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Pokken Tournament (Wii U) Hands-on Preview

by Daan Koopman - February 24, 2016, 10:26 am EST
Total comments: 3

The ultimate clash between Pocket Monsters is about to begin. It will be one battle that everyone can enjoy!

Understanding a fighting game is one thing, but being good at them is a whole other story. While I get invested in discussing Smash Bros. or Street Fighter, I will be the first to admit that I struggle a ton. When Pokkén Tournament came into my hands, I was wondering if this could be one of those games where I do get it right. The answer is a resounding yes, though getting there was tougher than I imagined.

The set-up for Pokkén Tournament is kind of clever. Unlike a regular Pokémon game where you are just an observer, you are tasked here to sync up with the monster of choice. In easier terms, you take directly control over them with some form of AR headset. You ''Synergize'' in the newly established Ferrum region and travel to various locations to become the very best.

Learning how to operate Pokkén Tournament is pretty straightforward, though it is possible to jump straight into the Ferrum battles and have fun. I took the long route and went through all the tutorials in the game. Pokkén Tournament features a complex set of moves, so knowing every little trinket can be crucial to survive in battle. While I am not saying that you can't learn all of this organically, which is something more experienced fighting game players can do, I do feel that I get the whole experience a lot better. Besides Free Training and Dojo options really help you to perfect the skills you have been building towards.

You might be asking yourself: while that is all fine and dandy, how does the fighting actually hold up? Well, even better than I actually hoped for. The one-on-one battles require you to think, focus and stay on your toes. Unlike a game like Tekken where the action always stays on the two characters, you can actually move around freely in the Field Phase. This opens the door for strategies that you didn't think possible and it makes every battle quite eventful. If you can pull off a string of successful attacks, it moves you to Duel Phase, which is the classic and traditional 2D combat. You have to deal with these phases as they come and learn to control your moves both ways. It seems daunting, but once you start playing, it doesn't get long to really get into the zone.

More importantly, Pokkén Tournament backs all of this up with a pretty nice variety of moves. A personal favorite of mine is Suicune, who can really dominate the battlefield quickly. If I needed the distance, I kept using Aurora Beam to see what the opponent would do. Some would defend, while others quickly stepped aside and rushed in for an attack. If I wanted to quickly head first into the enemy, I pressed the X button three times to perform a homing attack. As you grow in your skills, it becomes important to figure out your options. While the game does give you a recommended list of moves, you are better off toying around with all the buttons. Stringing the A-, Y- and X-buttons together with your jump and block can perform wonderful results in motion.

There is an Attack Triangle that highlights the more advanced moves you can do like Grab and Counter attacks. Another aspect that you have to learn is the Synergy Burst. You build your Synergy meter over time by doing successful attacks during your matches. By pressing L+R when the meter is full, your Pokémon becomes incredibly powerful. His/her attack and defense capabilities are greatly increased and you even recover some hit points for good measure. During this window of opportunity, you can press L+R again for a Burst Attack. If it connects with your enemy, it causes major damage and also warps the battlefield.

The final part of the puzzle are the Support Pokémon. These lovely critters can be called upon at certain moments during the match and bring many possible effects to the table. First off, there are Attack Pokémon who give the opponent additional damage. A good example is Lapras, who can use the classic Surf move to easily hit the opponent. Enhance Pokémon like Eevee and Sylveon will boost stats and recover a small amount of HP to keep yourself in the match. Last but certainly not least, there are the Disrupt Pokémon, who will attack when certain conditions are met. In other instances, they will lower your opponent’s stats for a little while. Croagunk is one of my favorites in that regard as he will use Toxic on opponents that get too close. The gas will lower the enemy’s defense, which will allow you to break the block shield quicker.

The battles usually consist of three rounds with the winner being the first to take two rounds. You usually do this by simply knocking your opponent down, but there will be times where both sides are just too defensive. There is a strict time limit on how long rounds last and if you let it expire, the winner will be decided on how much HP is left in the health bar. Between rounds, you will not only choose the Support Pokémon that help you in battle, but Nia is there to give you advice as well. This overly talkative character will give you nuggets of information and her cheers grants some special effects. She can let you raise the Synergy Gauge faster or allow you to call upon a Support Pokémon without waiting until its ready. If you do think that she talks too much, you have the option of turning her off fully.

As you win battles and use your Pokémon more often, their skill levels will be grow just as in the RPGs. Thanks to this, you can assign Skill Points to various attributes to make your favorites stronger. They can put towards Attack, Defense, Synergy and Strategy and depending on your style you can adjust them to play in a fashion that you feel confident with. If you feel that you screwed up, you can adjust it in My Town. It is here that you can see your battle records, change up your profile, set control options and way more. I have spent a ton of time here toying around with the customization options and spending the money I have earned in battle on silly outfits and hair.

Once your Pokémon is ready to fight and your character is stylish enough, there’s plenty of opportunities to fight. You can do Single Battles where you can set the difficulty, battle time and round points exactly you way you want. You are free to use any Pokémon, most of which are available at the start, and battle on any of the stages that you have unlocked. Nice and straightforward battles against CPU opponents, what more do you want? Well... maybe the Ferrum League! There are loads of enemies to battle here and plenty of ranks to climb. The opponents get rougher over time, but you really learn from the battles and it helps to really get to know the Pokémon you have chosen as your partner. There are some short cutscenes here and there, but it is mostly still images that you will be seeing here.

Ferrum League starts you out on the lowest spot on each of the ranking list and you will have to work your way up to the top eight. This process in particular takes a while, but it is split up so that you only do a few battles each time. This makes it perfect to pick up, play for a solid twenty minutes and get some satisfaction out of it. Once you meet the requirements, you are allowed into the tournament in which you work your way up in the brackets. This won't take long if you know what you are doing as it requires you to win three battles in a row. Finally, when you are crowned the winner, you will face off against the League Master for the chance to get promoted. While most of this sounds pretty serious, you can at any time just play friendly matches against the league members. This way, you will learn what your fellow competitors are made of!

If you’d rather play with friends, there are two options for you to make that happen: Local and Online Battles. With local, one player will be forced the Wii U GamePad and the other can pick any controller he or she wants. At first, I was firmly opposed to this set-up and while I think that this could still be handled a lot better, I got the hang of it. The Wii U GamePad is a perfectly fine controller to use for this game, in particular for the Field Phase. For the precise movement in the Duel Phase, I kind of would have preferred something nicer, but you learn to deal with it in time. Local has the same options as Single Battle, so there is a lot you can do to make every battle unique.

Finally, there is online play. You can participate in Ranked Battles to reach new heights on the leaderboard. Adversaries will be found based on your position and overall standing in the Win and Point Rankings. If you can't find an opponent just yet, there is nothing to worry about. The game will continue to reach, while you enjoy a fight against a CPU enemy. This way you can continue to build your skills while you wait for the perfect rival to pop up online. There are also Friendly Matches for the people that aren't really competitive. You can battle against Anyone or Friends with the basic rule set-up. While I wish that there more options in that regard, I did have a good time against the people I battled.

The presentation of Pokkén Tournament is pretty great. While the menus aren't really that much to shout about, the game looks fantastic in motion. The Pokémon and environments are incredibly detailed and there are trinkets everywhere that will keep you engaged. You can see really the fur of Pikachu and Suicune's hair waves around beautifully. It is extremely clear that the developers have put a ton of effort into this. The music, however, is somewhat of a mixed bag. I don't think that it is awful, but nothing really stood out to me. I can barely remember any of the tunes that I heard while playing. It is inoffensive background music, but nothing more than that I'm afraid.

Pokkén Tournament was more delightful than I expected. There are certainly elements that will raise concerns, but it is hard to deny that there isn't a quality title underneath. The Pokémon and battle system are truly fantastic, and they keep me engaged every time. It helps that it looks brilliant in motion and Pokkén is your only way to see Pokémon rendered in HD. Content wise, I am not sure if this will be something that I will continue to play for a long period of time non-stop. But being said, if people rally behind the online, I don't think that this title will never truly die down. Next to that, there are great learning tools that will really prepare you for those rougher times ahead!

Talkback

EnnerFebruary 24, 2016

Quote:

Nia is there to give you advice as well. This overly talkative character will give you nuggets of information and her cheers grants some special effects. She can let you raise the Synergy Gauge faster or allow you to call upon a Support Pokémon without waiting until its ready. If you do think that she talks too much, you have the option of turning her off fully.

Oh, thank Arceus. She was beginning to grate even in the short videos I've seen.

This seems to be shaping up to be a standard home port of an arcade game. It sounds like it's a fun arcade game too! I hope it has legs.

Evan_BFebruary 24, 2016

As many legs as a roster of sixteen can have.

Hmmm... does anyone know how the game comes off on people who aren't fighting game fans? I don't think I have anything against the genre, I have fond memories of utterly button mashing in Tekken 2 and Battle Arena Toshinden on the Playstation, but really today I'm afraid to pick up anything that isn't Smash, it seems so intimidating.

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WiiU

Game Profile

Pokkén Tournament Box Art

Genre Fighting
Developer Namco Bandai
Players1 - 2

Worldwide Releases

na: Pokkén Tournament
Release Mar 18, 2016
PublisherNintendo
RatingEveryone 10+
jpn: Pokkén Tournament
Release Mar 18, 2016
PublisherNintendo
RatingAll Ages
eu: Pokkén Tournament
Release Mar 18, 2016
PublisherNintendo
Rating7+
aus: Pokkén Tournament
Release Mar 19, 2016
PublisherNintendo
RatingParental Guidance

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