The fiery Charizard has been confirmed to be one of the playable characters in the upcoming Pokken Tournament, a fighting game for the arcades featuring Pokemon characters.
Pokken, which combines the words Pokemon and Tekken, another massive fighting game series by developer Bandai Namco, represents another expansion by the hit Pokemon franchise into a new video game genre.
Charizard, one of the most popular characters in Pokemon, will utilize his fire-breathing attacks and flying abilities to fight other Pokemon. Charizard's ultimate move, called in the game as a Burst Attack, will transform the dragon into Mega Charizard X.
In addition to the confirmation of Charizard as a playable character, also revealed to be joining the Pokken Tournament is Weavile, the sharp claw Pokemon. Weavile flashes and dashes its way through opponents, and being a dual ice/dark-type Pokemon, it can also deliver ice-based attacks such as Ice Shard and Ice Punch.
Charizard and Weavile now join confirmed characters Blaziken, Gardevoir, Gengar, Lucario, Machamp, Pikachu and Suicune as playable fighters in the game.
Jirachi and Whimsicott have also been revealed as two more support characters for the title, who will be joining already confirmed support characters Eevee, Emolga, Fennekin, Frogadier, Lapras and Snivy.
A trailer released in February provided the first glimpse of good gameplay footage for Pokken Tournament, as previously images and videos were only teasers.
The trailer reveals that the fighting game will combine certain elements of Tekken and Super Smash Bros., with players moving freely across stages. However, the fighting stages are nowhere near as complicated as those found in Super Smash Bros., as the stages more closely resemble flat circles that look like the closed squares found in Tekken.
Characters each have several kinds of attacks, along with the standard punch and kick. In addition, each Pokemon will have a combo meter that fills up for their Burst Attack to unleash their Mega Evolve.
Pokken Tournament now has an official release date of July 16 in Japanese arcades, which could mean that the known characters for the game is the final one. Sadly though, there is no official release date yet for the United States, so Pokemon fans in the United States may wait a while until they can battle Pokemon characters in a new way, Tekken-style.
