Forget Pokemon Stadium, there’s a new Pokemon fighting game in town. Actually, don’t forget Pokemon Stadium. It was awesome.
The newly announced Pokken Tournament looks set to be the spiritual successor to The Pokemon Company’s classic beat ’em up and will be heading to the Wii U in spring 2016. The game already exists in arcade form in Japan, but this will be the first time it’s been shipped abroad for a console release.
The announcement was made during the legitimately real Pokemon World Championships in Boston, Ma this week and will feature the likes of Pikachu, Suicune, Charizard and Gengar amongst others. An official line up has not been revealed, and it’s worth pointing out that the footage in the trailer is taken from the arcade version of the game. Pokken Tournament has been put together by publishers Bandai Namco, who are the brains behind the Tekken franchise, hence Pokken. Pokemon and Tekken. Incredible.
While Pokken Tournament does look like a pretty solid fighting game – and let’s face it, who doesn’t love Pokemon – it’s highly unlikely to turn the poor fortune of the Wii U around. If you’ve got a mate that owns the console though, be sure to badger them into buying the game so you can play it. Do it for Pikachu. Do it or Ash.
Mark is the Gaming Editor for UNILAD. Having grown up a gaming addict, he’s been deeply entrenched in culture and spends time away from work playing as much as possible. Mark studied music at University and found a love for journalism through going to local gigs and writing about them for local and national publications.