Pokken Tournament Reviews

Pokken Tournament is ranked in the 67th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Mar 15, 2016

Although it's beautiful and intuitive to play, Pokken Tournament's story mode, where the beef of your gameplay will take place, becomes tiresome and drags down what could have been a one-of-a-kind experience on the Wii U. That's not to say that there aren't redeemable qualities, but with a small roster of fighters and too many battles against the same faces, it loses a lot of luster, fast.

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Mar 15, 2016

It's not as technical as Street Fighter, not as chaotic as Smash Bros and not as fluid as Tekken, but if it just offered a bit more of a challenge and some more depth, it would be right up there with the best of them.

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Mar 15, 2016

Pokken Tournament is the first Pokemon-focused fighting game ever released, but the final product feels more like a barebones offering rather than a fleshed out product.

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6 / 10
Mar 15, 2016

It's not very effective

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USgamer
Top Critic
Mar 15, 2016

Pokken Tournament is fun for a bit, but I'm not convinced that it has any staying power as a fighting game. It's further hurt by its thin single-player mode and limited roster, which hurts its potential with casual fans. As attractive and faithful to the license as it is, it has plenty of room for improvement. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel.

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Mar 15, 2016

Getting to punch, kick and burn things as a Pokemon is a delight, but it doesn't feel fair when playing with others.

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6.5 / 10.0
Mar 15, 2016

Pokken Tournament shines when it comes to playing with friends, but the game's grind filled single player and dumb AI make for a pretty unimpressive package overall.

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3.4 / 5.0
Apr 16, 2016

Bandai Namco's Pokkén Tournament makes the fighting genre accessible to a younger audience, but does little to accommodate more experienced players.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 21, 2016

Pokken Tournament is a fun Online/Local multiplayer arcade fighter though, experiencing the game with others can be a party but also sets the question of “How long before I head back to Smash Bros.?”

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70 / 100
Mar 22, 2016

[T]he series' growing scope has resulted in more than a massive product line: as the Pokémon franchise continues to inflate, so does its message. And with new entries coming into the universe on an almost yearly basis, the Pokémon fiction has been forced to adjust its thematic throughlines in order to make room for new creative ventures.

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games(TM)
games™ Team
Top Critic
7 / 10
May 4, 2016

Exciting multiplayer makes up for solo mode

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7 / 10.0
Mar 29, 2016

Pokken Tournament is a solid game for Poké-fanatics and a decent enough game for casual fighting game fans. I'd recommend it if you need a Poké-fix before Pokémon Sun and Moon come out, but if you are looking for a new fighting game, stick to Street Fighter V.

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Mar 15, 2016

Not content with putting Tekken in a Pokémon skin, Pokkén Tournament does its best to bridge the two worlds in one innovative fighter. In terms of the core combat it's succeeded, and Poké-enthusiasts will love to watch their favourites battle it out in a whole new way. However, Pokkén Tournament doesn't go quite far enough to capture the exploration, collection and training aspects of the classic series. It's going to please an awful lot of Poké-fans, but it's not quite gonna catch 'em all.

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Ray Carsillo
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
Mar 15, 2016

Pokkén Tournament was a brave experiment, and it succeeds in many areas. However, it fails in some others—whether from lack of depth or outright poor design—that keeps it from reaching that upper-tier of the fighting game genre's elite entries.

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M3
Top Critic
7 / 10
Sep 29, 2017

Pokkén Tournament DX is best described as a accessible fighting game that everyone can enjoy. With that said, the mechanics is still pretty deep, and the gameplay is just as good as the Wii U version.

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Mar 15, 2016

Pokken Tournament is a fun mash up of traditional fighting games and Pokemon. The game actually takes a lot of risks, but some of them don't pay off. A larger roster of Pokemon to choose from would help as well.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 18, 2016

Pokkén is a fun fighter with familiar Pokémon characters and surprising depth, but it failed to become a fighter I see myself playing for years to come

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71 / 100
Oct 17, 2016

What you see is pretty much what you get here – Pokken Tournament is a solid multiplayer experience that should make both Pokemon and fighting genre aficionados take notice.

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7.5 / 10.0
Mar 16, 2016

There's a lot of promise here, but Pokken Tournament can't decide what kind of fighting game it wants to be and that hurts the overall experience.

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3.8 / 5.0
Mar 15, 2016

Pokken Tournament adds another solid and promising new game to Nintendo's stable, as well as an alternative for folks looking for another Nintendo brawler in addition to Super Smash Bros. It's not as technical as Tekken and the campaign can feel like a repetitive grind after a while. The game's mechanics, however, cater nicely to both beginners and advanced players, making it one of the more accessible, not to mention adorable, fighting games out there. With just a few tweaks and more fighters, this could be among the very best in the genre.

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