It was inevitable, but someone has already modded Pokemon’s pocket pals into the new creature catcher on the block, Palworld.
Content creator Toasted Shoes posts a tease of an upcoming YouTube video on Twitter that’ll likely leave a Nintendo lawyer or two feeling Gastly. In it, we see the player character replaced with Ash Ketchum, with the anime trio rounded out thanks to Brock and a shotgun-toting Misty. Naturally, you’ve also got the sight of plenty of familiar ‘mons being put to task – like Pikachu hurling a pickaxe toward a stone. If you’re wondering if anything has been done with the first boss, you’ll be glad to know they’ve been replaced with Jessie from Team Rocket.
Palworld already has a Pokemon modFull video on my YouTube tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/X1ohT6mJiTJanuary 22, 2024
Comparisons to Pokemon have been frequent for Palworld since it launched in Early Access. While Palworld is a survival game more akin to Rust or Ark regarding how it plays, how particular Pals appear is raising eyebrows. Social media is not short of posts comparing the similarities in the creature designs of certain pocket pals.
I’ll start with the obvious ones and the further down I go the less obvious they’ll be, but things like concepts or colours might be derived. This one has ears and theme of leafeon and everything else of cinderace. The small hands, the fluff at the pants, all of it. pic.twitter.com/X3x8w7xvgqJanuary 21, 2024
The accusation is something the CEO of Palworld developer PocketPair has already shot down, stating, “we make our games very seriously, and we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies.”
Do Palworld bosses respawn? We've got the answer in our guide.
The CEO goes on to say that other games are far more akin to Pokemon regarding gameplay, whereas Palworld has more in common with Ark.
Controversy aside, Palworld is enjoying a fine start to Early Access. At the time of writing, Palworld has hit a Steam concurrent player peak of 1,298,049. To put that in perspective, only PUBG has done better when it comes to paid games; paid games including Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur’s Gate 3, and more.
Here's the full Palworld type chart and all the weaknesses data you'll need to get going.
