Anybody who has ever watched the Pokemon anime knows that Pikachu is much stronger than he looks. Ash Ketchum's yellow lightning rat was able to defeat Pokemon in the show that he had no business winning against in the games. A Pikachu able to defeat a Charizard? Get out of town.
Pokken Tournament, the 3D fighting game currently available in Japan and coming to the U.S. next year, looks to feel the same way. It cares more about putting Pikachu in an awesome luchador wrestling outfit and having him defeat legendary Pokemon than staying true to the "power levels" of the various games that these creatures originally come from. And you know what? We are perfectly okay with that.
Charizard? Lucario? Machamp? The legendary Suicune? All fall before the all-mighty power of Pikachu in a Mexican wrestling outfit. Whether the cute Pokemon mascot is using his signature lightning strikes or modified wrestling techniques, all of Pikachu's opponents are in for a world of hurt.
It's the sheer sight of watching a Pikachu beat other much larger Pokemon to a pulp that makes Pokken Tournament one crazy game.
A combination of the elemental fighting seen in the Pokemon games with the 3D arena-based fights of the long-running Tekken franchise, Pokken Tournament is certainly breathing new life into Pokemon's traditionally turn-based battles. With the announcement of the augmented reality enabled Pokemon GO!, it looks like Nintendo is really looking to spice up the world of Pokemon games. So far, the results look impressive — but we will have to wait and see how each of these games play before passing final judgement.
Pokken Tournament is coming to North America via the Wii U in 2016, with a possible arcade release coming as well, thanks to the folks at Dave & Buster's. You can check out more footage of the game in action here.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
