Pokémon Co. Releases 'Magikarp Jump' For Android And iOS

Past Pokémon games have featured everything from combat to Tetris-like puzzle gameplay, but the latest title focuses on one of the less obvious characters in the Pokémon cannon: Magikarp. The Pokémon Co. released its latest smartphone game Magikarp Jump for Apple iOS and Google Android Thursday.

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The game sports a simple and mobile-friendly premise: You take on the role of a trainer who has to make Magikarps learn how to jump really high. You can earn experience points to improve your Magikarps’ jumping ability by feeding them food from their aquarium and taking them through several training exercises. Throughout the game, you can also unlock additional Pokémon to help train your Magikarps faster and earn items to decorate the aquarium.

As with the standard Pokémon games, you can guide your trainer through a campaign versus other computer-controlled Magikarp trainers to earn more in-game currency and unlocks. Magikarp Jump is a free title that features microtransactions. Within the game, players can buy Diamonds, which are used to purchase more powerful in-game boosts and items.

In our hands-on time with the game, it’s undeniably a lightweight mobile game built for short gameplay sessions, as the game doesn’t have much meat.

Outside of the main aquarium overworld, where you can click fruit and other items and make your Magikarp get them, training and jump matches are done automatically and aren’t controlled by the player. You don’t have any active control during the events and they’re entirely determined by your Magikarps' stats. Still, there’s some low-key charm in the game thanks to its sharp animation and quirky non-player characters.

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Magikarp Jump is also one of several mobile games in the Pokémon portfolio. Pokémon Go remains the biggest game in the Pokémon smartphone catalog — coming up on its one-year anniversary, the game is still going relatively strong thanks to its augmented reality aspects and outdoor adventuring gameplay. This year also saw the release of Pokémon Duel, a strategy board game that revolves around combat. The Pokémon Co. also plans to release a new version of the Pokémon Trading Card Game for smartphones later this year.