Fooly Cooly Season 2, also called Fooly Cooly Progressive, is a new installment for the 2000 anime series Fooly Cooly, or as its stylized, FLCL. The new season is set to start airing on Adult Swim on June 2^nd, but regardless of whether or not you have already seen the original series, the first episode is as good an entry point as the original.

The first episode for FLCL Progressive starts off with brand new characters Hidomi and Iide, two junior high students, as they begin to learn about themselves while also fighting giant robots and space aliens. Hidomi is a 14-year-old girl that wears cat ear headphones at all times to quiet down the world around her, she lives with her mother who adoringly calls her Hidomi-chan and asks her to act like a typical anime girl and uses Japanese words in her English dialogue like an anime fan. Iide is a 14-year-old boy in the same class as Hidomi, and while she is quiet and anti-social, Iide can be seen with his two friends discussing his love life.

The episode kicks into high gear when Hidomi is talking to her mother and is suddenly ran over by mysterious lady in a blue vintage car, attempting to kill her before she could “overflow” and apologizing that Hidomi will, unfortunately, be alright. Hidomi, shaken up by the event, tries to make heads and tails of what is happening and is suddenly attacked by a large robot that uses her classmate Iide as bullet. The two must then run away before being saved from the machine by the mysterious lady from before, using a bass guitar as a weapon.

There’s a charm and weirdness to the episode that calls back to the original series, as well as an adolescent love of sex and rock and roll that permeates the writing. Hidomi is very distant from those around her and the show demonstrates this by closing in on her lips when she whispers hello to her classmates, closing in on her disinterested eyes when she’s forced to watch porn by her teacher, and making her into a purple outline when forced to deal with other people.

Fans returning to the franchise will appreciate all the callbacks to the original series in this episode, from mysterious women in vehicles ramming into teens to the mechanical designs of the robots that appear from heads. The art style is much cleaner and refined than it was in the original, but we never reach the frenetic energy of the original first episode’s comic book segment or slow-motion CPR. There are a lot of references here, not just thematically and visually, like Iide having a forehead bandage like that of original protagonist Naota, a pair of binoculars that have a tag with the name Mamimi on them, and a familiar yellow vespa that is seen throughout the episode.

The theme this time around seems to be more about finding your place in life and figuring out where you need to go once you become an adult as Hidomi wanders through life, not sure of who she is and how the people around her see her, as well as a struggling relationship with her mother. This in contrast to season 1’s Naota, a young boy wasting away his youth pretending to be an adult.

The third season, FLCL Alternative, had its first episode aired for April Fools in Japanese with English subtitles and from the subtitle and cast we can already tell that it should be its own story, very much like FLCL Progressive, though both shows are borrowing a lot of themes, visuals and characters to tie everything together. That season premiere will get the attention it deserves when it airs in September of 2018.

If you haven’t seen the original 6 episode Fooly Cooly series from 2000, it is available on Blu-ray and streaming via FunimationNow. Fooly Cooly Progressive airs on June 2^nd on Adult Swim’s Toonami block.

Many apologies for missing last week’s episode of Rick and Morty. My absence was not a critique on the value of Morty’s Mindblowers, Salt Lake Comic Con was on the horizon and my efforts were concentrated on preparing for panels. Special thanks to everyone that came out to the Rick and Morty panel (what up, my glip glops?!), it was a hell of a time.

The show returned Sunday with The ABCs of Beth, a Beth centric episode (as the title suggests) that utilized the plot/sub-plot format most of the show has enjoyed. Returning to the usual format allowed for each member of the family to stretch their wings and it was nice to focus on some of the characters who have taken a back seat for most of the season.

The intro sequence tells us of an upcoming execution for a local man accused and convicted of eating his son many years ago. Beth relives the childhood trauma of losing her best friend Tommy to his cannibalistic father and the years of therapy it took to break her of the delusion that he had gone to live in Froopyland, the technicolor world of her imagination.

Upon hearing mention of Froopyland (and really at hearing the criticism of its naming) Rick sends Morty and Summer to their court ordered weekend with Jerry via transport bubbles, despite their protestations.

Wielding techno-magic chalk, Rick reveals that Froopyland is a real place, and opens a doorway there. Faced with the realization that her memories of time spent there were authentic, Beth berates her father for dumping her in a procedurally generated play land instead of spending time with her. Unable to admit his faults, Rick maintains that Froopyland was not created as a babysitter for Beth so that Rick wouldn’t have to spend time with her, but rather to protect the neighborhood from her psychopathic tendencies. A string of inventions are pulled from a box, seemingly created at an adolescent Beth’s request, and they range from harmless to terrifying.

Meanwhile, Morty and Summer arrive at their father’s fully expecting him to be a total Jerry, wallowing in his own sadness. Instead, what they find is a man who is put together, confident, and mildly telepathic. Which is when Jerry reveals he’s embarked on a new relationship with an alien warrior priestess.

Back in Froopyland, Rick and Beth search for the remains of Tommy who almost certainly starved to death in the intervening years, only to discover that the bouncy ground and breathable rainbow waters (making the landscape entirely safe for the unsupervised exploration of a child) have been invaded by vicious creatures. They quickly intuit that these creatures must be the hybrid spawn of Tommy who, in an attempt both to survive and placate his young libido, impregnated the synthetic creatures and ate them. The remaining creations (those less tasty) have created a society who now worship him.

Rick, complete with a robotic arm prosthesis gained after having his arm ripped off by vicious half-Tommy birds, and Beth are taken to see King Tommy. Rick quickly grows weary of their time in Froopyland, seeing no benefit to staying there and uses the chalk to abscond back home. Beth feels some responsibility for the impending death of Tommy’s father and returns to retrieve him in an attempt to stay the execution.

The rest of the episode goes off mostly without Rick’s help. Beth slaughters many of the inhabitants of Froopyland, rather than admit to Tommy that she pushed him into a pond of honey and trapped him there, showing that just like her father she is either unwilling or incapable of admitting her own faults.

Jerry finds himself overwhelmed by the intensity of his new relationship and lies, saying that Summer and Morty are offended by his paramore’s alien features in order to get out of the relationship. This results in her hunting them down so that she and Jerry can continue their romance. Jerry is finally forced to admit that not only is he racist, misogynistic, and cowardly, but that he is the one who wants to end their tryst, but only when Summer is on the brink of death.

This episode has cemented the realization that while Beth and Jerry seem to be most normal of the family, in fact they are the only ones incapable of facing their demons to the detriment of those around them. Rick, while tormented and entirely unhealthy, is at least capable of recognizing his ills, even if he won’t admit them to anyone else.

The episode wraps up with Beth and Rick creating a clone of Tommy (once again taking extreme measures in order to avoid admitting a mistake or even making a simple apology) in order to ensure his father isn’t executed for his murder. Despite the twisted turns that brought them here, it offers a warm family moment as the pair work together to solve a problem, giving Beth some of the father-daughter time she so craves.

In the midst of all this, Beth is forced to face the fact that she is very much like her father and ask herself what that means. In Rick’s closing monologue he tells her it means she can do whatever she wants, the universe is open to her and the only thing stopping her from being her best (or worst) self is her. Finally, he offers to create a clone of Beth, one with all of her memories and sentiments, that could pick up her life so that she is free to explore not just the universe but what it means to be Beth. She thinks for a moment, then says she knows what she needs to do.

We, as the audience, don’t see the end result of that decision. Instead, the scene cuts to Morty and Summer returning home. Beth and Rick join them at the table and the four of them enjoy pizza (pilfered from a neighboring universe in which daylight savings was never invented and their favorite pizza joint is still open).

This episode has continued the theme of season three in forcing Rick, at least in some small measure, to face up to the trauma he has caused his loved ones just by being around them. And in so doing, Beth became a more whole person, gaining something that even years of (misguided) therapy could give her. In a truly unusual moment, Rick even admits to caring about her, despite being unable to crystallize exactly what the cause of that love is. And does something selfless in offering her a way out, an action that gives him no direct benefit other than knowing one way or another that his daughter will be the happier for it.

At the episode’s close we’re left wondering if the Beth at the table is the true Beth or a doppelganger. We may never know and, in the end, as Rick is wont to say, it doesn’t really matter.

we’re left wondering of the Beth at the table is the true Beth or a doppelganger. We may never know and, in the end, as Rick is wont to say, it doesn’t really matter.

Be warned, here be spoilers.

After taking a week off, Rick and Morty is back with The Ricklantis Mixup. The opening intro scene, as well as the title of the episode, are a calculated misdirection. The episode itself features none of the fabled city and only barely includes Rick and Morty C-137.

Instead, while the characters we’ve been following for most of the series travel to the lost city for a much needed vacation, we go through the proverbial portal to the Citadel of Ricks, or what’s left of it, to see firsthand the aftermath of its destruction.

What we find is a city in the midst of painful rebirth. The assassination of the council at the hands of Rick C-137 during The Rickshank Rickdemption has had lasting effects. The remaining inhabitants of the citadel are prisoners, unable to access or use portal guns. Many of them, Ricks and Mortys alike, thrust into roles outside their station or ability.

The citadel is holding an election to select a new President. In the running is a Morty, a foil on the nightly news (anchored by increasingly mutated versions of Rick from neighboring realities), he is expected by all within the citadel to be summarily defeated.

While the election takes center street in the narrative, in the meandering byways are glimpses into the outskirts of life in the citadel. One subplot that follows two police partners, one a Rick sensitive to the needs of the Morty population, the other a hardened Morty, flips the script on the usual relationship these characters have, regardless of their native reality. Another subplot follows a group of four Mortys, in a nod to Stand by Me, as they leave Morty school (instructed by a Snape-esque Rick, where they learn how to be good little disposable sidekicks) in search of the Wishing Portal in hopes that they might change their fortunes. The third, and final, subplot follows a Rick working in a candy factory where he helps to manufacture candy crafted from the neural secretions of a captured Rick as memories of happy times with a young Beth are replayed on a loop in his brain. Scenes like this, the enslavement of one Rick by other Ricks for something so insubstantial as creating candy, tell us more about the character than any monologue could. The fact that seeing it on screen is accompanied by a knowing nod, not the shock and disgust it deserves, is telling.

All of the citadel is waiting for the next Rick to rise up and take control when a campaign debate goes sour. The Morty candidate delivers a compelling speech about the real problems in the citadel and about the power of the people. It might have fallen on deaf ears had the ordinary power structure remained intact, the Mortys outgunned by their Rick counterparts. But in a society where disenfranchisement is equal opRicktunity, the notion that the one percent are outnumbered, hits a cord with everyone.

In the wake of such positive response, Morty’s campaign manager expresses his disbelief and is fired, only to later be presented with a file containing secrets about the true nature of the Morty candidate. Secrets we aren’t privy to but that push the campaign manager Morty to murderous action. His attempts to kill the Morty candidate do not succeed and after a failed assassination attempt, the Morty Candidate is elected as the new President of the citadel, inspiring the populace to rise up against their oppressors.

Never missing an opportunity for social commentary, the episode is a very thinly veiled allegory for social and political strife around the world today, perhaps specifically in the United States. The Morty candidate promises hope to a population that has none and they grab on with both hands.

What they don’t know, what they can’t know, is that this isn’t any ordinary Morty. When a governing committee of Ricks, meant to aide the President, makes it clear that they have no intent of abdicating power to a Morty, President Morty has them killed.

In the final scene, accompanied by the song For the Damaged Coda by Blonde Redhead (the same song the plays at the end of Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind) we’re shown dozens, perhaps hundreds of bodies being ejected from airlocks into space and, at the last second, the body of campaign manager Morty floating near the files that reveal, too late, that the new President of the citadel is none other than Evil Morty.

The Ricklantis Mixup is proof positive that Rick and Morty is more than just high flying science fiction shenanigans. Mega seeds planted in season one are just now bearing fruit. There is a greater narrative being slowly built behind the scenes, one that will have heavy implications for the characters we’ve come to love, even while they’re cavorting with mermaids, none the wiser.

I should have known.

I should have known and I should have been prepared.

Last week’s episode of Rick and Morty left me wanting but they never miss the mark twice.

Rick Sanchez and his painfully (but hilariously) dysfunctional family returned Sunday with episode five of their third season, The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy.

Teasers of the episode promised that this episode would break the usual structure and instead focus on a Rick and Jerry adventure.

Jerry has been missing, for the most part, from the season, after his schism from the family in episode one. The implications of the impending divorce between Beth and Jerry have had rippling consequences throughout the family. While the show has forced the characters and viewers to question their role in an uncaring multiverse, this season has forced them to question their very identities and, somehow, that hits heavier.

Vindicators 3 showed us a Morty who was finally ready to take charge of his life, taking the lessons learned from Rick and molding them to fit his own worldview. Using this newfound confidence, Morty requests that Rick take Jerry on an adventure to help enliven his spirits.

Fearing that Jerry would be unable to survive even the lightest of Rick’s usual haunts, he takes the most fragile man in existence to the safest place he can think of, a resort destination complete with an immortality field. But even in the safest of places, Jerry can’t help but get into some trouble.

Patrons of the resort, adults and children alike, leisurely kill one another, then laugh and embrace when the victim is revived. After a hand-dryer malfunction (which is SO Jerry), Jerry finds himself pulled into an underground resistance intent on killing Rick for having taken over the resort from its previous leader. But how?

It turns out, a popular ride called The Whirly Dirly (a rollercoaster so homicidal it could only exist in this location) dips just outside of the immortality field on its way around its track. All Jerry has to do is get Rick to ride it and the assassins will do the rest.

Jerry is, at first, reticent about killing his soon to be ex-father-in-law but, Rick being Rick, it doesn’t take long for the ire to build and the machinations of murder to sprout.

Despite Jerry’s best laid plans, Rick survives the assassination attempt (as if there was any doubt), completely destroying The Whirly Dirly and the immortality field in the process.

Jerry and Rick are left in a dangerous alien wilderness and it doesn’t take long for Rick to put the pieces together and plant the finger firmly at Jerry.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Summer is dealing with the abandonment of her boyfriend for a more well-endowed classmate and uses one of Rick’s many inventions in an attempt to enhance her own features.

Of course it goes terribly wrong and Summer is transformed into a hideously grotesque version of herself. Morty wants to call Rick, commenting that this type of scenario seems firmly within Rick’s wheelhouse, but Beth won’t let him. She seems more determined than ever to prove herself on an equal playing field with her father. In her attempt to prove her own intelligence she makes the situation much worse, all the while proving that her own psychological failings are more important to her than the physical and emotional well being of her children.

The best moment of the episode finds Jerry waste deep in an alien snake, being quickly devoured, and begging Rick to save him. “You took my family,” he screams. And that’s when Rick unleashes the full force of his hatred.

We’re treated to a devastating and fully convincing argument from Rick about Jerry’s true motives and his uncanny ability to suck the life and potential out of everyone around him, simply by existing and being so completely pathetic. We see the light leave Jerry’s eyes as he realizes the truth of what Rick is saying, all while being swallowed.

Never fear, though, Jerry and Rick make it off planet alive and Beth comes through for Summer in the end. Everyone seems to have gained some appreciation for each other. However short lived it might be remains to be seen, but by the time the credits roll, everyone has learned a lesson and has been made the better for it.

That is, except for Morty.

The final post-credits clip implies some dastardly activity from Morty off-camera. While he seems to be the only character taking control of their situation, Morty seems to be heading in a particularly dark direction.

The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy continues down the path set up at the beginning of the season, that simply being in proximity to Rick brings the worst out of everyone. While being around Jerry might arrest your development, being around Rick mutates you into a shadow of your former self, sometimes literally, always figuratively.

We’re still waiting for Rick to have to confront the demons he’s created.

Episode six of Rick and Morty airs this coming Sunday on Cartoon Network.

It’s been hours since I finished watching this week’s episode of Rick and Morty and my mind is still settling. Oh look, there goes my hippocampus, whirling past the brainstem for the forty-third time, holding up its middle finger.

I should have been prepared, it’s not as if the show is typically grounded, but I wasn’t. I’d spent months wondering at the adventures Pickle Rick might get into during his tenure as a briny, shrivelled cucumber, but I couldn’t have imagined.

It opens, as most episodes of Rick and Morty do, with the insanity already dialed up. Rick is a pickle right out of the gate. Morty has questions, and for good reason, Rick rarely does anything that isn’t part of some larger plan. The rest of the family joins the titular characters in the garage and it becomes evident that Rick has turned himself into a vegetable in order to get out of family counseling.

You might ask yourself why Rick didn’t just jaunt off to another dimension, making himself scarce at the preordained time, if he didn’t want to go to therapy. The answer, dear viewer, is the same for Rick as it is for all the rest of us, where would be the fun in that?

Rick’s plan is simple, or as simple as a Rick plan can be. Just above his slender green frame, he’s rigged a needle filled with a serum that will turn him human once again. The string is near scissors, rigged to a timer, set to go off just after the family leaves the house.

The timer goes off, the scissors cut the string, and gravity does the rest… or, it would have gone that way, but Beth takes the needle, takes the kids, and leaves Rick to his own devices.

“You should just stay here and figure out how to stop being a pickle.”

Words that will haunt me for the remainder of my days.

Rick does figure out how to stop being a pickle in what amounts to one of the most experimental and enthralling half-hour’s of television I’ve ever seen.

There are cats, flash floods, roaches, rats, and foreign dignitaries, all of whom fall beneath the iron mind of Rick Sanchez on his quest to become human once again.

Rick is backed into a corner, you might say he’s literally in a pickle, and that’s when he’s at his best. You haven’t seen genius and cunning like this since Rick took down the galactic government.

Somehow, Harmon and Roiland found a way to up the stakes for Rick, even when they are smaller, both figuratively and literally.

This is the Rick Sanchez we’ve come to love, the Rick who will burn the world around him, and everyone in it, just for a little excitement.

Rick, don’t ever change.

Rick and Morty Season Three is streaming on Adult Swim.

Airing only Rickshank Rickdemption would have been a hollow season opener so Adult Swim made the wise decision to drop two episodes of Rick and Morty today. Episode one aired for anyone who hadn’t seen it during its temporary debut on April 1, with episode two Rickmancing the Stone airing directly after.

Season three spoilers ahead.

What’s happened so far- we learned that Rick’s motivation for being arrested in the season two finale wasn’t completely selfless. It was a part of his master plan to get inside the headquarters of the intergalactic government and take it down from the inside. Rick John Malkoviches himself inside the heads of a series of aliens with increasingly high security clearance, making his way up the hierarchy and taking a shit in alien bodies along the way. His plan culminates in transporting the prison into galactic HQ and collapsing the economy. Rick simultaneously dismantles the Council of Ricks. The galactic government removes their presence from Earth and Rick is able to go home. His final coup has him removing Jerry from the family so he can pursue his endeavors unburdened.

Rickmancing the Stone puts us back into Rick and Morty proper. Rick, Morty, and Summer return from an unseen adventure through a portal and into the garage. Jerry stands in the driveway, his meager belongings packed into a moving truck. Morty tells his father goodbye but Summer disregards him, feigning apathy in her parents’ divorce.

In an attempt to shift the conversation to anything else, Summer requests an adventure and Rick is happy to oblige, landing the trio on a Mad Max style planet chock full of radiation, mutated marauders, and glowing rocks that Rick wants to further his goals.

What’s continually impressive about Rick and Morty is the creators’ ability to tell engaging science fiction stories while sliding social commentary into every nook and cranny.

Summer- “Rick, didn’t you say you needed my help on an adventure immediately, somewhere else- I don’t care- even if it might kill us?”

Rick- “I did not, but if you’re really that alienated, I’m as willing to exploit it as the next guy, church, army, or olympics gymnastics trainer.”

What follows is the Rick and Morty we’ve all come to know and love. Summer embraces the darkness, Morty goes all Idol Hands on a whole mess of Death Stalkers, and everyone learns a lesson before the credits roll. Except for Rick, but what are you gonna do?

Episodes one and two of Rick and Morty season three are streaming right now on Adult Swim.

UPDATE- at the time of this writing, only one episode had aired. Episode two, Rickmancing the Stone has dropped and it’s glorious.

We thought this day might never come. We wondered if maybe the first two seasons were perhaps the delightful hallucinations of a fever dream. Maybe we’d awakened to a disappointing reality in which Rick and Morty didn’t exist and all we had were the memories of animated existential crises slowly fading until all that remained was the dull ache of what might have been. Until, finally, on this most hallowed of days,  our heroes have returned and the sun shines over the kingdom once more.

Season three of Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s cartoon masterpiece, Rick and Morty, is finally here. For those of you who missed the April 1, event in which the first episode was streamed on a loop for twenty-four hours, this was your opportunity to pick up where season two left off.

The second season ended on a mix of emotions. On one hand, we finally see the first cracks in Rick’s impenetrable shell. He exposes himself, for the good of his family, and gets himself locked up in an intergalactic prison. For a character who usually thinks only of himself, who is willing to cast anyone close to him beneath a runaway train just to get what he wants, we finally see that maybe he really does care about them. It left us wondering what was next for the titular characters and their family. The future, for Rick, was uncertain.

This week’s episode opens and immediately it seems that things are looking up. Rick is reunited with his family as they sit around the table of a chain restaurant. But things quickly get weird when Rick commands Jerry to fold himself several times. It becomes clear that Rick has not escaped prison. He’s still in the hands of the intergalactic government and they’ve invaded his mind in search of the secret of his portal gun.

An actual photo of how it feels to be watching Rick and Morty again.

Meanwhile, back at home, Morty and the rest of his family exist under the bootheel of that same government, subsisting on a literal diet of pills. Things have never been more dire, and that’s saying something considering the dark places the show has taken us over the last two seasons.

Over the next twenty minutes, Roiland and Harmon weave a tale that shows the true genius of our geriatric, alcoholic hero as he reveals a masterful plan to take down the system from the inside, allowing himself at long last to pursue his true goal, the reclamation of McDonald’s Mulan Szechuan sauce.

The events of Rickshank Rickdemption set in motion a domino effect that will impact not just Earth but the entirety of the multiverse. Things, from here on out, will never be the same.

If you haven’t yet seen this episode (I realize the odds of that are slim) it is currently streaming online at Adult Swim.

The true season premiere will take place next week when we get to see the first, as yet unseen, Rick and Morty content. If the show’s track record is to be trusted, and we have no reason yet to doubt them, it’s sure to be ridiculous and wonderful. Stay tuned.  

Bonus:

Rick Sanchez isn’t the only thing released from a dimensional prison today. McDonald’s, after pressure from the internet hive-mind (and assuredly recognizing a good marketing opportunity when they see one), sent the show’s creators a half gallon of Szechuan sauce and promises limited availability to other lucky folks. 

The voice of Zorak and Moltar has gone to the great syndication in the sky. Family confirmed he passed away early the morning of Sunday, September 18. He was 54.

Croker is best known for his voice work and animation work with Cartoon Network and [adult swim], voicing Zorak and Moltar on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, Cartoon Planet, Toonami, and The Brak Show, as well as Steve and Dr. Weird in the openings of the first few seasons of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Croker was also Space Ghost‘s chief animator, also getting his start doing bumps for TNT’s cartoon programming in the 1990s, and doing many of Cartoon Network’s signature “bumps”. [adult swim] tweeted about Croker’s passing earlier today.

I love Space Ghost. It is one of the greatest tv shows of all time. Croker was such a key part of this, providing two strong counterbalances to George Lowe’s Space Ghost that were key to the alchemy of the show. Two of my favorite episodes feature strong Zorak/Moltar performances– “King Dead”, in which Zorak and Moltar quit the show, start a band, kidnap John Benjamin, watch cable in Space Ghost’s apartment, and make “Unreasonable Demands.”

In “Snatch,” replicating pods invade the studio as The Blob covers all exits. As Space Ghost, Zorak, and Moltar try to stay awake to prevent the pods from murdering and replicating them, Moltar comes up with a plan to plate himself in metal, go to the beach, and rust, because “rust never sleeps.” 

And then, of course, there’s all of Zorak’s classic adventures, like with his nephew Raymond, when he turns into “Batmantis!” or his rivalry with Donny Osmond, from whom he demands to sleep on his couch. Watch the whole thing and weep in awe of its brilliance:

Perhaps most amazing was that he could sing in these character voices. I love the Space Ghost Christmas Special for Zorak singing “ANARCHY IN JINGLE-BELL LAND!!!”– click, click, click. And, of course, his numerous songs on Cartoon Planet were legendary, even if they got overshadowed by Brak. The difference is, Zorak and Moltar never got cloying or annoying. Brak does.

And then there was Dr. Weird and Steve on Aqua Teen Hunger Force. While I love the later seasons with Spacecataz and The Mooninites, the complete randomness of these cold opens was always one of the best parts of ATHF.

I salute you, Sir Croker. We will think of you when we look to the night sky.

The Pocket Mortys Twitter Account just tweeted that the update to their free-to-play Pokemon clone will be receiving an update today. This update will add the quest in that gives players access to Mascot Morty and will also add 19 more Mortys to collect; finally making it possible to catch them all. If you’re not sure whether or not this free game is worth your time you can check out our review here.

Good luck hunting and WUBBALUBBADUBDUB!

It’s been just shy of two weeks since the Android and iOS App Stores were graced with “Pocket Mortys” from Adult Swim Games. This shameless “Pokemon” clone may be one of the best mobile games available to date. Yes, it is literally the core system of Pokemon, drilled down to it’s most basic premise. Explore area, find creature, battle creature. That, in itself, is what makes “Pocket Mortys” so beautiful. The game is clever, quick to pick up, and has enough depth for a free game that there is no reason you shouldn’t spend time in the world. Even, if you are not a fan of “Rick and Morty” which can only be equated to your lack of a soul, this game gives many opportunities for a great time.

If you’re completely unfamiliar here is a quick summary to get you going. Rick and Morty are in the lab working on another adventure when they are suddenly joined by a strangely dressed Rick with a Morty in tow. He is in search of “the one true Morty”. One thing leads to another and Rick and Morty find themselves in front of the council of Ricks without Rick’s handy portal gun. From here the battling/crafting/collecting begins. Again, if you’re looking for insane amounts of depth, huge meta game, and wild strategy, you’re in the wrong world. Battling is based on Paper, Rock Scissors, this isn’t in the gaming sense of fire beats ice, ice beats flying or whatever. This game is literally based on Scissor Type, Rock Type and Paper type Mortys. This unique crew (82 in all) of hilarious characters are divided among the three. Rock beats Scissor, Scissor beats Paper, Paper beats rock, Rock beats Scissor. This takes the metagame to a minimum. Since paper type can only learn paper moves, rock type can only learn rock and so on, your battles are spent trying to remember what a specific Morty is and how to counter it.

Aside from that, you are collecting a few pieces of junk that you can craft into memorable items from the TV series either for your own personal gain or to complete quests which lead to riches, and then warping from “random” zone to zone to collect Mortys and battle the other RIcks for badges. This is where the curve of the game can get a little slow. The beginning is difficult due to your lack of resources, once that is overcome the middle is a sort of easy grind, that becomes repetitive and yet, is still fun as hell. After that the ending scales up the difficulty again as your level will even out with your opponents. Once you have completed the story (which has a great twist ending) you are then set free with your portal gun to collect the remaining Mortys, (except for the mascot Morty which is currently unavailable due to a bug).

This game takes everything that a mobile game would normally do just ok as a cash grab, and does it extremely well. Yes there are like 6 songs that play in the background, yes the quests are all basically the same, and yes, the worlds, though randomly generated very quickly start to look the same. But you are enjoying the world so much that the novelty remains. It is also an added bonus that while it is possible to utilize in game purchases they are far from required. You can also watch advertisements to gain additional “shmeckles”, but again, you gain enough just roaming the world that you don’t have to by any means.

With the promise of new Mortys to be patched in, the only thing that can be left wanting would be network play for Morty battling, trading of Mortys and hopefully, more story in the future. This game is free, go download it, now.