Somebody get Nintendo’s lawyers on the blower, I’ve got something they might want to see!
Yes, the latest game to bring the idea of collecting, raising and battling strange creatures with their friends in big arenas, is… No Man’s Sky. The space exploration sim seemingly has no bounds when it comes to dropping constant, massive gameplay updates, and as it approaches its tenth anniversary it’s going all out on this free Pokémon-esque updated, titled Xeno Arena.
The feature takes full advantage of the fact that No Man’s Sky has been steadily filling its impossibly-fast universes with alien beasties for a decade now, with plenty of improvements made to their biology, diversity and utility over the years. Now, they’ll serve even more of a gameplay purpose in an entirely new multiplayer progression path for the game with new challenges to complete and rewards to earn.
It’s all based on the same loose science as the rest of the game, too, so an alien’s origin planet and environment will play a key role in how it fights and what creatures it’s at an advantage or disadvantage against, and rarer planet biomes will yield rarer and more powerful creatures. There are even legendary variants, and the ability to breed and train creatures for even more possibilities.
And while this probably isn’t quite the level of something that would trigger Nintendo’s (since-rejected) “summon character and let it fight” patent, the folks at Hello Games certainly site Pokemon among the games that have influenced Xeno Arena.
“We are huge fans of Pokémon, Palworld and pet battling in World of Warcraft. Now when discovering a rare robotic creature in a far flung purple system planet, you can check their abilities, and for instance discover a powerful neutron blast attack,” director Sean Murray, writes. “Suddenly it brings a new dimension to exploration. Rare creatures and beautiful pets become something exciting to show off in the Arena.”
You can find the full patch notes for the Xeno Arena update here.