In news coming from a special Famitsu stream on Nico Nico today, more details have been revealed on the Pokemon fighter, Pokken Tournament. Suicine, Pikachu and Gardevoir have been confirmed as playable characters, and we have finally seen what the arcade cabinets look like.
As opposed to normal arcade sticks, the game actually uses controllers that you would find on a home console, which suggests that Pokken Tournament is being designed with an eventual home console release in mind. They use a layout very similar to an SNES controller, with a D-pad, ABXY face buttons along with two triggers. Also, the actual layout of the cabinets is different to a Tekken machine where cabinets are placed back to back with players not seeing their opponent. For Pokken Tournament, opponents sit next to each other with a pane of tinted glass blocking the other player’s screen.
As for actual mechanics, the game is a 3D fighter, where players run around in an wide environment, where obstacles can be broken and interacted with during the battle. The fighting system seems almost a mix between the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games and Tekken, with players having support Pokemon they can call on in battle, as well as the typical line up of long and short range attacks, supers, counters and so on. In the stream, we saw these Support Pokemon in action, with Snivy, Emolga and Lapras being three examples. Lapras could be called upon to use Surf in the middle of a fight, very similar to an assist in Marvel vs Capcom or Ultimate Ninja Storm. These Pokemon can also be placed in special sets, probably signifying that you can set specific Support combos to use in battle.
Mega-Evolutions seem to work like the Awakening system in the Ultimate Ninja Storm series, with Pokemon who don’t have a Mega Form going into something called Burst Mode, which gives them a similar power boost. Also, the way special attacks work seems to be simplified, not relying on quarter circle or charge motions, which probably makes sense considering the controller.
The stream ended with the developers announcing location test dates for Japan, which will allow players to really dive into the game and see how it is shaping up. At these location tests, Bandai Namco are handing out special BaNa passport cards, which will allow players to save data of their matches and use them at other Pokken Tournament machines. Due to the fact they use NFC to save information, it could be seen that veteran Pokken players could transfer their arcade data to consoles when the game eventually releases there.
No news on whether we will get any location tests, but keep your eyes peeled at EVO 2015 or upcoming events for any Pokken Tournament cabinets. Check out some gameplay footage below and tell us what you think of Pokken Tournament so far in the comments below:
