When Niantic made some adjustments to Pokemon GO before the weekend, most fans thought that the changes were limited to a reshuffled storefront and some additional language support. As it turns out, Niantic also addressed another issue which parents may have submitted concerns about: the move Bullet Punch, which has now been toned down to remove images that imply actual gunshots.

Ever since Pokemon GO released back in July 2016, the steel-type move Bullet Punch has appeared within the application and remained unchanged until the latest update. When a Pokemon uses this move, a series of bullet holes animate over the rival Pokemon, accompanied by a series of flashes to imply gunshots. While some fans voiced concerns that the move was too distracting (here's hoping they weren't driving while playing), it's obvious that others may have been concerned about the implications of bullets in a game that many young children were fanatically playing.

Niantic's latest changes doesn't remove the Bullet Punch move, but instead replaces the bullet holes with a series of fists all performing a punching motion. Unlike the previous bullet hole animation, these fists don't cover up captions or in-game texts during battle, so there's also a functionality improvement that ties in with the conscious decision not to show bullet holes in Pokemon GO.

These changes have been purely cosmetic in nature, as the actual damage output for the move itself has remained unchanged. The attack still plays out at the same rate of speed, and lest gamers complain that the move is still too distracting, this is likely the only change the move Bullet Punch will ever come to see. At the end of the day, the only significant change brought by last week's update was the new menu order of shop items, which understandably put the high-selling items at the top of the list – likely to try and mitigate any potential lost sales from the rising cost of microtransactions within the application.

Niantic is still working on implementing several promised changes for the application, including everything from Pokemon trading to finding legendary Pokemon within the game, something Niantic's John Hanke says should be implemented by the end of 2017 – a timeline which means birds like Articuno will be safe from bullet-happy hunters.

Did you ever have a problem with the way the move Bullet Punch was portrayed in Pokemon GO, Ranters?

Pokemon GO is available now on iOS and Android devices.

Source: Comic Book