In an announcement that could be described as hard to fathom, it was less than a week ago when it was revealed on NicoNico that a fighting-title by the name of Pokkén Tournament for arcade would be co-developed by Bandai Namco, with involvement from Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada and Soul Calibur producer Masaaki Hoshino.
One week later, and in an interview with the latest Weekly Famitsu, the heavily involved project member Katsuhiro Harada has revealed he initially approached Pokémon Company head Tsunekazu Ishihara with a different collaboration idea.
At first, I offered collaboration with a different title, but when my messenger returned [from Pokémon Company], he said ‘Mr. Ishihara wants to collaborate with Tekken.’ Not only that, but [Mr. Ishihara] had already settled on a title — the entire office was dumbfounded.
I figured that if we’re going to make this, I wanted to team up with some place that had the best technical skills, so I was glad we were able to ask a development team of such high pedigree.
A personal goal of Mr Harada was to be allowed to use non-fighting type Pokémon – with the producer of the Tekken series touching on the Pokémon Magikarp as an example:
Not that this means it’s going to be in the game, but if a Pokémon like Magikarp showed up, the player would wonder, ‘what kind attacks does it have?’ As long as we’re going to make this game, I wanted it to have that sort of surprise and expectations for the player.
Mr Harada also revealed how Massaki Hoshino was a huge Pokémon fan and jumped at the chance to helm the project. According to Masaaki Hoshino himself, the game will have a larger arena than the standard fighting game:
Pokémon have a lot of unique attacks, so I wanted to not be bound by the idea of range and have the gameplay be enjoyable at both close quarters and from a distance.
Do these latest comments by the heads of Pokkén Tournament excite you? Or are you still more interested in hearing if a potential Wii U announcement is on the cards. Let us know in the comments.
[source kotaku.com.au]
Comments 45
interesting
I don't care how long it takes, year and a half, 2 years - whatever. I need this game on Wii U.
I can't see this game not coming to the Wii U this time next year. It's the kind of thing Nintendo are supposed to be moving towards, titles for core gamers.
i cant wait to get my donkey handed to me by a 12 year old in the arcade on this game. its going to be awesome! i just played tank! tank! tank! the other day in the arcade. it was great. not sure if its like the wiiu version or not. it had a thing that pounds you in the back when u get hit. so fun. and loud.
If this isn't coming to Wii U why would we talk about it at all? It's not like there are still plenty of arcades around outside of Japan.
It just has to come to Wii U.
@FragRed ironically, most core gamers will be looked at as casuals playing this.
This has to come to Wii u
I wonder if the Wii U version will require/use Amiibo figurines.....
I doubt Nintendo could make this and not port it when they struggle to get 6 retail games a year on Wii U. Then again, there's loads of people calling for them to do some quick and dirty HD remakes of Gamecube games and they won't even do that.
So the concept of a Pokemon fighting game never occurred to The Pokemon Company??
I see Lucario has quickly become the second Pikachu of the Pokemon franchise. One to represent the more serious side of Pokemon. Smart.
@NameDifferent It's exactly what they wanted, according to the article. It's the Namco guys who didn't see it coming.
Magikarp for top tier.
@Genesaur
Heh I should've read more carefully
@SSJ3Goku That's right my saiyan comrade. We need this game for the Wii U pronto. This could very well be one of the best fighters in history.
Magokarp SHOULD be in there. And the game SHOULD be on Wii U! Wii U would ship by the tens -if not hundreds- of thousands... 2 vs 2 Magikarp battles, Magikarp CAN learn tackle, so there's that.
Also, Activision and Nintendo should really get together to make Skylanders compatible with at least the Pokémon Amiibo's.
I will start to care when this game is announced for WiiU and released for West.
@Shambo Feebas or bust. Hope Magikarp is nothing but a backdrop prop. All hail Feebas!
@Rafie Wii U is A must!
@TeeJay It explosion in popularity even surprised me. I love the Pokémon and the Generation it represents.
Just realized that Water-types have serious destructive material here since we know they can battle on land. What if they included water stages?
@ModestFan93 Yes the Wii U is a must! We need it!
............I now want Magikarp in the game.
That sounds cool, glad the Tekken and SoulCal guys were excited to do it. It does make me wonder what their original collaboration idea was though. What other Bamco IP would crossover well with Pokemon?
MAGIKARP MASTER RACE!
Well, hope this goes to Wii U...eventually.
@CaviarMeths
Same here. Maybe a more tradtional-style RPG, active-time like Tales of perhaps? PokemonXDigimon is the most obvious one, and could have been a Project X-zone like cross-over.
Thats all I can really think of that they do that'd mix well with Pokemon, besides a different style fighting game.
Nice and smart that they won't limit it to fighting types only.
As everyone else here, I want a Wii U version.
If this is the case I want to play with metapod
On the wii u of course
No Wii U, no deal.
I don't think I've looked forward to a fighting game as much I have this one. I really hope they have a good cast of Pokemon.. and obviously that it comes to the Wii U, which feels like a given.
LOL Magikarp as a fighter
This game better make it to Wii U! Two of my fav game franchises of all time coming together would fantastic.
@Spuratis You're not looking forward to Super Smash Bros.?
it has to come to wii u right?
probably japan only
@Luigifan141 Of course I am. For some reason I just didn't include that when I was thinking of the typical fighting game.
Even though I wish it to come to Wii U... we're forgetting what a boost this is giving to the arcade business. When was the last time people were interested and hyped for an arcade game?
@SuperWiiU just about every fighting game in Japan comes out in arcades before the console so they can test it. It's coming.
On the one hand, its Tekken with Pokemon instead of people.
On the other hand it's freakin' Tekken with Pokemon!
Definitely gotta see where this goes.
@SuperWiiU it's coming to Wii U.
@ricklongo it's coming to WiiU.
So it's basically like Smash but with Pokemon. That play through actually looked pretty sick! Bring this to Wii U please and make more tons of pokemon playable too like Weavile, Heracross, Hitmonchan, etc.
This is my dream Pokemon game. Basically PokePark without the stupid, corny adventure and just the joy of fighting and controlling your pokemon.
Except this is 1000 times better and it may have layer of skill to it.
Putting Magikarp to one side for a moment, I think that some non-bipedial fighters would be a cool thing to have in the game. I would like to see Galvantula, for instance!
Other Pokémon I'd like to see are Ludicolo, Scrafty, Mienshao, Heliolisk, and Zangoose. All of these would make cool unique fighters.
I can't be the only one reminded of... http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/377178
(Some language may be a bit unsavory! You have been warned)
This game has so much potential! Just think about all the possible pokemon and their move sets! I could see it becoming a serious fighting game, rivaling street fighter even!
MAGIKARP CONFIRMED He gonna be mah main all da way
The moment they show Greninja is the moment they've got my sale.
Its funny that they mentioned Magikarp since Tekken was originally going to have a fish that could do nothing but flop around when entered through a code though it was scrapped since the director didn't like the idea of someone paying money to an arcade machine to play as a character that did nothing.
Really hope they put legendary pokemon, its got to come to wii u, if Nintendo doesn't port it they'd be missing a big opportunity
@SuperWiiU Pokémon = Nintendo = Nintendoliife.
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