Here at Gaming Reinvented, we’ve seen some pretty blatant ripoffs in our time. Oh sure, there’s the most obvious ones like Palworld, which so blatantly copied Pokemon that they got sued for patent infringement…
But that’s always only been the tip of the iceberg. From Duludubi Star to Mole Kart, 3D Land Safari to Craftopia, the industry is full of obvious ripoffs of Nintendo games, with titles stealing everything from character designs to music, level design to gameplay mechanics.
Yet the latest ripoff is perhaps even more audacious than many of the above. Why? Because Pickmon (as the trailers call it) is so obviously a Pokémon and Palworld clone it’s almost comical. Take a look at the trailer below:
There’s no way to sugarcoat it here; the game’s a copy of every other game under the sun. You’ve got creatures blatantly inspired by Pokémon, including obvious Pikachu and Charizard knockoffs. The main character themself is a clone of Link from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, down to the diving animation near the end of the trailer. Heck, there’s even a Ganon wannabe as the main villain at the end, if the Zelda elements were already blatant enough.
Yes, that’s knockoff Link and Pikachu gliding down into not Hyrule
And the audacity doesn’t end there. Not only is the whole gameplay loop a copy of Palworld’s, but the name of the developer (PocketGame) is a copy of the developer’s name too (Pocketpair). There’s Roadhog from Overwatch as an NPC trainer or enemy, with the only design difference being a skin colour change. Heck, there are even examples of people’s Pokémon fan art being ripped off for character designs here, with monsters clearly inspired by fan-made versions of Mega Meganium and Mega Ceruledge respectively.
It’s almost like the Avengers Endgame of blatant ripoffs, and one of the most audacious ‘projects’ we’ve ever seen announced in this industry.
Oh, did we forget to mention that these guys expect their game to be released on Nintendo Switch at some point?
That the company who’s suing Pocketpair for Palworld is somehow going to allow an even more blatant copy of their work to go ignored on the eShop?
Yeah, the folks behind this one are flat out delusional. You wouldn’t be less likely to get accepted on the eShop if you submitted a fan game or something.
Still, given how obvious the copied content is, you may be wondering something.
How likely is it the creators behind this get sued?
Well, to be honest, that kinda assumes the project will actually see it through to completion with a cease and desist. At this point in time, we wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo’s lawyers are drafting up an angry letter as we speak, and threatening legal action if the game isn’t changed significantly.
Additionally, given how blatantly AI generated much of the trailer is (they literally misspell their own company name at the end of the video!), we also have to question how much of this game has even been built yet. It’s a bunch of stolen assets in an AI generated trailer by a ‘team’ that came out of nowhere with a stolen name and identity. At this point in time, we wouldn’t be surprised if development was either just starting or being done in the laziest, most half-assed way possible.
Still, assuming it somehow does make it to release, we’d be surprised if this game didn’t get sued by someone or another. The character designs aren’t close to the originals in even the Palworld sense, they’re almost 1:1 recreations without any originality in sight. So, while the legal case against most Pokémon clones is somewhat dubious (since hey, a character inspired by Lucario or Pikachu isn’t illegal in of itself), copying the design so thoroughly that there are virtually no changes at all is a different story.
This game and developer are pretty much doomed. Period.
Regardless, that’s Pickmon. The most blatantly ripoff of Pokémon, Palworld and The Legend of Zelda we’ve seen in years, and a game that’s almost begging for a lawsuit in every way. If it gets finished it’ll release on Steam in the foreseeable future, and (theoretically) on Nintendo and PlayStation consoles further down the line.
What do you think about it?
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