Coromon Available Now on Nintendo Switch eShop

A few months ago Nintendo surprised me with the announcement that Coromon would be coming to the Nintendo Switch eShop. Previously the title was only available on PC and saw decent success, selling more than 100,000 digital copies. At a glance, Coromon clearly takes heavy inspiration from Gamefreak’s Pokémon franchise. I would even go as far as to call it a “clone” just from the trailer and screenshots alone.

Coromon was developed by a small independent studio by the name of TRAGsoft and was released earlier this year on Steam. I originally wrote the game off as nothing more than a cheap knockoff, but upon researching more into the features, I am certainly more interested in checking it out for myself. Coromon not only features a built-in difficulty mode, but also a randomizer and Nuzlocke mode which allows for a wide range of gameplay options that the Pokemon series has been severely lacking in. The game also appears to have a vibrant community with an official discord server and support from the developers for cross-play and PVP.

In the past, Nintendo has been very strict over protecting their IPs. Dozens of great Pokémon fan games have been shut down by the studio after gaining popularity amongst the fanbase. This is a shame as I feel Pokemon has become incredibly stagnant over the years, with most of the creativity in the genre coming from the community itself. Coromon is clearly toeing the line when it comes to copyright infringement and so it surprises me Nintendo would choose to endorse the game at all.

Nonetheless, I am happy the game is receiving success and hope its success will encourage GameFreak to modernize and adapt to current standards, rather than staying mired in their somewhat dated ideals surrounding the monster-catching genre. You can tell this game was made as more of a love letter to the franchise that inspired its creation and focuses on delivering a charming gameplay experience for all ages. Here’s hoping that we can see some more competition in the monster-catching genre.