Pocket Mortys: “Rick and Morty” Hiatus Killer

Adult Swim just released “Pocket Mortys,” a completely Rick and Morty based Pokémon clone. As expected, it’s awesome. Rick and Morty plus Pokémon? What’s better than that? Basically nothing. The app, available on the Google Play Store and the Apple Store, turns your phone into a mix of a Gameboy and a Pipboy but with all the animated greatness of Rick and Morty.

The app conducts itself unashamedly like Pokémon. The camera setup, the mechanics, the healing station, it’s all Pokémon. Well, if Pokémon was completely out to get Ash and was populated with grotesque monsters and strange copies of Ash and Pikachu.

So, the same, really.

The game revolves around attempting to get Rick’s Portal Gun back from the Council of Ricks. Naturally, the solution is to travel all over the multiverse and defeat Ricks to get badges so you can return to the Rick homework and (shocker!) fight members of the Council of Ricks. So far, I have managed to obtain two badges, so I’m not too far into the game yet, but I’m hooked.

The Pokémon clone mechanics aside, the game is just so charmingly Rick and Morty. Every time you enter the main portal on the quest for badges, the game spits you out somewhere new and the environment is not just repainted some absurd color, the map layouts change and you continue to encounter different trainers (even Jerrys). There are numerous familiar faces and just as many new alien races. There is even an entire sequence dedicated to Birdperson rescuing you when all your Mortys are defeated. Blips and Chitz kiosks, naturally, act as this app’s conduit for micro-transactions, requiring tickets to spit out balls of prizes, including Mortys.

Speaking of Mortys, there are a wide assortment of your new fighting buddies. Ranging from Blue Shirt Morty to Exo-Alpha Morty, you can find any Morty you could possibly imagine and even more you never would have dreamt up. Mortys can also be combined to increase their abilities. As far as I know you can only combine Ricks of the same sort, which is an interesting feature given how annoying it always is to have four of the same Pokemon at various levels taking up room. Yes, there is a Morty Daycare where you can store your Mortys, this is also where you can combine them. Mortys are much more difficult to catch than Pokemon, however. Despite the handiness of Salesman Rick’s, available on the go and on the Rick homeworld, Morty Manipulator Chips are rather expensive and can only be purchased after your third badge. The chips can also be found but I suspect that what I believe to be the most interesting aspect of the game is the key to obtaining these chips.

Scattered throughout the dimensions you explore are various objects, such as batteries, cables, Fleeb, bacteria cells, Turbulent Juice Tubes. Again, I played the game for maybe twenty minutes, so I am sure there are even weirder objects to find and collect, but I did spend quite some time exploring the crafting aspect of the app. These items you find can be placed in crafting kiosks and can be used to create other, better objects. You discover recipes by randomly combining things in the kiosk, but luckily the kiosk tells you when you have found a new recipe and what you will make before you decide to waste your precious items.

Really, it’s the little things that make the game, like Rick and Morty’s banter and the various Easter eggs from the series throughout the game, like Doofus Rick roaming around. The combat system is also endlessly amusing in its simplicity. Not unlike Pokémon classifications, Mortys are classified as Rock, Paper, and Scissors and are more and less effective according to this logic. So far, I’ve collected two Mortys, a Scruffy Morty, which the app helps you capture and a Gaseous Morty I got out of the Blips and Chitz kiosk thanks to a freebie ticket. Pocket Mortys is a blast and I intend to waste a substantial amount of time playing. Hopefully it will help curb the hiatus pains. Wubba lubba dub dub.

Tags: adult swim, pocket mortys, pokemon, rick and morty