Fans of Adult Swim’s raunchy, absurdist cartoon Rick and Morty may have a long wait ahead before its third season, but the newly announced mobile game from the network’s in-house gaming studio is sure to help tide them over. Pocket Mortys is a Pokémon-inspired game, coming to iOS and Android on January 14. Adult Swim Games announced the release with a tweet that features a GIF that should look immediately familiar to fans of Game Freak’s genre-defining monster collecting/battling franchise. (via Polygon)
Pocket Mortys. Mobile. January 14th. pic.twitter.com/tXAU07lzbR
— [adult swim] games (@adultswimgames) January 5, 2016
Senior producer Chris Johnston subsequently confirmed via Twitter that the game would be a free download, but assuring fans that it would be a more substantial offering than previous Rick and Morty mobile titles, like the “balloon-popping simulator” Rick and Morty: Jerry’s Game.
Rick and Morty follows the exploits of Rick Sanchez, a crude, selfish, alcoholic mad scientist, and his meek grandson Morty, and their adventures through time and space. Given the show’s frequent dalliances with parallel universes and all sorts of sci-fi shenanigans, the game’s apparent premise of collecting various Mortys and making them fight one another is hardly a stretch.
The series has received wide critical acclaim, riding a wave of fantastic cartoons that have garnered large, adult audiences, like Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and Gravity Falls. It is the brainchild of co-creators Dan Harmon (creator of Community) and Justin Roiland (the Earl of Lemongrab on Adventure Time and creator of the notorious web series House of Cosbys). Roiland voices both Rick and Morty. Harmon will also provide voiceover for the game, according to Adult Swim Product Market Manager Sean Baptiste.
Rick and Morty‘s second season reached its surprisingly heartfelt and gut-wrenching conclusion this past fall. Although a third season of the wildly popular show has been confirmed, there is no word yet on a premiere date. Given that there was a whole year between the end of the first season and the start of the second, and that a character in the show named Mr. Poopybutthole explicitly said that the third season wouldn’t start for another year and a half, 2017 seems likely. Until then we’ll just have to bide our time by catching all the Mortys.
