Over the weekend, Palworld sold over 5 million copies in 3 days, and while it started as a cute success story, the tides have certainly turned in some circles.
Now it’s being accused of plagiarizing Pokémon designs which, if we’re being honest, it’s all right there. There’s clear inspiration taken from Nintendo and The Pokémon Co.’s darling franchise, but…with a projectile twist.
Nintendo is so precious with their franchises that they have little interest in adding guns or anything close to resembling even an iota of potential controversy to knock their storied games and damage their family-friendly image.
Even in games like Splatoon — a shooter to the trained, and untrained, eye — players “shoot” paint brushes and rollers not “guns.”
You take a Splatoon 3, which has outsold Super Mario Bros. Wonder three-fold as of this writing, and mix it with Pokémon tried-and-true collecting trappings and you get the massive hit that is Palworld.
The media might be blowing up palgiarism concerns, but the sales show that gamers just want to catch ‘em all and shooty shoot at the same time. Something Nintendo won’t give them anytime soon.
“Pokémon with guns” is apt, clearly what gamers want and just goes to prove how huge, relevant and influential Nintendo’s pocket monster franchise continues to be. Enough so that even those, like Palworld, can eat well off the crumbs.
Palworld’s developer, Pocketpair, doesn’t seem all that concerned at potentially fending off Nintendo’s lawyers. And good for them? At multiple millions of copies sold, and counting, they must be feeling just like Omar in “The Wire”:
“If you come at the king, you best not miss.”
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