‘Magikarp Jump’ Has Similarities With Original Pokémon Games

On your way to Cerulean City, there was once a man who had one of the greatest deals of all time. Quite frankly, under his own insistence, he was only doing you a favor. For the small price of 500, you could become the proud trainer of a Magikarp. Back then, we were foolish enough to believe it was a bad deal. Its evolution into a Gyarados made the offer tempting, but an old rod was to be found in Vermilion City which wasn’t too far away. Our ignorance of the true potential of a Magikarp wasn’t to be revealed until two decades later when the Pokémon Company launched another mobile game, Magikarp Jump.

Pokémon have been releasing a lot of mobile games recently. With the recent announcement of Pokéland coming to your smartphone, you’d be forgiven to not have noticed the recent release of Magikarp Jump. The game is rather basic, extremely repetitive, but weirdly addictive. The objective is to train your Magikarp so it jumps higher than the competition. Your efforts will be hindered by a Magikarp that has zero talent, and why would you want to waste your time on a Magikarp showing no promise? Using an old rod, you need to find the right Magikarp to conquer the world.

And the training can be vigorous. Pidgeottos are known to swoop down and grab your Magikarp if you train it too hard and tire it out. Luckily, there’s plenty of food in the pond, which happens to also boost your Magikarp’s experience points. But it’s also the trainer that needs to show ability, and a poor ranking trainer will not be able to harness the true potential of his/her Magikarp. The competition is fierce, with many trainers dedicating their lives to molding their Magikarp into a true champion.

Strangely, the game has a lot more in common with the original Pokémon games than it first appears. At the beginning, you are greeted by Mayor Karp,  in a very similar opening scene to the start of Pokémon Red and Blue with Professor Oak. You also have a choose of three starter rods to choose from, sound familiar? It’s the small details that make Magikarp Jump stand out. Whilst consisting of very basic gameplay, any Pokémon fan will enjoy the subtle hints towards the main games that reveal themselves now and then. Not that it’s surprising, the popularity of Pokémon has been growing in recent years and little easter eggs hiding in small games like this help to boost its popularity even further.

Currently, Magikarp Jump is currently a top 100 grossing game for IOS/Android in the US. With Pokémon doing so well in the mobile market, it’s unsurprising that there will be continually releases of Pokémon inspired games on the platform. Pokéland is set to be the next addition to the Pokémon family, which is currently in alpha testing in Japan. Pokéland has been described as Pokémon Go and Pokémon Rumble in one game, allowing the player to find, catch, and battle with Pokémon on their journeys around the world.