The walking path at Windjammer Park felt a little nostalgic for Rob Andres and Chase Zylstra Wednesday night.

Andres, 24, and Zylstra, 25, both from Oak Harbor, felt like kids again, playing “Pokemon Go” on their smartphones.

By the looks of others around them, with their noses stuck in their phones, the two friends weren’t alone.

“We grew up playing this,” Zylstra said.

“It’s good to see people out and about, especially here,” Andres said. “This place kind of died.”

Nintendo created a frenzy last week when it released the “Pokemon Go” application for users in the United States, New Zealand and Australia to download for free on their smartphones.

The app was downloaded more than 15 million times, exceeding Twitter in daily active users for a 24-hour period, and started an unexpected craze for people of all ages who immediately set out looking for animated characters superimposed on real-life backgrounds on their phone screens.

“No one predicted this,” said Keath Worley, who was out catching Pokemons with his wife Lisa at a bank parking lot in Coupeville Tuesday.

“Pokemon Go” is essentially a smartphone scavenger hunt that guides people to creature hotspots using GPS technology.

On North and Central Whidbey, it’s created search parties large and small wandering around in public places in pursuit of things to catch that others who aren’t playing can’t see.

“It’s pretty crazy,” said Oak Harbor’s James Bolden, who came to Windjammer Park with his wife Mimi and their sons, Tyler, 10, and Johnie, 7 Wednesday night.

“The kids wanted to catch Pokemon and everybody said this was the best place.”

The game’s popularity raised Nintendo’s market value to nearly $12 billion in less than a week but also raised a few safety concerns around the nation as well as locally.

Although the game provides repeated warnings advising gamers to be alert and aware of their surroundings, some both locally and abroad have stumbled into trouble.

There have been accounts across the country of gamers stepping into holes, driving into trees, discovering a dead body, even walking off cliffs.

In Oak Harbor, the worst infraction so far connected to the augmented reality game has been a driver in pursuit of a Pokemon blowing through a stop sign.

“He said he was playing the game, didn’t see the sign and just went right through it,” said Sgt. Lloyd Carter of the Oak Harbor Police Department, who cited the driver.

“You can imagine if there’d been cross traffic at the intersection or even a pedestrian out there on the road what could have happened.”

Another Oak Harbor police officer recently came across a young woman in the early morning hours wandering alone in the center of a dark city street.

“She was paying attention to the game and didn’t realize she was in the street,” Carter said. “I guess part of the game, as you’re walking, you collect these coins. You have to walk over certain spots to collect coins with the phone. The string of coins led her into the street.”

In other Puget Sound locations, some police departments have had to send out communications through social media to warn “Pokemon Go” players to stay out of unauthorized areas. Such was the case in Edmonds, where players were trying to access a fishing pier that is closed during construction.

“Please stay off the fishing pier,” the Edmonds Police tweeted on Twitter July 9. “The Pokemon will hopefully be there when it reopens.”

At Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, installation leadership has sent out communications to sailors base-wide regarding the game, reminding them to keep operational security in mind at all times and to be aware of their surroundings when taking photos with their phones.

There have been no reported issues involving the game on base so far, said Mike Welding, NAS Whidbey’s public affairs officer.

Since “Pokemon Go” was released July 6, Windjammer Park in particular has drawn mobs of gamers, filling the parking lots with vehicles in the evening hours and leading to illegal double-parking on nearby streets.

The Oak Harbor police has been making routine stops at the park late at night and into the early morning to remind groups that the park closes at 10 p.m.

Though disappointed, the players have been understanding and compliant, Carter said.

The crowds have been anywhere from 100 to 200 people a night at the park since the game came out, said  Thomas O’Brien, a 2015 Oak Harbor High School graduate.

He said that’s because timing can be important.

“It’s kind of random when a Pokemon shows up,” O’Brien said.

For an industry that is often criticized for creating games that promote sedentary habits and anti-social behavior in today’s youth, Nintendo’s latest game is considered refreshing by some because it requires physical activity and is bringing people together.

“What I like about it is it’s getting everyone out a lot more,” said Dominick Mendrez, 20, of Oak Harbor. “Before this game came out, I didn’t see so many people at city beach and other places.”

Alisha Baneck, 24, of Oak Harbor, is organizing a hike to hunt Pokemon characters at Fort Casey State Park Sunday. She’s scouted the location and found some Pokemons and a wi-fi connection there. She is asking that the group meets at the Admiralty Head Lighthouse at 11:30 a.m.

Baneck said her husband, Andrew Baneck, an avid gamer and aviation electrician at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, doesn’t always like to get out of the house for recreation, but likes “Pokemon Go.”

“This is a great bonding experience with us,” Alisha Baneck said.

Will the game’s hype die out soon?

“I don’t think so,” said Ryan Clemena, 14, of Oak Harbor. “The reason why it’s so big, the whole appeal of it, is because a lot of people grew up playing Pokemon for a really long time. And the whole thing with Pokemon is you go out on this adventure and you catch the Pokemon and you do all this stuff. You make friends in some of the games. And this kind of simulates that in the real world.”