The new Pokémon mobile game is about training the best Magikarp you can

For those of us who’ve wondered how The Pokémon Company International feels about the universally maligned creature Magikarp, we have our answer. The company released a new mobile game for iOS and Google Play called Magikarp Jump: a game where you can only raise and compete with what it calls “the weakest Pokémon ever.”

In Magikarp Jump, you fish out a fresh ‘karp and adopt it as your own tiny jumper. The goal is to feed and train it enough to make it strong enough to best other Magikarp in a flopping competition.

It’s straightforward, to say the least. Swipe your finger around Magikarp’s pond to help it find food. The more it eats, the faster it levels up. (Same!) You can also train Magikarp through various jump-related activities. These require points, but you can recharge them either by waiting, gaining more in-game, or using items you buy. Once you’ve trained your dead-eyed fish, you take it to compete in the aforementioned jumping matches, wherein you command it to jump once. And it does.

The game is far less complicated than Niantic’s Pokémon Go, an augmented reality game that became a worldwide phenomenon and helped to double Nintendo’s value in mid-2016; Magikarp Jump doesn’t require players to move any more than their thumbs, and it doesn’t need an internet connection. The game features cameos from other pokémon — there’s a Pikachu that likes to hang by my pond and cheer me on — but it places the focus front and center on training the best Magikarp you can. Once you’ve maxed its potential, it’s time to catch a new one and start again (albeit with a slightly stronger newbie).

Though it limits you to the series’s most “useless” pokémon, this little game nails what makes the franchise great. Pokémon is about forming a bond with your weird monsters and then claiming victory. Magikarp Jump, despite centering on a pokémon that most view as a punchline, does a great job in fostering a sense of affection for the fish you’re raising. The more I watch my Magikarp bash its face into a punching bag, the more I love that little idiot. It’s doing the best it can. And when it jumps its way to victory, I feel proud. Genuinely.