Pokken Tournament
Pokken Shadow Mewtwo
I wonder if he works for Shadaloo as well…

With less than a a month to release Nintendo has released a new trailer for Pokkén Tournament to get the fans pumped. The video is full of fan favorites from across generations duking it out with each other. There’s Pikachu vs Lucario, Suicune vs Machamp and Braixin vs Garchomp! And even though the trailer is entirely made up of CG battles, you can still get a sense of the different enclosed environments and the Wii U exclusive Ferrum League campaign will feel.

Of course the highlight of the trailer is the inclusion of the mysterious Shadow Mewtwo. It’s still unclear if this incarnation of Mewtwo will just be limited to Pokkén Tournament or if he will make canonical appearances outside the game. The anime Pokémon XY&Z is just starting up so it’s possible Shadow Mewtwo will find his way to the small screen.

There has been a lot of news about Pokkén Tournament as March gets closer. From the competitive fight scene front this Pokémon battling game has been chosen as one of the games in this year’s largest fighting game tournament, Evolution Champion Series (EVO), and Nintendo recently announced there would be ‘early access competitions’ for Pokkén Tournament where participants can play the game before launch. It seems like the success of Super Smash Bros. Wii U and the continued popularity of Super Smash Bros. Melee has convinced Nintendo that they can carve out a spot in the competitive scene.

Not all news has been good news for the Pokémon fighter as developers revealed that there were no plans for future DLC at this time. However, a similar statement was made by Sakurai about  Super Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS and we all saw how many extra characters joined the initial roster (with incredible fanfare as well).

Pokkén Tournament is set to launch worldwide on the Wii U on March 18th.

Leif Conti-Groome
Leif Conti-Groome is a writer/playwright/video game journalist whose work has appeared on websites such as NextGen Player, Video Game Geek and DriveinTales. His poem Ritual won the 2015 Broadside Contest organized by the Bear Review. While he grew up playing titles such as Final Fantasy VI and Super Double Dragon, he doesn’t really have a preference for genre these days except for Country; that’s a game genre right? Leif’s attention has been more focused on the burgeoning communities of niche Japanese titles, eSports and speedruns. He currently resides in Toronto, Canada and makes a living as a copywriter.