Review #601: Pokken Tournament DX

 The king of the Iron Pokemon Tournament begins.

 Often times called Tekken with Pokemon, the more you play the game the more you realize just how far off that comparison is. This is a one-on-one arena based fighting game in which you can play as any of 21 Pokemon. It certainly is unique, and Pokemon have never looked this good before. Also, everyone got pecs. Machamp? Pecs. Charizard? Pecs. Mewtwo? Pecs. Everyone gets pecs and muscles.

 Upon booting up the game you'll be disappointed to learn just how few modes the game offers. The main mode is Ferrum League, a repetitive ordeal in which you fight random sets of five fighters trying to climb the ranks so that you can enter a tournament, come out first and the fight the league champion... so that you can increase your League category and do everything all over, from League C up to League S. Occasionally hints of a storyline pop up here and then, concerning a corrupted Mewtwo. It's nothing special, really, what little story there is is told via simple character cut-outs between your ally-commentator and other NPCs anime cut-outs. Boring. After you're done with the storyline you can continue to fight in these leagues in order to fulfill special objectives and unlock cosmetics for your in-game anime cut-out avatar. You've also got daily fights which reward you with free level ups(More on this later), Offline and Online battles, both 1-on-1 and 3-vs-3 Team Matches, a-la-classic King of Fighters. As for offline battles, you can play in both split screen, with halved framerate, or on a single screen, which works relatively well considering this is an arena fighter, so the camera tends to be behind a combatant's back. Lastly there's a serviceable training mode that teaches you a few simple combos with each character, and let's you go over a character's entire moveset, so you can get a basic taste of how they play. Fighting in any mode(except training) gives your Pokemon experience points and upon leveling up you can increase your Strength, Defense, Synergy or Support stats. It's unclear on which modes these stats works, but the increases are negligible on the long run(For example, pumping all 98 points on your Strength Stat only gives you about an 8% increase) so they are not gamebreakers.

 Let's get this out of the way first: The 21 characters roster had no chance of ever satisfying fans since the games have over 700 different creatures. Hopefully one or two of your favorites made it in, in my case, I had Scizor, Blaziken and Mewtwo so I can't complain, but man, would I have loved Typhlosion or Tyranitar! Not having shiny colors as alternate color palettes was a huge missed opportunity. The game comes with a very annoying commentator talking over the fights and suggesting the dumbest strategies, luckily, you can just turn her off in the options menu. I did. My last complaining lies with the Ferrum League: Many goals require you using a specific Pokemon, but there's no easy way to switch characters while in the Ferrum League: You have to exit the mode itself, go into 'My Town' and navigate a few menus to change your partner pokemon. Lame.

 Luckily, gameplay is where the game truly shines. Forget all about Tekken, besides a few animations(Pikachu performing the Electric Wind God is a sight to behold) the game is nothing like Tekken, physics and mechanics are entirely different. Fights take place inside circular arenas of varying radius and shapes: Some are tight perfect circles, while others are a bit more like an ellipse. And this matters, because fights alternate between two phases: Duel and Field. During Field phase both characters get 360 degrees of movement, the camera is situated behind your back and most of your attacks in this phase have long-range or mid-range properties Hitting an enemy with specific attacks(Usually A+Back or a full homing melee combo) will switch combatants into Duel phase, which shifts the camera to the side, looking more like a traditional 2-D fighter, and your attacks become suited for close range combat. After a certain amount of damage is dealt, fighters revert to Field phase. Some characters are fantastic for Field Phase but are horrible in Duel Phase, like Gengar, other have great Duel Phases but suck at Field Phase, like Garchomp and others are decent at both, like Scizor.

 Regardless of Phase, you get three different attack buttons: A weak attack, that doubles as your main projectile attack in Field Phase, a strong attack, that doubles as homing-melee attack during Field Phase and a Special attack that behaves similarly in both Field and Duel Phase(Keyword: Similarly, some attacks may be shared, others may not). Any of the three attack buttons can be coupled with different directions on the digital pad to perform different attacks. I'm happy to say that every Pokemon is delightfully unique, even both Pikachus play very differently. It doesn't stop at their moveset, even their HP gauges and how fast they charge Synergy and Support gauges is different. Take Pikachu, he can easily enter Synergy Burst twice on a single round, but you'll probably never get to use it on a first round with Mewtwo. There're are a lot of different elements to keep in mind when it comes to picking your Pokemon.

 But what are the Synergy and Support gauges? Well, the Synergy Gauge increases as you deal and take damage, once full you can tap L and R to enter Burst mode for a short while : It makes you faster, stronger and may change the properties of a few of your moves, if the character has a Mega-Evolution they'll turn into it while in this mode. You also get to use you Super Move, by tapping L+R again, but if you miss or get interrupted you lose it until you enter Burst mode again, so be careful. As for support, there're various pairs of Support Pokemon you can pick before a fight, they may support you with an attack, a debuff or a buff. You can change between both support Pokemon before each round. The gauge for Support Pokemon increases by itself as time passes.

  Unusually, for a Japanese fighting game, you block by holding the R button. Weak Attack+Jump is a grab attack, that goes through grabs(But can be teched!) and Strong Attack+Special attack is your counter. Counters work a bit like Focus Attacks form Street Fighter IV, you can charge them for a while and you get a bit of super Armor while you charge. Each character's counter is different, some may even allow you to combo after it...

 It sounds like a lot to get your head over, and it kinda is, but getting used to the Phases took me less time than I thought it would. That said, while Pokemon games tend to be very casual at a surface level, this game is anything but. Button mashing will not work in this game. Someone who knows what they are doing will absolutely wreck newcomers, and there's no reliable comeback mechanic to save yourself. The combo system isn't very friendly either, which makes me wonder just how much fun casual players can get out of the game. If you've got more than a passing interest in fighting games, Pokken is worth a look, it does its own thing while having strong foundations on the tried and true. That said, a few more modes wouldn't hurt, adding  cosmetic customization to the Pokemon instead of a 2-D avatar would go a long way and trying to pump an extra five characters wouldn't hurt.
 7.5 out of 10