Get ready, Pokémon fans. Pokkén Tournament, the Japanese arcade Pokémon fighting game, is officially coming to Wii U in Spring 2016.
Pokkén Tournament is a mashup of Pokémon and Tekken, a popular fighting-game franchise. Players will spend the majority of the game in head-to-head Pokémon battles, rather than exploring, talking, collecting, and adventuring like they do in the main games in the Pokémon franchise.
We initially learned of the possibility of this game coming to the U.S. last month when arcade chain Dave and Buster’s Senior Vice President Kevin Bachus hosted an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. At the time, he was excited about testing the game in American arcades. This new announcement came at the Pokémon World Championships, which are being held in Boston right now.
Pokémon games have, in the past, not limited themselves to any single style of gameplay. While the main franchise of games (including Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and Pokémon X & Y) tend to be pretty similar to one another, the Pokémon empire is massive and includes candy-crush-esque match games, photo-snapping games, drawing games, and fighting games. If you’ve never played a Tekken game, Pokkén Tournament will be reminiscent of Super Smash Bros., but with fewer flashy items or gimmicks.
That isn’t to say there will be no flashy items or gimmicks. The new trailer (above) in addition to announcing the American console release of the game, also announces Pikachu Libre, a new version of Pikachu that is dressed as a Mexican lucha libre wrestler.
Pikachu Libre is a new version of Pikachu that is based on lucha libre.
Nintendo has been getting a lot less shy about mixing up its game properties in the last few years. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, the new Mario Kart 8 DLC, Nintendo Land, Hyrule Warriors, the upcoming Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival and the upcoming Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam all combine two or more franchises in one game.
What combo do you think Nintendo will release next?
