Pokémon: Magikarp Jump (review)

 RATING: ⭐⭐⭐

 What feels as if made by a fan, Pokémon's Magikarp Jump, is oddly enough a love letter to the overly-teased creature. As laughable as the Pokémon Magikarp is, it is quite surprising to see, hear, and play an incredibly visual mobile game. The premise is simple to comprehend; you fish 🎣 for a either an orange or gold magikarp (because any other type is insufficient) followed by the carefree task of feeding and training your magikarp to become the best jumper in all the land!

  Let me be real for a second... magikarp is a joke; the fish can't do jack-shit in any form of media, the poor swimmer is either used as a cheap gag, or becomes the main source of food for those who inhabit the world of Pokémon. That being said there is a sense of glee that comes from the fact that the most wimpiest Pokémon is the star in his own game, which is crazily enough pretty good! The app is one part pet-sim and the other part "battle," both work reasonably well especially with all the cheeky humour added all throughout the game. The games art-style fits perfectly well with the setting, however, admittedly it does seem a bit cookie-cutter as if it was taken from an already pre-generated graphics machine giving the creators less credit for the game.

  I first heard about the app through a few YouTube channels I follow, going by their recommendations I decided to download Magikarp Jump. Right out the gate, as a Pokémon fan you will be smitten by the game, the amount of charm this game has is enough to but a smile on anyone's face, regardless of age or gender. Unfortunately after a few weeks of playing, my gamer senses kicked-in, and what felt like a fan-made game inevitably felt as a statistically well made game. People hate micro-transactions; now they're there but not in your face, the game could be easy to trout threw, but what eventually always happens is that your Magikarp either gets killed/consumed by hazards along the way, or isn't strong enough to defeat a trainer along the way, resulting in you to start all over with another Magikarp keeping you as the trainer with zero to no emotional-attachment to your Pokémon which is a shame. 😞🐠⛔

  I feel like I'm trashing the game a little, but I should state I really enjoyed my time with Pokémon: Magikarp Jump. The game is built to be played in short bites, which makes since for a mobile title, that is of course like much phone games unless you wanna shell out cash. Honestly since most phone games are hard to invest in, I wouldn't mind if most app games were like this.

Tips and Tricks:

• Take chances early on with every new start
• Do the training first before feeding Magikarp
• Take the pokéballs prior to a feeding frenzy