Pokémon meets Tekken for a second go-round on Switch.
Pokken Tournament was a compelling and weird spinoff when it first debuted in Japanese arcades in 2015. The following Wii U release in 2016 was released during the time frame where the Wii U was bleeding out on a sidewalk slowly longing for the sweet embrace of death. The only time I (Neal – the narrator on this review revisit journey) played Pokken Tournament was the weekend of PAX East 2016 right after it launched. I think Zach Miller and I played a few rounds. I was like “oh that’s neat” and then never touched it again.
Anyway, Pokken Tournament DX came out on Switch a little more than 12 months after the Wii U debut. It didn’t make much more of an impact on Nintendo’s more compelling console, but David Lloyd said it was “expertly designed for the advanced fighting genre fan” in his review. Donald Theriault reviewed it on Wii U and offers his long overdue review of the Switch version below. For the Wii U version, he said “on the peanut butter scale, it’s roughly jam out of chocolate.” That is vintage, unvarnished Donald in that quote. Absolutely delectable.
At this point, it’d be neat if they tried this fighting game concept again with Pokémon, but I doubt it. Here’s our revisited reviews:
Syrenne McNulty: Pokken Tournament DX is a fighting game that I wish I liked more than I do as someone who really likes Pokémon spin-offs and really likes Tekken. I think that the transitional flow from 2D to 3D arena fighter is not actually satisfying and more frustrating especially when it happens to you.
It is not like getting juggled or other things that can “happen to you” in a fighting game context that could end up derailing you or making you need to react in different ways. The part where the whole control scheme will change honestly feels disorienting enough that I think that I get what they’re going for. It’s just not for me. I think that the character selection is entertaining. I think that it’s very visually flashy. I think it’s a very pretty looking game. I think that the role of the assist Pokemon is very clever and very well considered but I just can’t bring myself to stick with the core dynamic of the combat system and for a fighting game that’s almost kind of a kiss of death for where it’s at.
Donald Theriault: The new additions compared to the Wii U version didn’t change up my main character in the long run – yes, I still ran a straight Chandelure ticket – but in the Wii U review I questioned if there would be a more elegant solution than the “one person on TV, one on GamePad” Wii U multiplayer presented. It turned out that two players having a copy running locally was just the solution the multiplayer needed.
The single player options were still a bit repetitive, though that may have been due to the fact that I had to unlock everything for a second time so that was the definition of a “me problem.” The Switch added some neat online options (3v3 modes) and a couple of additional characters including the notedly broken Mega Rayquaza being banned to a support role. It was probably the best looking game for my money in the Switch’s first year, and ran just as well on handheld or TV (unlike certain other games we’ll be discussing later). It’s too bad that Pokémon Unite and Go knocked this out of the competitive Pokémon circuit, since Tournament DX would have been my best opportunity to actually go to a World Championships once in my life.
