Pokkén Tournament is a fighting game developed by Bandai Namco with The Pokémon Company, released in arcades in Japan in 2015, then on Wii U in 2016. Here is its complete fact sheet.
| Japanese title | ポッ拳 POKKÉN TOURNAMENT |
|---|---|
| Title in Germany | Pokémon Tekken |
| Platforms | Arcade cabinet (Japan), Wii U |
| First shown | Pokémon Game Show, August 2013 |
| Official announcement | August 26, 2014 |
| Arcade release (Japan) | July 16, 2015 |
| Wii U version announced | August 21, 2015 |
| Wii U release | March 18, 2016, worldwide |
| Developer | Bandai Namco |
| Publisher | The Pokémon Company (distributed by Nintendo) |
| Genre | Fighting |
| Players | 1 to 2 |
| Fighters (Wii U) | 16 |
| Support sets | 15 |
| Stages | 19 |
| Accessories | Pokkén Tournament controller by HORI, Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card |
| Metacritic score | 76/100 |
| Sequel | Pokkén Tournament DX (Nintendo Switch, September 22, 2017) |
A long gestation
The game first appeared in August 2013, at the Pokémon Game Show in Tokyo, before being made official on August 26, 2014 by Tsunekazu Ishihara, president of The Pokémon Company, with Masaaki Hoshino and Katsuhiro Harada, producers at Bandai Namco. Its name combines “Pokémon” and “Tekken.” It came out first in arcades in Japan, on July 16, 2015; the Wii U version, announced on August 21, 2015, was released on March 18, 2016 with one extra fighter, Pikachu Libre. See The arcade version.
The bundle and the amiibo
In Japan, a bundle combined a black 32 GB Wii U, the preinstalled game, the Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card and a booklet of each fighter’s techniques. The Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card was also given to the first buyers of the standalone game; it lets you unlock that fighter immediately. See Amiibo, bundle and controller.
Reception
Pokkén Tournament earned an average of 76 out of 100 on Metacritic. In Japan, it debuted at the top of the sales charts with 72,502 copies in its release week according to Famitsu, ahead of Digimon World: Next Order and The Division. Pokémon France had given it 17 out of 20: see our 2016 verdict.
The content
- 16 fighters in four categories, and their unlock conditions;
- 19 stages, 11 of which must be unlocked;
- 15 sets of Support Pokémon, detailed in our article Support Pokémon;
- the Ferrum League, solo and local battles, online play and training.
