Dokimon: Quest is out now on iOS for a retro throwback to the old days of creature collectors

• Dokimon: Quest is a new retro creature collector out now on iOS
• It takes things back to the earliest days of creature collectors, such as Pokémon
• Enjoy a suite of new mechanics and quality-of-life features for all the nostalgia, with none of the stress

For better or for worse, Pokémon has probably spawned more spinoffs and new takes than any single series ever has. Be that something such as Cassette Beasts, which twists the formula, pastiches like Palworld or the charmingly retro Dokimon: Quest that's now available to purchase on iOS!

At a glance it's not hard to see where Dokimon: Quest draws its inspiration. This is a throwback to the very earliest days of the Pokémon and creature collector craze, which sees you capturing monsters to battle it out with as you attempt to uncover the mystery of your missing friend.

As for the mechanics, there are some interesting twists here still. For one, we've got the ability to speed up battles by pressing the action key, the ability to edit monster stats, different playable characters and beyond. There's even a choice between your standard 8-bit retro soundtrack or a full piano composition.

Doki doki

Whether you gel with Dokimon will, I bet, depend on your nostalgic fondness for older entries in the Pokémon series. There's undoubtedly plenty of retro charm here, and I'm sure that the quality-of-life tweaks and other changes will be very welcome, but this is an unapologetically niche release.

Still, at the same time, there's obviously plenty of love and attention that's gone into this. And for the audience that it's built for, the reception seems to be broadly positive. And for only $3.99, you could do a lot worse than deciding to dive back into the world of pixels and crunchy compressed sound.

If you want to take a look at some other smartphone entries that evoke the most famous creature collector on the planet, then we've got you covered. Check out our list of the best mobile games like Pokémon to find out what we think is worth playing!