Remember when every creature-collecting game was going to be a Pokemon killer?

Maybe youre too young.

When I say everyone, I mean media commentators and the like.

Pokemon XD_ Gale of Darkness character Michael in front of the Nintendo Switch 2 on an orange background

The phenomenon did not let up.

There are toys in stores, branded clothes in the big Tesco, the lot.

But if Pokemon ascended to capitalist godhood, where did all of its supposed killers end up?

A split image of Nemona from Pokemon Scarlet Violet and Eevee from Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! with Pikachu over top.

Digimon

Digimonand Yu-Gi-Oh!

were the original Pokemon killers.

However, Im focusing on the video games here, so Ill disregard Yu-Gi-Oh!

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as it struggled to compete in that arena compared to the TCG and anime.

Thats more than can be said for many of the other games on this list.

Plus, Im cautiously optimistic aboutDigimon Story: Time Stranger, releasing later this year.

monsters from Palworld, TemTem, Digimon, and Cassette Beasts

Spectrobes

Do you remember Spectrobes?

It amazes me to tell you that there were three Spectrobes games, released between 2007 and 2009.

Im not sure that would fix the63 rating on Metacritic, though.

Gym Leader Blue challenges the trainer to a battle in Pokemon Gold and Silver.

It had cool designs.

It had intense double battles with far more strategy than contemporary Pokemon titles.

It hadPokemonsorry, Tems, following behind you.

Main chracter Rallen and his companions in Spectrobes.

So what went wrong?

TemTem threw a number of ideas at the wall to see what stuck.

Overall, TemTem was largely successful.

Battling Khoury, Daughter of Crystal, in Temtem

It had a peak of nearly 40,000 players on Steam and has spawned a spin-off,TemTem Swarm.

Did it kill Pokemon?

But it didnt kill itself trying, either.

Triple-A Games

Palworld

Palworld.

Palworld, Palworld, Palworld.

What more can we say about the Pokemon copycat that took the world by storm in January 2024?

Pokemon

It blatantly copied Pokemon designs, gave them guns, and put them to work at the furnace.

Lets just hope the Nintendo lawsuit doesnt turn this Pokemon killer into a killed-by-Pokemoner.

Ten Thousand Indie Hopefuls

There have always been independent developers trying their hands at the Pokemon formula.

Cassette Beasts wasone of my favouritesof recent years, but there are a bunch releasing every year.

At this point, Pokemon is never going to be killed.

Nintendo has knocked it out of the park with the Switch 2 Direct.

But maybe not in the way it thought it would.