Is Pokkén Tournament worth the purchase?

2926246-pokken_logo

This Friday the 18th, Pokkén Tournament for the Wii U will be available for purchase worldwide! For those of you who don’t know, Pokkén Tournament is a 3D fighting game where you engage Pokemon in a one on one duel. Combat has been simplified technically to broaden their audience, but is still strategically complex.

 

maxresdefault (1)

The fear of failure

This has been the dreams of many. The ability to input grabs, punches, and projectiles in real time instead of the rather slow and time consuming battles of the original pokémon. This innovative decision by Bandai Namco is not only a brilliant, but risky. One of the first signs of failure was from an arcade in Japan, where they removed Pokkén Tournament arcade machines due to them bringing in a low revenue. You may say “Well Allen, this sign of failure was in a business environment, where time and money are a big factor in success, unlike inside one’s household”. Well another problem has arose for the home console release.

 

 610cHkgq8oL._SL1000_

The Hori Controller

Nintendo has decided that Pokkén Tournament would get it’s own unique controller. Unfortunately they have stated that “Due to software design, player one must use the Wii U GamePad for local battles”. This has lead to frustrated people, a “dead local mode”, and a bad name. The only option people have came up with to use two hori controllers, is to have two Wii Us.

 

Is it worth?

It really depends on your passion or interest in either the Pokémon series or fighting games. Personally, I am picking it up the day it comes out because I believe I’ll have a good time playing the game. I’m not much of a Pokémon fan, or rather, I don’t enjoy the original games as much as I did in my childhood. I do support the spin-off games though. Pokémon Pinball, Pokémon Ranger, and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. Hopefully Pokkén Tournament will be added to that list.