They all share a certain familiarity with Pokémon that came before, but each has their own unique twist with regards to their design. I was almost immediately reminded of Pokémon Black and White and the fifth generation’s approach to its world and creatures. But overall their designs are very creative and expressive. Sure you have your starter Coromon, which is neatly part of an elemental triangle and there’s plenty of bug, snake and dog-like Coromon walking about. It makes some dedicated efforts to invite comparison, but also shows how Coromon tries to bring its own ideas to the table.

But I was struck by how fresh the world and design of Coromon feels. The details may be different, instead of balls you throw spinners at wild Coromon and you’re actually a researcher gathering data for a tech company, not trying to be the very best like no one ever was. You’re an adolescent leaving home to explore his country in search of mysterious creatures with their own elemental typings and you use your own monsters to battle them and other trainers. So yes, on paper Coromon is almost comically a knock-off of Pokémon. It may just be the Pokémon experience you’ve been looking for, if you’re hankering for the more traditional style of the early generations. You might mistake this as a simple Pokémon clone, but based on my time with the game so far, I’ve been really impressed with how Coromon differentiates itself from what came before. And I think the creators of Coromon have realized this. Of course, in hindsight, putting your own original creations in the world of Pokémon really isn’t that high a bar. As a kid, I was stunned by how well these creators had understood Pokémon and gave it their own spin. This game had its own Pokémon designs and a far more in-depth story than anything presented in Game Freak’s original. The one that had me absolutely hooked was a modified version of Pokémon Emerald called Pokémon Quartz. I was about eight years old when I discovered Pokémon ROM hacks. I would like to mention that I do feel confident in recommending Coromon at this time on Switch.

Reviewer's note: In the interest of accurately representing the complete game, I have chosen to post this review unscored until I have been able to see more of the world and advanced gameplay.

Coromon mino