Pokkén Tournament, the new Pokémon fighting game, launches this Friday, and I’m taking a look at each playable fighter in hopes of deciding who I’m going to choose as my go-to monster. Realistically, I’ll have to give each one a spin and then choose a favourite based on play style, but it’s fun to sort them out based on which ones I already like.

Yesterday I ran down the pokémon that I feel I’m least likely to play as, and today we’re going to take a look at the monsters that have me on the fence:

MEWTWO

Mewtwo is a psychic powerhouse, artificially created by cloning and messing around with the DNA of Mew. He is the original unstoppable force in Pokémon; a Pokémon that you can only find and capture after becoming the Champion in the original Red and Blue versions. I’m not too fond of the idea of psychic-types in a fighting game, but Mewtwo can be a physical threat as well, especially when it evolves into Mega Mewtwo X and gains a secondary fighting-type.

Mewtwo has shown that it is a capable fighter in Super Smash Bros, where it uses a combination of deadly psychic attacks and its powerful tail to pummel its opponents. However, while it is a large and somewhat slower, it’s actually a very light fighter, and can be launched fairly easily. I like playing as Mewtwo in Smash, but I don’t know if it will be as satisfying to play in Pokkén.

There is also a secret (and unlockable) boss character known as Shadow Mewtwo (pictured). I don’t know at all if the dark version plays differently from regular Mewtwo, but it hasn’t really pique my interest yet. Time will tell how I end up feeling about this non-canon form.

Continue reading The Pokkén Dilemma: The Maybes

Guys, I don’t know what to do. Pokkén Tournement is just days away and I have no idea which monster I want to choose as my main. Sure, I could just try them all and then choose based on my findings, and that’s probably exactly what I’ll do. But I do think that it’s fun to go over the competitors and try to figure out which one I’d like the most, based on wild guesses and theories.

To be honest, I don’t scrutinize trailers and other promotional videos to try to figure out the attributes and abilities of each character before playing them. Most of my thoughts are just based on my existing thoughts about the Pokémon in question, how they perform in other games, and how their designs might affect their performance in a one-on-one fighting game.

Let’s look at the monsters that I’m least interested in first:

SCEPTILE

The final evolution of the grass-type starter from Ruby and Sapphire, Treecko. while it’s in a dire position because I don’t usually give a hot damn about grass-type starters, Sceptile is actually one of the cooler ones, at least in my opinion. A big ol’ lizardy guy with some manner of tree for a tail.

I would imagine that Sceptile would use that tail in the bulk of its attacks, because it’s got pretty puny little arms. It does have blades on those arms, but they still seem like more of a liability than a real asset  Plus, man, grass type. I am really not a big fan overall, even though I love the colour green. There are a few grass-types that I absolutely love (like Roserade and Gourgeist), but for the most part I just can’t be bothered with ’em.

Continue reading The Pokkén Dilemma: The Unlikely