When I was a boy, I had a certain knack for drawing/painting. I remember being assigned art projects in elementary school that I would finish days before it was due. Not knowing what to do with the extra time, I would just keep doodling on the project. I remember my art teacher asking me about one of my pieces.
"Alex, …
When I was a boy, I had a certain knack for drawing/painting. I remember being assigned art projects in elementary school that I would finish days before it was due. Not knowing what to do with the extra time, I would just keep doodling on the project. I remember my art teacher asking me about one of my pieces.
"Alex, what was the assignment?" She asked patiently.
"To draw a winter wonderland." I shyly responded.
"So-" she is baffled and hesitates before proceeding with her question. "Why is there a big UFO?"
"I had extra time and UFOs are cool!"
I feel like the team working on Pokken just thinks UFOs are cool. I respect that, but it doesn't make me like this game.
I'm a Pokemon fanboy and the idea of playing a fighting game where I can play as Chandelure, the living chandelier Pokemon, should be an instant 5 star rating from me. Like just take your already functioning Tekken gameplay and copy/paste Pokemon on top of it and I'm game. I don't care if Decidueye has the exact moveset of Heihachi, I just want a Pokemon fighting game. This should be a slam dunk for me, but it isn't.
There is so much subtraction by way of addition. The phase changes that occur when certain attacks land does nothing for me but make the controls confused. The support Pokemon are a cool idea, but forcing the support Pokemon into pairs is cumbersome and made even worse by a system that encourages the assist Pokemon to switch between rounds. I don't want to switch. I want to keep using Farfetch'd! Burst attacks are an alright idea, but why must I power the move up, activate the burst state, and then perform the move? It seems like one or two too many steps to accomplish something this basic to fighting games.
I respect Namco's ambition. They strove for much more than just a Pokemon x Tekken game... but they didn't have to. In hindsight, it seems ill advised to cram in so many different ideas. You were given Pokemon. The IP prints money. Don't overthink it.
If they do a proper Pokken 2, I'll definitely check it out. Despite this game's flaws, the core idea is solid. And if they include Garbodor in the sequel, I'll add at least one extra star.
