It’s always interesting to see titles that take elements from multiple games and combine them, and the hope is that this new idea will borrow the best elements of each. Whether simply going down the path of adding value, or possibly mixing things up in new and exciting ways, combinations of some sort always feel like there’s something potentially promising to be discovered. EvoMon goes down that route, pulling together two classic games that do seem to have some synergy with each other, Tamagotchi and Pokemon, but the result feels too much like a jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none scenario.

While there’s some mild story framing, it makes no real effort to differentiate itself from the typical Pokemon formula, getting it off to a ho-hum start. Once you’ve essentially chosen your starter creature you’ll then go into full Tamagotchi mode, trying to take care of it, participate in mini games, and generally doing a lot of pretty dull grinding until you’re able to evolve it to the point that you can move into more of the Pokemon phase. You’ll then be taking on rivals and fighting to prove whose creatures are the best, exploring to find new creatures, and even some pretty basic breeding.

The issue is that this effort feels like it could have been greatly improved with quite a lot of editing. In pretty much every area they’ve managed to check a certain type of activity or element off the list, but not with any passion or polish. It’s nice that there are 9 different mini games, but honestly 3 that were implemented with a shred of originality or interest in making them worth playing repeatedly would have been far better. This problem extends pretty well across the entire experience though. Perhaps there are people who don’t mind the simplicity of it all, and just enjoy being able to do a little bit of everything every time they pick the game up. For anyone with some experience and associated expectations for quality though, it can become a bit grating pretty quickly.