While Pokémon and Palworld continue their legal dispute, a new indie game called “Pickmon” is launching, which lawyers might already be rubbing their hands over.
What kind of game is it? Pickmon is a new indie game from developer PocketGame that further connects the worlds of Pokémon and Palworld. It offers a mix of survival crafting and, of course, numerous creatures for you to catch.
While you throw special cards at the monsters instead of Pokéballs, the familiar thrill of collecting remains. Similar to the hit Palworld, the collected creatures can then move into your own home, help with farming, or toil on the assembly line in factories.
You can watch the trailer for the game here:
More Crafting and Survival
How does Pickmon differ from the competition? Although the title looks very much like a clone of Palworld and Pokémon at first glance, the indie game aims to stand out. The focus is intended to be much stronger on crafting and survival elements.
In the first screenshots on Steam, not only extensive production lines can be seen, but also entire greenhouses where Pickmons cultivate food for the players.
While in Palworld you are initially quite limited in the number of working Pals in the base, this limit seems to be much more generous in Pickmon: The images show about 30 Pickmons at work at a glance.
What else is there to do? The developers also promise a strong focus on exploration on Steam. Like in Pokémon, you should be able to use the specific abilities of your Pickmons in the open world to reach new regions and uncover the secrets of unknown civilizations.
There are hidden treasure chests to find and secret paths to unlock. And instead of Team Rocket, another secret evil organization is at work in Pickmon, whose plans you must thwart.
Is the game more than a clone? The similarities to Palworld and Pokémon are evident. Whether Pickmon really goes its own way in gameplay remains to be seen. Particularly ambitious, or perhaps even daring, is the planned release on the Nintendo Switch, as a direct competitor to Pokémon on the proprietary console.
After Nintendo and Palworld have been involved in a serious legal dispute for some time already, it is tempting to assume that this could also be the fate of Pickmon if the title really releases in this form. So far, there is no specific release date outside the trailer and the Steam page.
Whether Pickmon ultimately becomes more than just a brazen copy remains open. Indie developers often bring fresh, interesting ideas that can revolutionize an entire genre. Once Pickmon launches, it will be revealed whether PocketGame can achieve this. Palworld has to constantly justify itself, now there are jabs at secret investors
