Casual players might find it overwhelming
Like many of you, I expected Pokkén Tournament to play like Tekkenbut with Pokémon in the ring instead of the usually assortment of robots, animals, and other eccentrics from Namco’s long-running fighting franchise. Boy was I wrong. Pokkén has some elements in common with Naruto Shippuden, Dead or Alive, Marvel vs. Capcom, but not much about it feels like Tekken.
More than anything, I’ve been taken aback by how much breadth and depth there is to be found here. While depth in a fighting game is usually measured by how far down the skill hole you can get each character through that game’s specific combat system, breadth is measured more by how wide the potential tool set is in the game, and boy howdy, does Pokkén offer plenty of both. Not only does every character have a completely different move set from the last, but right off the bat, you start a round being able to move on the X, Y, and Z axis. That is until you or your opponent pull off one of a few specific types of moves, then presto-chango, you’re suddenly playing a traditional 2D fighter. This makes Pokkén essentially two fighting games in one, overlapping each other in ways that allow skilled players to take advantage of both styles of play, sometimes in rapid succession.
There are also at least two overlapping “Rock Paper Scissors” power triangles to consider. Normal attacks blow through throws, throws intercept counters, and counters snuff normals, and on top of that, overheads are strong against low attacks, low attacks have priority over anti-airs, and like you probably already guessed, anti-airs almost always win against over heads. It’s not quite as complicated as the strengths/weaknesses algorithm used in the mainline Pokémon games, but it’s definitely up there compared to other games in the genre.
With a system that complex, it’s not surprise that Marvel vs. Capcom pro-play legendJustin Wong and other well-known faces from the FGC have taken to the game. While Nintendo may have ended up with more a crowd-pleaser if it had diverted the budget for Pokkén to a Pokémon Snap sequel, it may still end up with a hit on its hands here. It’s just question of how many people out there have the drive and the interest to pick up a fighting game that feels truly new.