Over the years that Pokemon has endured as a worldwide trend, its become clear that a lot of rival video games want to capitalize on the franchise's addictive gameplay, colorful design, and, perhaps most of all, its multimedia appeal. From the recent release of Temtem, an indie game heavily influenced by Nintendo's popular creation, to the likes of Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh, a lot of now-popular properties clearly learned a thing or two from Pokemon's design.
However, it seems one new property clearly owes a little bit too much to Nintendo's incredibly popular franchise, with ANIME GAMES' Capsmon Adventure utilizing the same character designs, artwork, and literal creatures from the Pokemon world. Appearing for free on the Microsoft store, it's very clear that the game completely shatters copyright regulations, especially seeing as the title uses microtransactions.
Jumping onto the game's page on the Microsoft Store, it's instantly obvious that Capsmon is little more than just a thinly veiled Pokemon knock off. Not only do the game's images sport the series' human characters like Ash Ketchum, May, and Professor Oak, but they also highlight the franchise's Pokemon, including Bulbasaur, Charizard, and, most crucially, Pikachu. The description reads "Capsmon Adventure is a capsule-monster collection game with cute cartoon figures and beautiful and delicate scene, which provides you with lots of fun when exploring the fantastic Capsmon world!" Its blatantly a breach of copyright, which is only made worse when you notice that the game "offers in-app purchases," meaning ANIME GAMES are financially benefiting off of Nintendo's intellectual property.
Other pieces of artwork feature several clear breaches of copyright, with some literally sporting the Pokemon name itself. Alongside that, a number of characters, locations, and "Capsmon" feature the same names as those from the franchise, with the likes of Team Rocket and the Sinnoh Region being mentioned. Nintendo is going to be looking to shut this down sooner rather than later, especially with so much of its intellectual property being ripped off so blatantly.
As for the actual Pokemon franchise, the game recently got a ton of new details surrounding the Sword and Shield DLC, which will add new creatures, gigantamax forms, and an entirely fresh island for players to explore. It looks to be a good chunk of new content for those who have already made their way through the original game's content and will be an essential addition for any huge Pokemon fan. There's no denying that it'll blow Capsmon Adventure out the water.
Source: Microsoft Store