Pokken Tournament, the love child of Pokemon and Tekken, releases March 18 for the Wii U and it looks to bring a new fighting game to the Nintendo home console.
With a colorful cast of fighters and the hype and praise surrounding the game, it is joining fighting game mainstays like Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros. at EVO 2016. Pokken Tournament is poised to add another great title for the Wii U.
And we got to get some playtime with the game to see how Pokken Tournament translates to the Wii U from the arcade and if it holds up as a fighting game.
Here’s our impressions and observations on the Wii U release of Pokken Tournament.
SIMPLE YET DEEP
With any fighting game, you’ll first want to know about the battle system. In Pokken Tournament, the controls are simple utilizing four buttons that let’s you use a light attack (used to start your combos), a jump button, special attack/projectile and heavier attack.
You can string these inputs into different combos and they are rather simple to pull off. It’s as easy as hitting X, Y, Y, Y and you’ll unleash a major combo. This is great for casual fighting game players and those who just want to pick up and go and not put in too much time learning complex combos.
Some Pokemon also use their specials to great effect. Playing the long game to keep their opponent as far away as possible and inflict damage at the same time.
However, there is a lot of depth into every fight outside of the hand-to-hand stuff. There are 30 support Pokemon in the game that come in sets of two. The sets are not changeable, so the same two support Pokemon are grouped together always and only one support Pokemon is used in each round. If you win a round, you have the option to switch your support Pokemon to the other while losing automatically picks the second support Pokemon for you. It’s an interesting mechanic that can help decide battles.
It’s good to note that using an attacking support Pokemon won’t take your opponent’s health to zero, you’ll have to do your own dirty work. This takes away, what some may consider, “cheap” wins.
There’s also a diverse roster and a mechanic that shifts the battlefield dynamic, which we’ll get into later.
But I can see players getting frustrated with “button mashers,” as like I said earlier, it’s easy to pull off combos or players who want to spam special attacks.
DIVERSE CHARACTERS
Each playable Pokemon in Pokken Tournament is grouped into one of four categories: Standard, Power, Speed and Technique. As you can imagine, Power are those who deal a lot of damage and are normally slower while Speed is the opposite. Technique uses “tricks” to get the better of their opponent and Standard are good at all aspects of the fight.
The great thing about Pokken Tournament is the diverse roster of fighters. Not only do we get fighting-types like Lucario and Blaziken but we have Chandelure and Suicune who fans wouldn’t even think of being included in a Pokemon fighting game.
And yet, the game does a great job of making the movepool of each Pokemon fun and realistic to a fighting game setting. Pikachu, for example, won’t only use its tail to strike or its thundershocks as projectiles but the electric mouse Pokemon will kick up dirt to strike an enemy.
There are 16 playable characters with 14 ready to fight the second you boot the game up (Mewtwo and Shadow Mewtwo need to be unlocked) and none feel the same even if they are in the same group.
Shadow Mewtwo and Machamp are both Power Pokemon and yet Machamp wants to get close like Zangief from Street Fighter but can take a hit. Shadow Mewtwo, on the other hand, will use its shadow psychic powers to create swords to slash the opponent to deal massive damage. However, Shadow Mewtwo is pretty much a glass cannon and can be taken out rather easily if you aren’t careful.
But the Shift Change mechanic in Pokken Tournament is what can really change the tide of a battle and affect how you fight mid-battle.
SHIFT CHANGE IS A GAME CHANGER
Each round starts in what the game calls Field Mode. This is the 3D aspect where you can run around in circles or straight at your opponent. This is perfect for fighters who have a long game and don’t want to have a close combat fight.
But if you are thrown or take a massive hit/combo the Shift will change to Duel Phase. This is the classic Tekken-style fighting mechanic where it’s 2D and you are going at it each other.
Again, throwing or hitting the opponent with a massive hit/combo will change the phase.
Each phase normally favors a certain type of fighter. Duel Phase will benefit Pokemon like Weavile who are close-ranged fighters and want to do a lot of damage in a short amount of time. If you’re a special Pokemon, like Suicune or Gardevoir you will want to avoid this phase and you’ll want to return to Field Mode where you can avoid attacks easier.
But Gengar was by far my favorite Pokemon to fight with. It used Hypnosis to put enemies to sleep, and shadow balls as a ranged attack. It will also create spacial rifts around the opponent to strike with its arms.
It floats around and can feint a punch. All the little details in Gengar’s design and playstyle is really fun and the same can be said with the other fighters.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, Pokken Tournament is going to be a great addition for anyone who owns a Nintendo Wii U. It’s fighting mechanics are simple but nothing Nintendo has ever done before so it’s fresh and a good change from Super Smash Bros.
The roster is diverse and the detail in each Pokemon’s style is amazing, you’ll want to try them all out.
I do have a gripe with using the Wii U gamepad (surprising, I know). While it’s serviceable for this game, there’s no question that using the gamepro controller or the special Pokken Tournament controller (sold separately) would be much better. Too many times I go to use my burst attack (L + R) and it registers as just inputting L, which is to summon your support Pokemon.
And the fact that one person is forced to use the gamepad in local fights is preposterous but the overall experience of the game is positive and I, for one, look forward to really mastering this game.
