Zynga tries its hand at Pokemon, Rage of Bahamut

Newsbrief : Social games giant Zynga has earned itself quite the reputation as a copycat development over the years, and its latest release for smartphones isn't doing anything to quell that notoriety.

Montopia is a Japanese monster battle, now translated into English, that plays like a cross between Pokemon and recent card collecting games like the popular Rage of Bahamut .

Players collect monsters and items, fuse the monsters together to build as powerful a team as possible, then put the creatures into battle with other players. While the visuals, creature types and certain gameplay elements may echo elements from Pokemon , the action itself is far more comparable with Rage of Bahamut , as battles play out automatically.

Zynga got itself into trouble recently over copycat claims, as Electronic Arts filed a copyright infringement suitagainst the company following the launch of its The Ville Facebook game.