New Pokémon Competitor Launches With Over 100,000 Players on Steam - VICE
A new creature-catching game called Aniimo has just been released, and the Pokémon-like RPG has already surpassed 100,000 concurrent players on Steam. Could this be the next Palworld to offer players an alternative to Pokémon?
Aniimo is a new open-world creature-catching RPG from Chinese developer Pawprint Studio. In the game, you explore a vast world and throw cubes at wild Aniimo to catch them before using the creatures in battle. Sounds a lot like Pokémon, right?
However, Aniimo puts its own spin on the familiar formula by allowing players to transform into their creatures. You can then directly control them to explore the world, complete traversal sections and solve puzzles.
Like Palworld, Aniimo appears to offer a fresh take on the catch ’em all genre. Despite only launching today, September 16, the game is already a hit on PC. According to SteamDB, Aniimo has surpassed 101,717 peak concurrent players on Steam. Considering it is still early morning across much of North America, that is pretty impressive!
It is difficult to say whether this will be the next Palworld, but Aniimo has already impressed Pokémon fans with its gorgeous visuals. However, despite its promising player count, not everyone is enjoying the new creature-catching RPG.
At the time of writing, Aniimo has a “Mixed” user rating on Steam. One of the biggest complaints is that the game reportedly adopts a gacha-like structure after its opening tutorial, with microtransactions and paid options that can speed up progression.
“Has such potential. Very good graphics, cool design of aniimo. However about an hour into the game you are bombarded with monthly passes, stores, objectives that you can bypass by paying, ways to speed up your levelling. Its very much a gatcha game,” one Steam user review reads. Another frustrated reviewer wrote: “Aniimo promised an authentic, gacha-free creature collector, but it delivers nothing more than a glorified digital storefront.”
It should be pointed out that the game does not require players to purchase these items. Not every review has been negative, either. One player wrote: “Im already loving how cute the aniimo and everything about this game is. It’s basically Palworld + Infinity Nikki!”
While its Steam reviews are currently mixed, Aniimo is already off to a strong start based on how many people are playing it. Even if it does not reach the ridiculous heights of Palworld, this is another example of how much demand there is for new Pokémon-like games. And with Pokémon Winds and Waves still around a year and a half away, I totally get it.
