While the Palworld mod that turns every critter in Pocketpair’s survival game into a Pokémon has been hit with Nintendo’s banhammer, that hasn’t stopped fans from modding the game to feature characters from other monster-taming series. Digimon mods are starting to pop up to replace Palworld’s much-debated Pokémon knock-offs with some of the franchise’s most iconic competitors.
The mods in question aren’t full-game reskins like the Pokémon one that went viral, but modders SV BOY and FrancisLouis (thanks Siliconera) have been putting individual Digimon into Palworld, swapping hoodie-wearing reptile Leezpunk with the pelt-wearing reptile Gabumon, and the swordsman-like Bushi with the all-powerful Omegamon a.k.a. Omnimon. FrancisLouis’ mod adds Garurumon to the mix, which means between the two, we’re halfway through Gabumon’s typical digivolution line. Somebody get WereGarurumon and MetalGarurumon in there, and then we’re golden.
While the Digimon mods are growing, Nintendo slapped the Pokémon one down just before The Pokémon Company put out a statement saying it would “investigate” the game for possible copyright infringement. As of now, that hasn’t gone anywhere, but Pocketpair says it’s not worried about a lawsuit and has taken necessary steps to protect the game from the legal machine.
Since getting hit with a DMCA, the folks who created the Pokémon mod have made a legally distinct mod that retools all the mods Pokémon characters into something Nintendo can’t come at them for. So Pikachu has been replaced with a “Yellow Electric Rat” that looks exactly like it sounds, with no attempts to recreate the style of either Pokémon or Palworld. The game’s capturing device has also been changed from a Poké Ball to a generic glass jar. That sounds a lot more fragile but also legally safe to use.
Despite several controversies surrounding Palworld’s character designs, Pocketpair’s survival game has sold over eight million copies.
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