The Internet Is Discussing Pickmon, a New Pokémon, Zelda and Palworld Rip-Off That Doesn’t Hide Its Obvious Influences

Featuring a character dressed like Link and a creature that looks like Pikachu, upcoming Steam game Pickmon isn’t afraid to hide the games it’s clearly, er, inspired by.

A initial trailer for Pickmon, below, begins with Link, or whoever the main character is supposed to be, leaping from a clifftop that’s clearly a riff on Breath of the Wild’s Great Plateau, while familiar-sounding piano notes tinkle away in the background.

Not-Link deploys his glider, and is shown to have a not-Pikachu clinging onto his shoulder. A dragon-like creature definitely not based on Rayquaza then also drifts past — and this is all in the trailer’s first two seconds.

https://twitter.com/PickMon_EN/status/2029789162333949990?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The next few minutes of Pickmon footage offer much more of the same, with creatures familiar to both Pokémon and the gun-toting Pals of Palworld (the previous Pokémon-like game to land on Steam, which is also still the subject of a Pokémon Company lawsuit), as well as some rudimentary base-building and farming mechanics.

The trailer concludes with a prompt to go wishlist Pickmon on Steam now, and to look out for a future release that’s rather ambitiously “planned for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation.”

Let’s be honest here, everything about this trailer looks set to spark obvious comparisons to Nintendo properties. Even the name of the game’s developer, Pokegame, seems part of the bit. For an indie developer looking to launch its first game, it’s a safe way to grab attention — and if Nintendo was to start legal action, well, that’s even more publicity guaranteed. And already, a Pokémon player has claimed Pickman copied one of their designs for a Pokémon fan design, too.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether Nintendo will bother getting involved. While the comparisons between Pickmon and Pokémon are far from subtle, Nintendo currently seems to have gotten bogged down in its previous Palworld lawsuit, which has dragged on for over a year while Palworld itself remains on sale, albeit with a few minor gameplay tweaks.

Perhaps notably, Pickmon does not seem to include the same catch mechanic as Pokémon, which Palworld initially contained at launch, before tweaking. Instead of creatures being caught and unleashed from a ball, Pickmon seems to have them being summoned forth from magic cards.

“What if we take Palworld, and take its designs EVEN CLOSER to the original Pokémon designs were inspired and even dare promising a release on Switch?” wrote one fan after seeing Pickmon in action. “This is the smash bros ‘everyone is here’ trailer of plagerism [sic],” said another. “We have Pikachu at home ass trailer,” said a third.

But despite the criticism, it’s hard to imagine Pickmon’s developer is upset about all the attention. Whether it will now also gain the attention of Nintendo, however, remains to be seen.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social