Fans can’t accuse the Pokémon Company of being afraid to try new things. In the last two years alone, there have been so many Pokémon spin-off titles for the Nintendo 3DS and mobile devices that gave all types of gamers a chance to enter the Pokémon world.
Pokken Tournament is one of those spin-offs that looks to mesh the fighting of the Tekken series with the world of Pokémon to the Nintendo Wii U.
Since it’s announcement in 2015 and release in arcades in Japan (and some in North America), Pokkén Tournament has been one of the most highly-anticipated Wii U titles in 2016. And with its March 18 Wii U release coming right up, how does the Pokémon fighting game fare?
STORY
The story of Pokkén Tournament is not what you buy the game for, to be frank. Not to say the story isn’t good, but it’s very simple and doesn’t add too much to the game. Your character just moved to the region and that’s where you run into Nia, who will teach you about the Ferrum League and how the fighting in Pokkén Tournament works.
As you’ve seen from gameplay clips, the fighting is unlike anything Pokémon has done before. You control your Pokémon’s movements as you are pitted in hand-to-hand (or claw-to-claw) to combat with your opponent.
Here’s how Pokkén Tournament works: you’ll join the Ferrum League in the Green League or D Rank and have to battle your way in a ladder-style arcade mode to improve your rank. From there, once you reach the top eight, you enter an elimination tournament and then fight the champion of that league to advance.
The already-revealed story of Shadow Mewtwo is sprinkled in between your battles, but doesn’t really take off till you reach one of the high ranking leagues.
We won’t spoil how it all shakes down, but it does make the Ferrum Region more mysterious than you may first think. Still, while fighting my way up the ranks of the Ferrum League, it wasn’t uncommon for me to forget about the whole Shadow Mewtwo plot altogether.
Pokkén Tournament is not a heavily story-driven game, and you shouldn’t go into it expecting a story mode that would rival Mortal Kombat X and other long-standing franchises.
GAMEPLAY
The story of Pokkén Tournament takes backseat to gameplay and combat, and rightfully so.
Katsuhiro Harada and the legendary Tekken staff put a lot of love and effort into the fighting system of Pokkén Tournament and it shows.
While it shares some similarities to Tekken’s battle system, namely some dashing and wall plants, Pokkén takes it a step further and introduces phase changes, Support Pokémon and more to give every battle a unique feel and up the need for solid strategy.
The controls themselves are simple and welcoming to beginners and expert fighting game players alike.
Phase changes are the biggest mechanic in Pokkén. Your battle begins in Field Mode, where you can run around the field in a 3D way. But after performing a throw or a critical hit, the mode will change to the Duel Phase and vice-versa.
What’s great about Pokkén is that each Pokémon’s movesets change slightly with the change in Phase. What Y does in Field Mode could be different in the Duel Phase, and the same goes for the type of combos you can perform.
So while the move list and combo list of each Pokémon may be short, shifting the controls with the phase leads to a deeper fighting experience and one that encourages players to master their favorite Pokémon, instead of simply memorizing a string of combos.
Pokkén Tournament goes a step further and helps you learn these moves and combos in a surprisingly deep Training Mode. There’s a Tutorial that gives you the basics, an Action Dojo mode that shows you every move a Pokémon has and the Combo Trainer that lets you try out some of each Pokémon’s combos.
Free Training mode even gives damage outputs for those hardcore fighting gamers to calculate which combos and attacks are the best for each Pokémon.
As for the AI during the Ferrum League, it’s pretty easy at the start but does a great job of scaling as you move up in rank in each individual league. However, I found myself playing the long game with Gengar and just throwing projectiles to rack up damage when I fell behind in a fight. The AI really couldn’t handle or counterattack that strategy, so take that for what it’s worth.
There were also a lot of times where a combo should clearly have taken my HP to zero but would stay at 1, giving me an opening to make a comeback and win. Similarly, I had fights where I was about to defeat my opponent and they would make a massive comeback. I know that Support Pokémon can’t take your opponent to zero, but on several occasions a combo that should have won me the match just hasn’t.
It’s a little hard to explain, but you’ll see how many times you’ll find yourself coming back to win after being at 1 HP.
CHARACTERS
I’ve talked and raved enough about the fighting already, but I felt I needed to mention the roster of fighters.
Every playable character feels unique and special. Even Pikachu and Pikachu Libre fight in totally different ways and the credit goes to the development team. While Pikachu uses more electric attacks and speed moves, Libre goes in close to perform some surprisingly devastating attacks and combos.
It was a joy to pick my Pokémon and make my way up the Ferrum League as I learned to master its fighting style and its own movesets. But I couldn’t wait to try every single Pokémon on the roster, each one brought something different to the fight.
IN-GAME CONTENT
I detailed the Training Mode and the main arcade/story mode but once that’s all finished, is there anything else to do?
Well, you’ll collect a lot of in-game currency and items to customize your personal avatar. So you can spend your time purchasing/winning all of the custom avatar items and the online titles. But outside of that, unless you’re a big online player, you may be disappointed with how much you can do.
There’s a level-up system for each Pokémon as well. Every fight in the Ferrum League increases your Pokémon’s level, which allows you to add points to a stat while fighting. You can grind up with each Pokémon, if you’re into that sort of thing, and certain online titles require a specific Pokémon to reach a certain level.
Besides that, it’s a pretty standard fighting game in terms of post-game content.
VERDICT
If you’re looking for a worthy fighting game to play, Pokkén Tournament is right for you. Even if you’re not a Pokémon fan, there is a lot to enjoy in the simple yet deep fighting system with a roster of fighters that each feel unique.
You’ll spend hours climbing your way up the rankings of the Ferrum League and simply trying out every character in a surprisingly detailed Training Mode.
But once everything is completed, the post-game content (like many fighting games) comes up short. If you’re not a big online fighter, or don’t have people to play locally with you, you may not pick up the game much. It’s also pretty disappointing that one player is forced to use the Wii U gamepad in locals; even though the gamepad works fine, you are better off with the new controller specifically made for Pokkén or using the Pro Controller.
The Shadow Mewtwo story could have been longer and better integrated into the gameplay of the Ferrum League, but Pokkén Tournament does a great job of introducing a new video game-only region that changes up the Pokémon formula like the Orre Region did in the Pokémon Colosseum series.
The Pokémon Company has another successful spin-off. Pokkén Tournament is the best fighting game of 2016 so far.
