“Pokémon with guns” game Palworld comes with scary tough Lucario clone

Over the past couple of months, Palworld has caught a lot of Pokémon fans’ attention. It is a third-person creature-catching and fighting game with a lot of similarities to the franchise they know and love—but with guns.

One of the recently revealed Pals, called Anubis, looks a lot like one of the most popular Pokémon, Lucario. With a little bit of an Egyptian theme, linking to the name Anubis, this Pal looks to be a scary one to fight as it can punch, kick, and jump with a lot of power. Players will have to use both their Pals—and their automatic rifles—to whittle Anubis down.

The video showcases both the similarities and differences between Palworld and Pokémon. Anubis and Lucario share the same overall body shape and they attack the same way—with punches and kicks—only missing the latter’s signature Aura Sphere move. Where it separates pretty significantly is the gameplay—or, rather, the gunplay. 

Related: New Palworld trailer shows off explosive gameplay, confirms it’s coming to Xbox

The fact that you have to use a rifle alongside your Pals to defeat enemies makes it a little absurd and quite promising at the same time. One of the biggest criticisms of the Pokémon franchise is its lack of innovation, only going open-world in recent games like Pokémon Legends: Arceus. 

The video also showcases four other Pals, all on the player’s side. The first, called Gorirat, looks like Luxray, albeit a little more bipedal and gorilla-like. Secondly, we have Relaxaurus, who looks to be like a more dinosaur-like version of Quagsire. Third off, we have Lamball, who just straight-up looks like Wooloo, a recent fan-favorite. Lastly, we have Foxparks, who looks like a mix between Flareon and Nickit, who definitely looks like the most original of the group seen in the video. That isn’t too high a bar, especially since the fire fox is a staple across many monster games.

From the Palworld trailer at the Summer Games Fest, the game is clearly aiming to go for a Pokémon-like game of their own, but with improved graphics and unique gunplay for the genre. One thing we can tell for sure so far is that the design of these Pals shares a lot with Pokémon, and we’ll have to see if the rest of the game is a copy, homage, or a rare new experience, when it releases in January 2024.