I ADORE the concept of Pokken Tournamnet: takes some of the most popular or unique critters from the biggest IP in the world and turn them into actual fighting game characters, with eccentric animations and a stunning graphical presentation.
For most things this title does exactly that. The gsmeplay is energetic and unique compared to other arena games. THe matches are fun and you are always able to turn the tides, creating an engaging combat.
The level of customization is interesting, even if the different modes don't offer a lot of variety and the story mode presented feels a bit too clichè, uneventful and boring.
But the bigges issue of this title, to me, is for sure.... the roster. A total of 21 characters (16 in the original release of the game), including 2 Pikachu and 2 Mewtwos, feels incredibly lackluster, especially considering that Namco's fighter mostly got some large launching rosters full of different characters and even stories to explore.
I had fun with some of my favorites, like Machamp, Weavile and Gengar, and weirder picks like Chandelure, Croagunk and Braixen had an immense amount of personality in their movesets and animations, but I felt like the team didnìt do a lot with the potential of the pokemon world, especially conisdering that a hige chunk of the roster got later added as DLC (even when the game got re-relased on the Switch, they still had the ballzis to add 2 extra characters under another paywall)
One can say that they made the roster this small in order to give a lot of attention to the animations and feel of the chosen characters.... but then you find out that most of the animations are just taken straight from Tekken, and that Pikachu throwing Heihachi fists feels a bit jarring. It's funny at first, but it also feels like Namco kinda just "plagarides themselves" when making thes emovesets.... if that makes sense....
In terms of presentations, Pokken tournament has an amazing concept that I wish was evolved more with time, maybe with a larger selection of character or more options and ways to enjoy this amazing premise.
For most things this title does exactly that. The gsmeplay is energetic and unique compared to other arena games. THe matches are fun and you are always able to turn the tides, creating an engaging combat.
The level of customization is interesting, even if the different modes don't offer a lot of variety and the story mode presented feels a bit too clichè, uneventful and boring.
But the bigges issue of this title, to me, is for sure.... the roster. A total of 21 characters (16 in the original release of the game), including 2 Pikachu and 2 Mewtwos, feels incredibly lackluster, especially considering that Namco's fighter mostly got some large launching rosters full of different characters and even stories to explore.
I had fun with some of my favorites, like Machamp, Weavile and Gengar, and weirder picks like Chandelure, Croagunk and Braixen had an immense amount of personality in their movesets and animations, but I felt like the team didnìt do a lot with the potential of the pokemon world, especially conisdering that a hige chunk of the roster got later added as DLC (even when the game got re-relased on the Switch, they still had the ballzis to add 2 extra characters under another paywall)
One can say that they made the roster this small in order to give a lot of attention to the animations and feel of the chosen characters.... but then you find out that most of the animations are just taken straight from Tekken, and that Pikachu throwing Heihachi fists feels a bit jarring. It's funny at first, but it also feels like Namco kinda just "plagarides themselves" when making thes emovesets.... if that makes sense....
In terms of presentations, Pokken tournament has an amazing concept that I wish was evolved more with time, maybe with a larger selection of character or more options and ways to enjoy this amazing premise.