Pocketpair revealed the release date of Palworld during Summer Game Fest's kick-off showcase and with it, plenty of footage of the game's creatures with their infamous guns.

The open-world, monster-catching, survival, crafting game, was originally announced back in 2021 on June 5, so just over two years ago. You befriend "Pals" who act much like Pokemon, going to battle for you but they also will happily work for you in your factories, producing guns to take into battle , slaving away in the kitchen, and seemingly generating electricity to power your machines. If the new trailer is anything to go by, there are going to be some huge battles to take on during the game, which should create some epic moments.

What We Know About Palworld So Far

The game will be playable single-player, though multiplayer with up to 8 other people is also on the table - it's like a Call of Duty lobby meets Pokemon. Online battles means you can live out your fantasy of a Pikachu equipped with an AK-47 while crushing human opponents that opted to bring a knife to a gun fight.

There won't be any waiting for people to take a year to take their turns though which is a huge highlight. Palworld's battles takes place in real-time and with third-person camera angles, giving you a seemingly solid overview of the battlefield. 

We can expect an open world, over 100 monsters, at least 350 items, and over 70 buildings during early access, with more content being added during the year+ Pocketpair is going to be developing the game in the wild before its official release.

The absurdity of it all is nothing short of incredible and if the systems end up being good, it could be quite an entertaining game. Let's hope that if it ever makes its way to Nintendo Switch that it out-performs Pokemon at its own game with a more complicated set of graphs to show Game Freak how its done.

Who's That Pokemon Pal?

We though it would be fun to take a look at some of the monsters and compare them to Pokemon to see the striking similarities. 

That's not to say that Pokemon is completely unique by itself as there isn't anything particularly unique about a mouse, snake, fish, or sheep, but the colors and shapes of the creatures don't leave much to the imagination. Should nicknames be a thing, you already know how unoriginal players are going to be. Hopefully the actual names of these monsters end up being more creative than "Snake" backwards Trubbish, or Luvdisc.


Bulbasaur got a bit more bushy!


Gyarados, is that you?


Generation II would like to have a word with you, Ho-Oh.


Latios you're looking like quite the speedy boy.


Drednaw is heating things up.


Bellossom has seemingly decided to not evolve in any way.


The grass is greener on the other side for Donphan.


I choose you, Flaaffychu! Seriously though, what Alabama breeding hell is going on here.


Wooloo before the guns.


Eevee makes an appearance alongside...


The obvious Flareon.


Glaceon with a hint of Umbreon.


Everyone's favourite factory slave, Leafeon.

Let us know which other creatures in the new trailer look like our favourite mons in the comments below.

Palworld launches on PC via Steam Early Access in January 2024.