In the days since its Steam reveal, PocketGame’s first-ever non-mobile title, Pickmon, has stirred up a lot of controversy. Described on Steam as a “multiplayer open-world survival crafter” in which players team up with their Pickmon to “fight, farm, and build industrial empires while thwarting a shadowy organization’s plot,” it’s not hard to see why so many folks are calling it a Pokemon rip-off.
The thing is, it’s not just a Pokemon rip-off. It’s also a Breath of the Wild rip-off and a rip-off of the pre-existing Pokemon-like Palworld, which also faced accusations of being a Pokemon clone when it launched in 2024. Pickmon’s Steam description is almost identical to Palworld’s description, which reads, “Fight, farm, build and work alongside mysterious creatures called ‘Pals’ in this completely new multiplayer, open-world survival and crafting game.”
A closer look at the game’s trailer reveals the sheer level of shameless copycatting for all to see.
Within the first two seconds of the trailer, viewers’ ears are met with a light, Breath of the Wild-esque piano tune that can only be described as “Diet Manaka Kataoka.” It’s not nearly as good as Kataoka’s phenomenal soundtrack, of course, but it’s just similar enough to evoke Breath of the Wild vibes.
Shortly after the knock-off Zelda music kicks off, developer PocketGame’s logo appears on the screen. Palworld–the “Pokemon but with guns” game that took the internet by storm when it launched in 2024–is developed by Pocketpair. PocketGame appears to have taken inspiration from Pocketpair’s studio name, but it didn’t stop there.
As the Pickmon trailer unfolds, the knock-off Breath of The Wild music continues to play as a blonde player-character who looks suspiciously like Link jumps off a cliff holding onto a glider, flying over a landscape that looks remarkably similar to The Great Plateau starting area in Breath of the Wild. Pickmon isn’t just copying Pokemon’s homework: It’s ripping off Breath of the Wild and Palworld, too.
While Palworld is clearly inspired by Pokemon (and developer Pocketpair has been sued by Nintendo claiming copyright and patent infringement), the game doesn’t steal off character designs wholesale, and its positive reception has made it clear the studio isn’t looking for a low-effort payday. Pocketpair has sworn off using generative AI in its games, is currently working on a Palworld cozy game, and has repeatedly compromised on in-game mechanics like gliding to appease Nintendo. Additionally, Palworld has something Pokemon doesn’t: a whole lot of guns.
As the Pickmon trailer continues, it soon becomes clear that Pickmon, too, features a whole lot of guns. If anything, Pickmon is copying Palworld’s homework as much as it’s copying Pokemon’s. In the trailer, Dollar Store Link makes his way through the world of Pickmon, accompanied by a “Pickmon” that’s very obviously meant to be a Pikachu lookalike. The pair encounter various armed enemies, including a Pickmon who appears to have a target-seeking rocket launcher strapped to its back. One clip shows off a character riding a Pickmon motorcycle, which transforms into what appears to be a bug-type Pickmon when she dismounts. The similarity between this Pickmon and rideable Pokemon like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Miraidon and Koraidon is striking.
Due to the glider shown at the beginning of the trailer and a clip of Pickmon’s Link-alike catching Pickmon by throwing cards rather than Poke Ball-like orbs, one might think that PocketGame is preemptively trying to avoid any legal issues that may cause Nintendo’s lawyers to come knocking. A large part of Palworld’s legal trouble with Nintendo revolved around the ability for players to use Pals to fly (hence Palworld later implementing the glider). But from the looks of it, in Pickmon, players can fly via a glider or via a captured Pickmon–around 25 seconds into the trailer, Definitely Not Link can be seen hitching a ride with a bird-like Pickmon, which flies him past a large tower that’s blasting a beam of light into the sky. These towers look quite similar to the Sheikah Towers players must climb to unlock parts of the map in Breath of the Wild. It’s also worth noting that, obviously, Pickmon’s flying/gliding mechanics are wildly similar to those of Breath of the Wild, in which Link often uses a glider to get around Hyrule.
It appears that players can customize their own avatars in Pickmon, so it’s likely that using Great Value Link for the trailer was a strategic choice to get Zelda fans engaged (or piss them off), rather than a declaration that this weird Link knock-off will be featured in-game. What will be featured in-game, however, is allegedly stolen Pokemon fanart.
“Pickmon stole one of my designs!” an artist who goes by Elpsy posted on X, sharing images of her design for a fictional bug/fairy-type Pokemon she named Meganium. “They didn’t even try to change something and make it less obvious.”
Elpsy’s creature design is featured prominently in Pickmon’s key art, and other “fakemon” fan artists have recently presented apparent proof that Pickmon features their fictional Pokemon designs, used without credit or permission.
The name “Pickmon” also sounds quite similar to another Nintendo IP: Pikmin. Whether it’s intentional or not, one thing seems clear: Unlike Pocketpair, PocketGame doesn’t appear to be interested in creating a unique, polished game that happens to be inspired by Pokemon. It seems far more interested in ripping off some of Nintendo’s best-selling franchises and rage-baiting Pokemon, Zelda, and Palworld fans into giving the game a try.
Amusingly, at the very end of the Pickmon trailer, the PocketGame logo reappears, this time misspelled as “PokeGame.”
