Pokken Tournament Launching Worldwide On March 18

The Wii U exclusive Pokemon fighter, Pokken Tournament, will be launching worldwide on March 18, Nintendo has confirmed today. This actually puts the game before its announced release window of Spring 2016, and actually means it beats my predicted release date for it by over two months- I’d anticipated a launch date of May 29, 2016, since Nintendo’s launched two multiplayer centric Wii U games on May 29 over the last couple of years (Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon) to great success.

Pokken Tournament has been developed by Bandai Namco, and has been headed by the Tekken team. The game is a highly technical 3D fighter, featuring multiple Pokemon duking it out. It features the best visual representation of the Pokemon we have received yet. It also gives Nintendo a more technical fighter in their roster than the more party oriented Smash Bros. games.

Maybe we’ll even see Pokken being played at EVO this year, who knows? I personally cannot wait for the arguments about whether or not it really is a fighter.

#PokkenTournament is coming to Wii U on March 18, 2016! https://t.co/1nHSo9xgu7 pic.twitter.com/2u6G2679qI

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) January 15, 2016

Pokkén Tournament arrives on #WiiU on 18th March! pic.twitter.com/v3y5KgWduN

— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) January 15, 2016