Pokemon Clone Pickmon accused of ripping off fan art

In the last day, a new game called Pickmon appeared on Steam out of the blue, and it's ready to become one Pokémon the clone that also draws inspiration from Palworldbut it allegedly rips off fan art for its own animals. Where Pokémon-like games emerge, controversy is bound to follow in some shape or form. In some cases it involves similar mechanics and designs, but in the worst cases it can be outright plagiarism. Pickmons trailer on Steam clearly doesn't hold back Pokémon element, and one could argue that the main character looks a little too much like Link from Breath of the Wildand that the yellow animal is just a Pikachu reskin, but now there's a case to be made for Pickmon uses Pokémon hell species.

Palworld's Pal design has already sparked controversy among the Pokémon society a few years ago, but it seems that Pickmon is not afraid to draw inspiration from both Palworld and Pokémon. Some animals are very similar to both games, with a creature wearing a mushroom cap that looks a lot like Breloom and a mossy mammoth that looks almost identical to Mammorest. Yet one of the creatures on Pickmons cover and one in its trailer are eerily similar Pokémon fan art for Meganium and Ceruledge.

palworld-successor-steam-axima-creature-monster-collecting-game-2026-release-march-similarities-differences-good-bad-why

Family

New Creature Collector on Steam could be the dark horse successor to Palworld

Palworld has grown to become one of the best monster collecting games on Steam, and another one coming out this year could be a worthy successor.

Pokemon, Palworld Clone Pickmon is already facing art theft charges

A Twitter user named jayjay_mons (@pokejayjay) shared an image of his fan-made Mega Ceruledge, which is extremely similar to one of the creatures featured in Pickmons trailer. The design is eerily reminiscent of jayjay_mon's work, but some fans claim this could be a case in point Pickmon merged Ceruledge with Palworld's Paladius, creates a centaur-like animal that otherwise looks like fan art. This is just speculation now, but there is an argument to be made for it Pickmon to use fan art for its design, with an example that is even more striking.

Balance the critics' averages

Light (6) Medium (8) Hard (10)

This comes from a Twitter post going viral, originally made by RJ Palmer (@arvalis), sharing screenshots of an artist's work on Instagram that precedes Pickmons reveals and represents a fan-made version of Mega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 animals for Pickmon. Not only is Pickmons 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: ZA. There are some small differences, but they are not obvious if you look at the pictures side by side.

Pokémon and Palworld clone Pickmon will definitely be talked about for how it takes well-known designs and even game mechanics and makes them its own. The same game cover as the alleged art theft of Mega Meganium also includes a creature similar to Charizard, likely intended to appeal Pokémon fans. One could argue that even the name, Pickmonsounds a bit too much like Pokémon. It is unclear at this stage whether more artists will come forward with claims that stolen work has been used in Pickmonbut the Meganium situation seems very on the nose.

Unfortunately, whether intentional or unintentional, it's quite common for art-related controversies to crop up in video games. For example, Marathons art plagiarism scandal tarnished the game's reputation before its release, but it was fortunately 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 Pickmoncould this issue become bigger than just fan art, especially if Nintendo decides to sue the company for copyright infringement. This remains to be seen, but for now, Pickmon not doing so well on social media.