
Last week brought us the launch of Pokkén Tournament in various territories, and the fighting game developed by Bandai Namco has registered a positive start in the UK.
The fighter has made its debut at third place in the all-format charts and 5th in the single format results - it's only lost out to multi-platform titles EA Sports UFC 2 in second place, while Ubisoft's The Division holds top spot again. It continues the trend of big-name Wii U releases having a strong start in the UK, as fans are clearly eager for new games on the home console.
The rest of the top 40 is a little tougher for Nintendo, with pre-Easter sales bringing a number of older titles - on other systems - back into the running. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD has tumbled from 9th to 30th place in its third week in stores, while the sole 3DS entry is Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer in 40th.
Beyond that a notable trend continues in the 3DS-only charts, with current-gen and spin-off Pokémon games holding 2nd to 5th places, showing that there's plenty of enthusiasm around the IP right now.
A solid start for Pokkén Tournament, then, and Nintendo will hope for a similarly strong performance from Hyrule Warriors Legends in next week's results.
[source chart-track.co.uk]
Comments (38)
That's good. I'm not even a big Pokemon fan, but Pokken is one of my favourite games in a long time. I'm absolutely adoring it so far.
It deserves it, wonderful marriage of accessibility and challenge.
Sure hope it does good enough for sequels.
Was holding out until my birthday to get this ... Kind of regretting it now! Not sure about Hyrule legends next week. I still have an original 3DS XL so not sure if it will run smoothly on it. Congrats to Pokkén
How did it managed to be 3rd in all format then fifth in the single format?
A good result considering my local Game didn't even get copies in. "oh we can order it for you" Morons.
You know pokken tournament is number one in America and Japan
So it's had a better start than Street Fighter V? That's impressive.
@Splatburst The Division and the UFC game PS4/One version individually probably make up the first 4 places of the single format chart.
@Splatburst That's because The Division and UFC 2 have multiple versions. So the chart probably looks like this:
1) The Division (PS4)
2) The Division (Xone)
3) UFC 2 (PS4)
4) UFC 2 (Xone)
5) Pokken Tournament
Great game, it's surprisingly deep, but still a lot of fun. I just wish the local multiplayer was split screen instead of gamepad screen and tv, because using the gamepad for fighting games isn't that great.
@OorWullie @ricklongo
Thanks! I haven't thought of that. That means The Division and UFC sold more than twice as much as Pokken in the all format.
Glad to hear it's done a good start; also Glad I picked up the Pokken Controller (still lack the game though) especially after learning of some additional compatibility (ironically away from the Wii U).
I do wonder about Hyrule Warriors Legends seeing as based only on forum posts and comments (which in itself can be a questionable source of data) many of the genre's fans are unhappy at the decision to move all the new stuff to the 3DS and leave the Wii U version high and dry. Will spite impact sales?
I look forward to next week's results with intrigue.
@Splatburst Given that they're in twice as many platforms, I'd say that was to be expected.
I love this game. It's an excellent fighting game. Again like I said on Miiverse. My only complaints are
1. The Phase shift. It's annoying as hell. Can we have the camera stay in one position.
2. The lack of fighters.I gave SF5 hell for it so Pokken Fighter doesn't get any excuses. The roster is just sad 14 fighters out of 751? Where's Lopunny, the Hitmons, Primeape, Infernape, Ampharos, Mawile, ect ect.
Fix those problems and this would be my GOTY if I'm disappointed with Uncharted 4 or TLoZ
@cookypuss which GAME
Pokken did better than I expected. I'm enjoying it so far, but it takes a lot of time to get used to the controls.
Game really does deserve it, it's a great game and tons of fun, I'm going to be playing it for a very long time.
@Aahme055 Trowbridge. A familiar tale sadly. Although they do excel in selling an overpriced Amiibo
@liljmoore Don't forget about DLC, mate! Surely they will add more fighters in Pokken
I hope we eventually get a sequel for this and Pokémon Snap.
@JosieC84 I know. But like I said I gave SF5 hell for the lack of characters so Pokken Fighters get no excuses. I just felt it was pathetic that these games launched with the roster selection it had. We better not have to pay for extra fighters.
@liljmoore the problem is you're basically using a massively logical fallacy to argue about the roster size and also generally arguing from a point of ignorance. The number of pokemon available has no bearing on the time it takes to make each fighter. About 99% of the time involved in making a character is in modeling, rigging, animating, and balancing the character. So having 700+ pokemon doesn't mean anything at all.
Also where are all those highly balanced and competitive fighting games that also have huge rosters? Don't say smash, balance is a mess. Some games have managed to get a lot of fighters after numerous sequels and years of play testing for balance with already created characters. Games like smash, BB, GG, street fighter, MK, KI and skull girls all started with less characters than pokken. Why is pokken suddenly held to a nearly impossible standard?
Also one final point, because of the increase in development costs, it's arguably even harder now to create characters in fighting game than when most of those other fighters launched.
@Yorumi I understand development hell, costs and all that. But the fact of the matter is no matter how you put it should have offered more fighters for a fighting game. You know how you can get those costs back. Have the game sell great with great marketing and word of mouth.
This isn't the 90's anymore. Those games just started and needed to more games to create more fighters unlike Pokken fighters where we have the table set for plenty of fighters all raring to go.
We come to far from when games like MK, SF and even the first Smash Bros (even Tekken, but I don't remember) where they were launched with like 8-10 characters. Again if you don't have SF5, It launched with 16. Yes we got some new characters but we also were missing a ton of veteran fighters, like Guile, Sakura, Blankna, Juri ect. That shouldn't have happen.
Even with Pokken fighters If they launched with a least 20 characters I wouldn't be as mad about it.
If your talking about balance in a fighter game. Good luck with that because all fighter games will have balancing issues no matter what. But to me it's how you adjust to them. The only fighting game where I complained about balance is MvC2 and I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about.
To me it's sad what we got
This is basically a new IP. I can see a 2D fighting game for the N3DS in the future. If they're smart enough, they'll milk this game.
@liljmoore but see you're just saying it should be easy without even the slightest thing to back it up. You say it's changed since games like SF, MK, and smash lauched, but what about blazblue. That is a recent fighting game that didn't launch with a lot of characters. Even SF5 should be an indication, a long running franchise like that still had trouble creating a sequel with a large roster. Maybe it's not as easy as you think it is? Yeah games have changed in 3 decades, it's not much harder and much more expensive to add a character to a fighting game. But for some reason everyone expects them to have even more characters than when it was easier to make them.
You just brush aside the massive amount of work it takes to balance a game like it's nothing and not important but it's hugely important. It takes a TON of time for the devs to work that out for characters.
This is what I don't get about pokken, it's being held to an utterly impossible standard. No one can name all these fighting games that are launching new IPs with tons of characters except anime license button mashers that have the depth of a ounce of water. Whenever the roster is criticized it's always from a position of utter ignorance, implying devs just wave a magic wand and dozens of characters appear. And then that's combine is the massive fallacy of the number of pokemon that exist.
Fighting game characters need much more animation work than most any other game. It's even worse in pokken's case cause most pokemon don't even shard the same skeleton, can't be rigged the same and don't even have the same bones. They also had to create unique mechanics for each and every pokemon, design their attacks, and balance them against every other pokemon, and every other pokemon against them. Not to mention creating the unique mechanics of the triangle as well as phase shifts.
Listening to complaints you get the impression the fighting and balance are the least important things in a fight game. Everyone just keeps repeating "I want quantity over quality".
Nice, that's good to hear. I was originally gonna hold off til April or May to pick it up but decided to pick it up last Saturday after playing the demo the night before.
Not a fan of fighters in general but really enjoying the game (in relatively short bursts mind you) with the level of customization, animations of the 'mon & their special moves, easy to grasp yet difficult to master gameplay & of course..Braixen <3
Some extra playable 'mon (future dlc maybe) would be nice but aside from that, I'm pretty happy with the game. Just hope the controller gets restocked soon.
I like how you talk about how I don't care about developer cost and how I'm ignorant for wanting a little more character selection and the camera phrase change(which I'm getting used to more and more as I battle online. So that might not be a complaint anymore).
I already told you I know how much developers go through with creating ( As I am a student learning all this right now) characters, fighting styles and animations. But again we should have been offered more and they get those costs back by having the game sell well.
Again I done this with other fighter games I've played. I may not know know nothing about BlueBlaze, KOF, or Skullgirls so I won't talk about them. But I've done the same thing for games that I do play like MvC3, SFxTK for instance .
"Listening to complaints you get the impression the fighting and balance are the least important things in a fight game. Everyone just keeps repeating "I want quantity over quality"."
Again like I said Fighter games are always gonna have unfair balance issues It how you adjust to them is the way to beat them. But hey from your view you think and know what I want from two complaints. That's like if say MK9 or Smash Bros 5 would launch with 13 and 20 characters for no reason whatsoever. Would my complaints (or others) be viewed as ignorance in your eyes because of development costs and development hell?
Again I think the game is fantastic and should be in every bodies Wiiu collection. But I still think we should have at least gotten more fighters at launch.
@liljmoore but you are arguing from ignorance. You admit it. You give absolutely no reason why you should expect more fighters other than you just want them. On top of that you say you don't really know about other fighting games. My point has been 16 is pretty normal, and is actually high for a new IP. You claim to understand development costs but then say devs should ignore it. You say balance isn't important at all. It's a pure quantity over quality argument. It's holding the game to an impossible standard.
@Yorumi This is honestly why I felt the price for the fighter DLC for Smash was justified (though a bundle would've been nice).
This is also why I think the next Smash Bros should just use Smash 4 as a base. No reason to completely start from scratch. If they do, there's going to be some massive roster cuts, which will get massive backlash (more so than any other fighter would).
@IceClimbers I agree on the price. And smash arguably has an easier time adding fighters than any other game. There's fewer animations and balance is less important(it's a party game after all). Not saying it's easy or a trivial task just that by comparison it's easier. Lets also not forget a decent bit of smash's roster is clones or near clones.
It's just weird there seems to be such an over bloated expectation surrounding pokken as though it should have launched with 500 fighters.
@Yorumi Yes I'm ignorant for expecting a bit more roster selection from a fighting game. Wanting a least 4-5 more fighters is viewed as an overreaction from you. I gave my reason why we should have had a little more at launch.
Also as I do care about the devs hard work, time, cost which I stated two times that they can earn that back from great sells with marketing and word of mouth. I've seen at gamestop and Wal-mart where they could have sold more copies, but people were hesitant because the roster was small. Are they ignorant for not purchasing the game?
So again from your point since I didn't say the game was perfect from the get go I'm ignorant from two minor complains?
Also once more balancing issues will always be a issue in fighter games. Just because there will be fighters who will be overpowered. It's how you adjust to them. Again I've never complained about balance in a fighter game except for MvC2.
@liljmoore you're not even replying to what I'm saying anymore. Is english not your first language or something? You are ignorant of how much effort it takes to add a new fighter, as well as what is common for new IPs in the fighting genre. If you wern't ignorant of that you would know that 16 is actually very high for a new IP.
You claim knowledge that you do not, and can not have. You do not know the large expense in adding more fighters would automatically translate to enough sales to justify the cost. If so then I ask what is the exact cost it takes to add a fighter to pokken and how many more sales will each fighter added? You don't know that and you're just making things up.
And you continue to brush off the work of balancing, claiming it's unimportant because literal perfection is impossible. That's not a sound argument at all. As I said earlier you seem to believe the actual fighting mechanics and balance arn't important in a fighting game. Quantity over quality.
I'm not brushing off balancing again because ONCE MORE there will always be balancing issues in fighter games. Can you name me one major fighting game that had perfect balance from the get-go without the need for roster twerks? There will always be complaints about roster balance. Take MvC,MKX, SFV or(if you don't play those games) better yet Smash bros for instance. How many people complained about Diddy Kong, Shulk, Bayonetta, ZSS, Little Mac ect? There will always be complaints about balancing issues in fighter games. But once again I don't complain about them because I just adjust to them.
As I stated I know about Dev labor time, costs and animation as I am a student learning the process of this. As for production costs I can't name the cost as I don't how this type of animation works yet. But again you can make back costs and more from excellent sells. So how am I making things up as you say?
Look view my complaint however you see fit. Because as I've stated I still think the game is fantastic and worth the price. But apparently asking for a little more roster selection is viewed as being an ignorant fan.
@liljmoore But again you're not replying to what I'm saying. Read it again. I'm not saying they can achieve perfect balance, I said balance takes TIME. But you're not even coming anywhere close to that and instead just saying well it can't be perfect. That is 100% irrelevant to the point I'm making.
Likewise you're still making things up because you arn't replying to what I"m saying about the costs. You cannot know that adding another fighter will directly translate into enough increased sales to justify the costs. You are a student with NO real world experience. You are also no replying to what I am saying so I can only conclude you cannot properly comprehend engligh or it's a deliberate attempt to use pure straw man arguments instead of addressing the point.
I'm loving it so far!
I heard it flopped a bit in Japan, but maybe if it's a strong Western release they'll keep up the series? So many monsters I'd love to see added!
Great game, it'd have to be to hold my attention for more than 5 button mashing matches which is what has been the extent of my experience with every fighting game I've played so far besides this and Smash. Must've played 100+ matches already and am unable to put it down without playing at leas a dozen more each time.
Tap here to load 38 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...