Ever since smartphone games have been around (and even earlier, in the days of feature phone mobile games), there have been mobile Pokémon ripoffs. Most of these games have been pretty shameless ripoffs, and most of them have been complete garbage. Back in the day, searching the internet for the best mobile games similar to Pokémon would have been fruitless, because they were all equally bad. Nowadays, however, the best mobile game similar to Pokémon is unquestionably Rick and Morty: Pocket Mortys.
Rick and Morty
In case you don’t have an annoying friend like me who has told you all about it, Rick and Morty is a fantastic animated show on Adult Swim that’s a spoof on Back to the Future. It’s all about scientism (which is basically swapping out god-worship in religion for the worship of the scientific method), absurdism, and nihilism (and a million other things), but it’s mostly about hilariously dumb scifi adventures. A lot of people have been complaining about Rick and Morty fans thinking they’re smart just for watching a TV show, which is an accurate criticism. Just because some Rick and Morty fans are annoying, however, don’t let it turn you off of checking out a great show.
Pocket Mortys
Anyways, Pocket Mortys is a mobile game that basically transplants the world of Rick and Morty into an early Pokémon game. In it, you play Morty catcher Rick, who has to battle other Ricks and wild Mortys in order to please the council or Ricks. Of course, in true Pokémon fashion, you can catch any wild Morty you run across. Also in true Pokémon fashion, you have regular boss battles after every few worlds you go to (which are kind of like towns). Besides the singleplayer campaign, they’ve also added a multiplayer component to Pocket Mortys. As far as Pokémon ripoffs go, it’s not trying to hide how obviously similar it is, but it’s also well-done enough that you can let it slide.
There’s also some originality in their too. There are a lot of different types of Mortys, many inspired by the show, and the Morty types are not elemental but at rather just rock, paper, and scissors, which is clever and intuitive. The most exciting part of Pocket Mortys, though, is the crafting. When you’re in a “world”, away from healing services, you can craft healing potions and other things at any crafting station. You can also buy stuff from the store no matter where you are, which makes for different challenges than Pokémon where you can only buy stuff in towns. Besides that, you can also level up and evolve your Mortys, so the game will be familiar to anyone who has ever played Pokémon, especially the early ones.
Anyways, if you’re looking for the best mobile game similar to Pokémon, you don’t have to look any further than Rick and Morty: Pocket Mortys. It’s available for iOS and Android and it’s free, so you can play it with whichever smartphone you have, and you don’t have anything to lose if you check it out. Go ahead and give it a try, and if you haven’t watched Rick and Morty yet go ahead and do that too!
Download Rick and Morty: Pocket Mortys for iPhone or Android
