Not only a nationwide, but a worldwide cultural electronic phenomenon has even touched folks young and old in the ‘City of Action,’ Riverbank.

Competitors of all ages are plying the streets of town, searching for those electronic Pokémon critters, doing battle and collecting characters in an updated version of the old card collecting and playing game.

On Saturday, a pair of local high schoolers walked downtown, collecting trophies as they went.

Emilo Jimenez and Joseph Cruz, both 17, are seniors this year at Enochs High School in Modesto. They were in front of the Riverbank Historical Museum on Saturday and explained the workings of the game.

Jimenez said there were two characters located in front of the museum, Mankey, a fighter, and Eevee, a ‘normal.’

And they weren’t just hunting at the museum. Cruz pointed out that there are several Pokémon characters just within a few blocks downtown.

The pair said there are also characters available to be caught just up the street, at Antigua Event Center and right next door, at City Hall North, near the mural. There reportedly are also Pokémon near the fountain in the Plaza del Rio and at the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Station on Topeka Street, just a block over.

The gamers also pointed out the Pokémon competitors can steal characters from each other. But they assured there are plenty of other Pokémon characters available for capture in other neighborhoods in Riverbank, with many people enjoying ‘the hunt’ this summer.

Although the teens live in Riverbank, they attend Enochs and participate in the aquatics program there, both swimming and water polo teams.