Nintendo Has Already Come After That Pokémon Palworld Mod

Because of course they did.

Avatar photoBy Kieron Verbrugge

Update: In a completely unsurprising development, ToastedShoes has had his initial tease for the Pokémon Palworld mod removed from social media by what appears to be a DMCA takedown from Nintendo.

Toasted has told IGN that he still intends to release the full video on his YouTube channel, but will comply with any further notices from Nintendo, saying, “We would love to complete the mod pack and release it for free to the public, however for now we are playing it by ear as we don’t want any legal troubles.”

While the internet continues to argue over whether Palworld’s developer, Pocket Pair, has done a Poké-plagiarism with some of its creature models, the game itself continues to absolutely smash sales and Steam records to the point where the studio is struggling to keep up with incoming bug reports and server demand.

There are some clear reasons for the game’s huge and immediate popularity, and one of them is without a doubt the appeal of playing something that evokes some of the core ideas of Pokémon but offers a completely different type of open-world adventure with its survival and crafting mechanics. The modern Pokemon games are obviously still hugely successful and have a lot to offer fans, but there’s clearly something very potent in this particular mix that’s got folks lining around the block. Does this mean Nintendo should be taking notes and looking to make an official Pokémon open-world survival game where you can shoot Pikachu and hook Miltank up to a cruel milking machine?

It’s arguable, but at least one person is determined to make the dream a reality, and that’s ToastedShoes, an Aussie YouTuber who recently made waves with a series of videos showing Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks characters murdering each other in Mortal Kombat 1 via mods (seriously, go look at them). Now, Toasted is teasing a brand-new video that features, you guessed it, a Pokémon mod overhaul for Palworld. While mod support isn’t officially in Palworld yet, the creator says that “the first mod pack” to put Pokemon in Palworld is “already out” and will be presented in full in an upcoming video. A teaser video shows various ‘mons in place of the game’s original Pals and even has Ash Ketchum as the playable protagonist:

While we wait to see more from this, it’ll be interesting to see if and how Nintendo responds given its typically-staunch stance on things like this. If it wasn’t going to go after Palworld for creature similarities, it’s sure as hell going to be closely watching a mod pack that straight up puts proper Pokémon into the game and gives Misty a shotgun.