As a part of Nintendo’s incentive to create more mobile games, Magikarp Jump was released on May 23 for iOS and Android.
In the game, the player fishes a Magikarp that they will train and feed in order to make it jump higher. The Magikarp, if it can jump the highest, will become the League Champion and rank high on the in-game tournament ladder, according to the official Pokémon official website. Also, if the Magikarp is knocked out during a jumping tournament or if it retires at level 20, the player will have to fish out a new Magikarp, starting out stronger than the first one the player had. These Magikarp can have different patterns, such as pink, yellow, and orange with white spots, according to the official trailer on YouTube. Also, other Pokémon (for example, Slowpoke) will be featured in the game that will help train and feed Magikarp. Players can take photos of Magikarp’s achievements and post them to social media, a way to check on your friend’s achievements in order to increase competition. The game offers in-app purchases that will help train and feed a Magikarp so that it can level up faster and decorations that can be used for Magikarp’s habitat.
The game seems to be popular with fans, and is currently on the Trending list at number one in Apple’s App Store. On the page for the app, Magikarp Jump is rated five out of five stars with 702 reviews, with one user Thomas Dennis saying “Thank you so much. #MakeMagikarpGreatAgain.” Another user, justAnotherReviewerr, says “Forget Pokémon Go! This is the best Pokémon game ever!” It is currently rated higher in the Apple App Store than Pokémon’s first foray into the mobile world, Pokémon GO. Pokémon GO, created by Niantic, Inc. is rated three and a half stars out of five with 914 reviews.
Magikarp has become a fan favorite Pokémon over the years, known for its remarkable move Splash (which does absolutely nothing). It evolves at level 20 into powerful Water Pokémon Gyarados, but it requires a lot of training since Magikarp isn’t useful in battle. It took one player six years to beat Pokémon Ruby using only Magikarp, according to Kotaku. The player, Leomon, streamed his journey to finish the game with only Magikarp that brought in 475,000 viewers on Japanese streaming website Nico Nico during the final battle.
Another piece of evidence on Magikarp’s popularity is the official Pokémon YouTube channel’s release of “The Magikarp Song,” described as “an ode to one of the weakest (and greatest) Pokémon of all time: Magikarp!” The song racked up over 2.1 million views on the official Pokémon English channel and over 4.3 million views on the official Pokémon Japanese channel.
Magikarp Jump comes after the release of Pokémon GO, Niantic, Inc.’s version of the Pokémon franchise. The app was plagued with issues upon release, including players being unable to log in due to servers being down and the three step glitch, which was later removed from the game entirely, according to IGN News. This was done so that Niantic, Inc. could find an easier way for players to find nearby Pokémon. Since the game has been released last summer, users have lost interest in the game, according to Forbes. Pokémon GO had a small spike in users (12 million users opened the app) once Generation 2 became available, but the numbers have since dwindled back down.
Magikarp Jump was released in Italy before being released in Japan, according to Nintendo Life. The game is currently available in both iOS and Android app stores for the U.S. and the rest of Europe.
Featured image via Pixabay/TymonOziemblewski.
