Platform: IOS/Android
Developer: Big Pixel Studios
Publisher: Adult Swim Games
Pocket Mortys is a mobile based game inspired by the TV series Rick & Morty. In the unlikely event that you have not seen Rick & Morty, stop reading this review immediately, go out and watch both series, then come back here. There, wasn’t that awesome?
Pocket Mortys is based on the penultimate episode of season 1, ‘Close Encounters of the Rick Kind’, where the Rick & Morty we know encounter a multitude of weird and wonderful Rick & Mortys from alternate dimensions, including cowboy Rick & Morty, Cronenberg Rick & Morty and Eric Stoltz from Mask Rick & Morty.
Depending on your perspective, Pocket Mortys is either a parody of Pokemon, a tribute to Pokemon or a direct rip-off of Pokemon. Playing as Rick, the aim of the game is to collect as many ‘wild Mortys’ as possible, level them up and then battle with other trainers which include alternate Ricks, aliens from the series and the gormless Jerry. You can also combine Mortys to increase their powers, which also changes their personality – add two Magician Mortys together and you get a Wizard Morty, and so forth.
The exploration segments of the game have a simple top-down view, with the design of diminutive characters owing a debt to the squashed figures of Japanese animation. The battle segments take a role playing approach, with turn-based moves using a selection of attacks and the ability to use items like health serums and mega-seeds.
While there is a lot of enjoyment to be had from Pocket Mortys, particularly in the catching and combining of different Mortys, the gameplay mechanic is very simple, and before too long the Morty battles get repetitive and a little dull. On the upside, the voice work by series creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon is sublime, and the character design of the alternate universe Rick & Mortys is very inventive.
A final note for those who struggle with storage space on their mobile devices – Pocket Mortys takes up about 650meg, which seems like a lot for a relatively simple game.
Rating: 6/10 – slightly higher if you’re a Pokemon fan
