting on my desk in front of me and my dog goes in my room so I just took out my phone, on Twitter, and just recorded me throwing the Poké Ball at the dog and cats and then I posted it," the 13-year-old tells CBC News.

Wick stresses he loves his animals and would never hurt them. The Poké Ball is very light.

"On the first couple of days it got about 100 or so likes and about 50 retweets and then someone on Twitter told me that it was on Good Morning America and then it just went from 100 likes to 2,000 in a couple of days," Wick explained.

"I was really surprised. I went to find it and then I sent it to my mom and a couple of friends."

Wick's mom, Katherine Sharp, said she loved it.

"I immediately watched it and showed my coworkers, they are all like 'What is that?'" she said.

"They didn't even know what the game was but it was just neat that his video made it on a show like that."

Sharp wasn't overly shocked because her son makes lots of videos but this is the first time one of them has reached a national audience.

"He makes a lot of funny, witty videos so I wasn't surprised but it gives you this 'Wow, you did that.' It is fun to tell people about it too."

Wick says he's been playing Pokémon games for half of his life and he's thrilled Pokémon Go is now in Canada.

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"First it is Pokémon so that helped and then the whole idea of going outside in real life to real landmarks to do things, to go around and catch Pokémon," Wick said.

"It's a really good idea."

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