In the past day, a new game called Pickmon appeared on Steam out of the blue, and it’s poised to be a Pokemon clone that also draws inspiration from Palworld, but it’s allegedly ripping off fan art for its own critters. Where Pokemon-like games show up, controversy is bound to follow in some shape or form. In some cases, it’s a matter of similar mechanics and designs, but in the worst ones, it can be straight-up plagiarism. Pickmon‘s trailer on Steam clearly doesn’t hold back the Pokemon elements, and one could argue the main character looks a bit too much like Link from Breath of the Wild, and that the yellow critter is just a Pikachu reskin, but now there’s a case to be made for Pickmon using Pokemon fan art.
Palworld‘s Pal designs already sparked controversy among the Pokemon community a few years ago, but it seems that Pickmon is not afraid to draw inspiration from both Palworld and Pokemon. Some critters are very similar to either game, with a creature wearing a mushroom cap looking a lot like Breloom, and a mossy mammoth looking almost identical to Mammorest. Yet, one of the creatures on Pickmon‘s cover and one in its trailer are eerily similar to Pokemon fan art for Meganium and Ceruledge.
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Pokemon, Palworld Clone Pickmon is Already Facing Art Theft Accusations
A Twitter user by the name of jayjay_mons (@pokejayjay) shared a picture of their fan-made Mega Ceruledge, which is extremely similar to one of the critters shown in Pickmon‘s trailer. The design is eerily reminiscent of jayjay_mons’ work, but some fans argue that this could be a case where Pickmon merged Ceruledge with Palworld‘s Paladius, creating a centaur-like critter that incidentally looks like fan art. This is just speculation now, but there’s a case to be made for Pickmon to be using fan art for its designs, with an example that’s even more glaring.
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This comes from a Twitter post going viral, originally made by RJ Palmer (@arvalis), sharing screenshots of an artist’s work on Instagram that predates Pickmon‘s reveal and represents a fan-made version of Mega Meganium. This design, made by el.psy.fake, was most likely used for one of the cover critters for Pickmon. Not only is Pickmon‘s critter almost identical to el.psy.fake’s work, but it even uses the exact same movement of the antennae from the fan-made Mega Meganium in Pokemon Legends: Z-A. There are some slight differences, but they’re not apparent if glancing at the images side by side.
Pokemon and Palworld clone Pickmon is bound to be talked about for how it takes renowned designs and even game mechanics and makes them its own. The same game cover as the alleged Mega Meganium art theft also includes a creature that looks very much like Charizard, which is most likely intentional to appeal to Pokemon fans. One could argue that even the name, Pickmon, sounds a bit too much like Pokemon. It’s unclear at this stage if more artists will come forward with claims of stolen work being used in Pickmon, but the Mega Meganium situation seems very on the nose.
Unfortunately, whether it’s intentional or accidental, it’s fairly common for art-related controversy to come up in video games. For example, Marathon‘s art plagiarism scandal tanked the game’s reputation before it came out, but it was luckily resolved amicably with a settlement that the original artist was happy with, and they were also mentioned in the game’s credits. In the case of Pickmon, this issue may end up being larger than fan art alone, especially if Nintendo decides to sue the company for copyright infringement. This remains to be seen, but for now, Pickmon is not faring too well on social media.
- Released
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January 19, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen Due To Violence
- Developer(s)
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Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Publisher(s)
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Pocket Pair, Inc.
