Earlier today, at the Pokémon World Championships in Boston, MA, The Pokémon Company announced the springtime release of the long-awaited Pokkén Tournament on the Wii U. While the game is already out in Japanese arcades, Katsuhiro Harada's (Tekken creator) latest fighting game had yet to be confirmed for console release until now.
For those unaware, Pokkén Tournament is a spin-off game of the Pokémon franchise which brings it into the fighting game genre. Developed by Namco Bandai (the developers of Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, among others), Pokkén Tournament features a similar type of 3D Arena gameplay seemingly inspired by other fighting games by the company such as Tekken and Naruto Ninja Storm.
Alongside this comes with the reveal of a brand new fighter, Pikachu Libre, a Lucha Libre-style Pikachu. Based on the shape of it's tail, Pikachu Libre is the female forme of the Electric Mouse Pokémon. Compared to the normal Pikachu, she plays with a flashier style with moves akin to her namesake form of wrestling.
Credits to Smashboard's very own @AlphaZealot, a planner of the event, for the image.
Later today,
The 2015 Pokkén Tournament Invitational is set to happen. All the entrants have been pooled from various FGC (Fighting Game Community) scenes like Hugo "HugS" Gonzales and Evil Geniuses' Justin "JWong" Wong . It is set to happen at 1:30 EST on the
official Pokémon stream featuring commentary from D'Ron "D1" Maingrette and Mark "MarkMan" Julio.
What are your thoughts on Pokkén? Are you interested in competing in it in the future? Hyped for the invitational? Comment your thoughts down below!
Popipenguin is cautiously yet anxiously HYPED for the release of the game and wants to run it at his tournaments. He can't wait to see more footage of the game, especially in a competitive setting! To ride the hype train alongside him as well as to share your thoughts, suggestions and inquiries about the article and future ones, chat with him on Twitter at @AdmiralPopi.
