FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

A Tekken-Style Pokémon Fighting Game Is Coming to Wii U

Another non-RPG Pokemon game is coming to consoles.

A Japan-only Pokémon arcade game called Pokken Tournament is coming to the Wii U worldwide next spring, the Pokémon Company announced to a couple thousand rabid fans at the Pokémon World Championships in Boston on Friday.

Unlike most previous Pokémon games, which rely on standard RPG-style turn-based fighting or, like, taking pictures of Pokémon (OK, I kind of loved Pokémon Snap), Pokken Tournament is a straight-up fighter in the vein of Mortal Kombat or Tekken. That makes sense, considering the game is being developed by Bandai-Namco, who took elements of Tekken and put them directly into the game.

Developers for the company said that the fighting system is just as deep as in any of those games, so if you're into fighters, you've got something new to look forward to. In a trailer, the company showed off a new character, called Pikachu Libre, which is basically Pikachu with a Mexican wrestling mask on.

Judging by the reaction of the fans here, people are quite stoked for the game, which came out in arcades in Japan last month. Bandai-Namco has apparently brought the arcade version of the game to the US for the first time ever for these world championships, which encompass both the video game and the trading card game, so hopefully I'll get to try it out in a bit. I'll let you know what I think.