Pokemon has taken over the lives of many over the course of 2016. Firstly, Pokemon GO (Free) came along and converted the lives of both grannies and gamers into a perpetual creature hunt for what felt like all summer, and while you may not find as many people roaming the streets in backwards baseball caps in these winter months, the game is still dominating the App Store charts to this day. More recently, Pokemon Sun and Moon dropped for 3DS, and some incredibly impressive sales figures suggest the monster hunting series is as strong as ever. However, without a traditional Pokemon release on the App Store as of yet, many developers have attempted to fill this electric mouse-shaped void on iPhone, and Nexomon is the most recent attempt at stepping into Game Freak’s shoes. In a similar vein to Micromon ($0.99), Nexomon features a whole host of colorful creatures to collect and numerous different environments to find them in, and the early reveal trailer shows a lot of promise for when the game releases early next year.
There’s the expression that certain games wear their influences on their sleeves – Nexomon goes beyond this and basically has Pokemon facepaint on. You’ll trawl through grass, use your companions in battle, and evolve a variety of elemental beasts into more powerful iterations over the course of the game – there’s even a beaver creature that has more than a passing resemblance to a certain log-carrying Pokemon, and such comparisons will be inevitably drawn upon Nexomon’s release. That being said, I can’t help but be impressed with the work that the developers have done so far – there seems to be some really detailed environments and a lot of cool looking creatures that are distinct in their design, and if this stays true for all 300+ monsters, Nexomon could be a great alternative for anyone looking for more critter catching action on iOS. Head down to our forum thread for further details in the build up to the game’s early 2017 release, and feel free to ask the developers any questions you may have about Nexomon.