After a long time of waiting, Pokken Tournament finally made its way to the rest of the world on March 18th, 2016. Pokken Tournament is the love child spawned from Bandai Namco's "Tekken" series and Game Freak's "Pokemon." Ditch everything you know about the RPG mechanics of Pokemon and the strict execution and 3D fighting mechanics of Tekken and let Pokken Tournament guide you into the perfect balance created within these two games.
Pokken Tournament takes place in the fictional region Ferrum where trainers battle their way up the league rankings and face the league master to advance to the next league. Your player avatar is the newbie who has arrived and Nia is your friend who cheers you on during the matches and gives you hints and warnings and gently guides you into the mechanics of Pokken. Together, you two go up the league ladders while also solving the mystery of Shadow Mewtwo.
Mechanics and graphic wise, Pokken moves at an eye popping 60fps and the graphics are beautiful. The every Pokemon has a shiny luster coat of fur or skin. This brings an immersion and realism never before seen in a Pokemon game. Although, this drops to 30fps when playing local multiplayer with a friend as one player uses the Pro Controller and the other uses the Game Pad. It's barely noticeable in my eyes at least.
Pokken fights work in two ways. When the match begins, both Pokemon can move about freely in the Field Phase, where the two throw projectiles or find other ways to close the distance. Duel Phase begins when one player lands an attack and then the true battle begins. Duel Phase is where all Pokemon do most of their damage and the camera shifts from the over the shoulder to a traditional 2D fighting game camera with each Pokemon staring the other down. Control mechanics also change in this phase and so do certain characters movesets.
Another layer of the fight are Support Pokemon which features a multitude of different combinations. These include Emolga and Fennekin, Espeon and Umbreon, Frogadier and Eevee and each has their own uses and benefits. They even include legendary Pokemon such as Reshiram and Cresselia. Support sets always work in but you can only choose one to use at the beginning of each round adding a layer of strategy to each match.
Attacks in Pokken work through a Triangle System that can be easy to learn but hard to master. There are three types of attacks: Normal; the punches and kicks, Counter Attacks; which absorb normal attacks and strikes back hard, and Grabs which beat out Counter Attacks. Master the Triangle System and every match will become an easy win. There is also the Synergy system, where every Pokemon becomes powered up through their Mega Evolution like Charizard or Gardevoir or they get stronger in general like Pikachu and some gain new moves to use while in Synergy Burst. Every character's super move or Synergy Burst Attack is only available through this mode but is only usable one time for the round.
Pokken Tournament has a total of 16 characters featuring fan favorites like Charizard, Pikachu, Mewtwo, and Lucario and a healthy mix of every generation. Each have varying health points with Gengar and Chandelure having the lowest at 510 and Garchomp and Machamp having 660. Damage output is very high in this game, leading to some quick matches. I really enjoy that every character feels entirely different from each other. There are clones of Pikachu and Mewtwo; aptly named Pikachu Libre and Shadow Mewtwo. While being the same character they play drastically different from one another. Pika-Libre is a wrestler and grappling character while her male counterpart is an offensive and combo oriented fighter. Shadow Mewtwo uses some of his HP to increase the damage of his attacks or change their effects.
Pokken is great but it doesn't come without its flaws. The single player is extremely tedious. You have to battle through each league and move up the ranks to face the league master and get promoted to the next rank. There are four: Green, Blue, Red, and Chroma League. Each has a varied number of trainers to face but the stickler is that you have to battle into the top 8 ranked trainers and then face off with them in a tournament and then face the League Master after that tourney. The CPU gradually gets smarter forcing you to change up your gameplay and adapt to new opponents which is a good thing but the leagues end up feeling more grinding and less fun. One thing I do appreciate is that game has a tutorial mode that teaches you the mechanics of the game and how to play it and even tutorials for each characters moves. Playing through the basic tutorials unlocks advanced tutorials and helps improve understanding of the game. I truly wish more fighting games did things like this to help promote new players getting into the game and learning more about it.
Pokken Tournament is the best thing to come to the Wii U in a long time. It feels fresh and new and innovative and is a lot of fun. I strongly suggest getting this game and truly live out the Pokemon battles we've dreamed of doing.
