Hot Take: Magikarp Jump

Hot Take: Magikarp Jump

Magikarp Jump is a game that exists and I love it. The set up is simple: you’re a Magikarp trainer and you want to have the best Magikarp in the entire region — typical Pokemon stuff. But what the game doesn’t tell you is how devilish it actually is. You can train your fish up to three times before you have to recharge your training meter, which takes 25 minutes to recharge one use, so basically it’s an hour and a half wait if you want to train three times again. All of that is fine because while you wait for that to refill you can feed your new fishy friend with berries to level him up also. There are also micro-transactions within the game, but they aren’t needed, and there’s even a note right at the beginning of the app that tells you how you can play the whole game without purchasing anything. So after all of that, what you have left to do is to take your cute gilled friend on an adventure to JUMP!

 

There are multiple leagues in Magikarp Jump that you can compete in. You have to beat everyone in the league to continue, which is normal Pokemon fare, but what is different this time around is the insane level of hilarious random events you can encounter. I’ve beaten a league with one Magikarp before and he had to retire, which forced me to get a new Magikarp from the pond. Well, I went and did that and I got a calico patterned ‘karp — he looked really cool and I named him Peep. I trained Peep for ten minutes or so and we went to the new league to fight our first rival! However, Peep jumped high into the sky and got taken away by a Pidgeotto, never to be seen again. My hopes and dreams of winning the jumping league were crushed… so I went and fished for another Magikarp and started all over again. Hopefully he can retire peacefully like my other friend did.

Hot Takes are quick looks at games, whether reviews or previews or just hands-on, that we feel our readers would enjoy knowing about. This Hot Take is based on a copy of the game downloaded by the Editor for free from the app store of his choice.