The Pokemon games may essentially boil down to cock fighting, but it's G-rated cock fighting with battle animations that don't show the combatants making physical contact with one another. But when fists start actually connecting with faces, that's when business gets real! The upcoming Bandai Namco-developed Pokemon fighting game, Pokken Tournament, is all about keeping it real, especially for adult Pokemon fans who have grown alongside the franchise.
In an interview with 4Gamer translated by Siliconera, Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada explained the team's goal with the new fighter:
Naturally, it's being developed into something that elementary school children can also enjoy, but if we're talking about age demographics, we're aiming for something over 18 years of age to the early 30s.
When it comes to Pokemon, everyone says they love it up until the fourth grade, and what's funny is that there are kids who graduate from it after that. Well… it's not that they "graduate," since they're still fans, but they just don't show [their enthusiasm], and kind of play it more behind-the-scenes.
That applies to some of the kids out there. However, for some reason, once they get into their 20s, there are more and more people who enthusiastically share their love for Pokemon.
Pokken Tournament is therefore trying to target the fans who have fond memories of competing head-to-head in the schoolyard as children, but it'll be spruced up and given a slightly harder edge. It's still a Pokemon game at the end of the day, however, so don't go expecting blood and broken bones.
Pokken Tournament will hit Japanese arcades in 2015. A Western localization and a home console port have not been confirmed at this time, but both are almost guaranteed.
