Magikarp Jump
So I’ve been itching for a pet raising/breeding game lately. And while the new Magikarp Jump mobile app is not really that, it still seems to scratch that itch. Bonus points that it’s simple, cute, and doesn’t take a lot of my time up.
I’d been hearing about this around the net, and decided to download it yesterday. The idea is that there’s… well… here…
So you come to Hoppy Town, where Mayor Karp wants to regain morale by winning the league. Not the Pokemon League. But the Magikarp jumping league.
See, about the only thing you can train Magikarp to do well is jump higher. So this is a game about doing just that, and then taking your trained Magikarp to the league to challenge other NPC trainers to see who jumps the highest.
The Pond and Food
Your Magikarp gets their own little pond where food slowly rains down. You tap the food to feed them.
Each type of food increases their JP (Jump Points) by a different amount. You can buy different types of food as your trainer ranks up, and you can actually rank up the individual food types by coins that you earn through playing the game.
You can also buy decorations and themes for your pond. Decorations can have different bonus effects, such as bonus experience for your Magikarp, or your own trainer levels.
Leveling System
I’ve been talking about leveling, but how does that work?
You have two types of leveling going on: your Trainer rank and your Magikarp’s level.
You gain more Trainer ranks as you win battles and successfully retire your Magikarps. Each time your Trainer rank rises, the max level your next generation of Magikarp can be raises.
For example, at the start of the game, your first Magikarp is capped at level 11. Once he reaches that point, he must challenge the league and make it as far as he can. Once he can no longer beat the next opponent, he retires to a nice life in a retirement pond.
Then, you’re allowed to fish up a new generation of Magikarp. However, since you’ve likely gained a few Trainer levels between now and then, your new Magikarp now maxes out at something like level 13 instead of level 11. And it keeps going up in that sort of cycle.
Training
Aside from food, another way to increase JP is to train your Magikarp. Here’s where the timed mobile app elements of the game comes in. You have a max number of training points (right now I have 3), which replenish over time.
Sometimes an event will give you a point back. When you gain a Trainer rank, you get your training points back. And you can use items to get the points back.
So, if you’re impatient, yeah, you can use real money to buy fake money to buy items to replenish your training points. But I honestly don’t see a reason to need to.
Patterns
Magikarp can come in a variety of colors and patterns. This is another one of the collectability features of this game. You even have a Dex to record the patterns you’ve found so far.
I know that Shiny Magikarp exist as I’ve seen it mentioned online.
Overall
Overall, this is a cute little Pokemon pet game you can play whenever you have a little bit of time to waste. While there are in-app purchases, I don’t see it as being super tempting to me, and it’s not so in-your-face as to turn me off.
I left out a few details here and there so that if you decide to try the game, there would still be a lot of surprises to experience!