The survival adventure Palworld is the surprise hit of the 2023/24 winter season. Launched in Steam Early Access in December 2023, the open-world game developed by Pocketpair reached over two million people at the same time on Valve’s gaming platform alone.
This relegated well-known brands such as Counter-Strike GO, Lost Ark, Dota 2 and even Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring to the bottom of the Steam rankings. Palworld broke all records. The initial hype was enormous and only died down after a few weeks.
Nevertheless, over half a million fans still play Palworld regularly. Not bad for an early access game from a previously small development studio.
Beforehand, Palworld was often characterized as a “Pokémon with weapons”. After all, the design of the creatures is strongly inspired by pocket monsters. However, the actual gameplay differs significantly from previous Pokémon games: the battles take place in real time in Palworld, and the captured creatures can also be used as cheap labor in your own camp.
Survival aspects, resource mining and base building make Palworld more of a daring mix of genres than a true Pokémon clone. Maybe that’s also the reason why Palworld has noticeably lost its reach recently. Even though Pocketpair’s open-world adventure uses many elements of Pokémon, at its core it is more of a survival game with a sandbox character.
Nevertheless, the connection to Pokémon and game elements such as collecting and training monsters may have been a reason to buy Palworld. We are therefore introducing you to ten games that also work with the Pokémon principle!
Robopon
Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Atlus
System: Game Boy, Game Boy Color
“Imitation is the highest form of recognition,” the Irish writer Oscar Wilde once said. And so it’s hardly surprising that the list of Pokémon clones is longer than the beard of the druid Miraculix. But before we turn our attention to current titles, let’s look back.
Robopon, developed by Hudson Soft in collaboration with Red Company, took off in 1998. two years after the publication of Pocket Monsters, he took up its ideas and adapted them more or less creatively for his own purposes.
In it we control little Cody, who travels to Porombo Island to defeat the best Robopon collectors, the “Legend 7”. Instead of monsters, we collect little robots that we pit against each other in turn-based battles. The training here takes place in the form of software updates and of course there are also balanced elementary skills.
In Robopon, copying Pokémon goes all the way to naming versions and successors. The first part was available in the Sun and Star editions, followed later by Moon. The second part was released in 2001 in the Cross and Ring versions. That sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it?
Quelle: Hudson Soft
Robopon
Nexomon Extinction
Developer: Vewo Interactive
Publisher: Pqube / Vewo Interactive
System: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Mobile
At first glance, Nexomon Extinction looks like the life simulation Stardew Valley. Instead, it is a modern Pokémon clone that takes up almost all of the virtues of its role model. At the beginning of the game we first leave the orphanage where our character grew up and then join the Tamers Guild. This also gives us our starting Nexomon.
As in Pokémon, the creatures have different characteristics and elemental affiliations. During the course of the game we compete against other trainers as well as against roaming tyrant Nexomon, either following the main story or completing side missions.
Nexomon Extinction was rated “very positively” by the Steam community and, in addition to its confident Pokémon gameplay, particularly impresses with its charming cel-shaded graphic style.
Quelle: Pqube / Vewo Interactive Nexomon Extinction
Cassette Beasts
Developer: The Exchange Studio
Publisher: Raw Fury
System: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch
Giving a new twist to the tried and tested Pokémon gameplay is a big challenge. Cassette Beasts does this brilliantly. Here we don’t send monsters into battle, we transform ourselves into one!
Source: Raw Fury Cassette Beasts And this is where the retro touch comes into play: With empty cassettes and our Walkman we capture creatures roaming around in the open game world.
In battle, we and our companion transform into previously selected monsters. Very cool: In particularly difficult situations, we can merge with our partner to form a Cassette Beast and thus gain access to new attacks. The companions are not just accessories: between fights we get to know them and have to complete personal missions. The better the connection, the stronger the fusion.