A new character for Bandai Namco’s Pokken Tournament, the arcade fighter based on the Pokemon franchise, will be revealed on December 10th through the game’s official Twitter account. The announcement of the reveal was tweeted yesterday, with the only hint being that the new combatant’s name contains the Japanese character “ン,” which is translated to the letter “n.” According to Gematsu, a new support Pokemon will also be announced.
Pokken Tournament will see your favourite pocket monsters pitted against each other in a way you’ve never seen before. Gone is the slower paced turn-based combat that is usually associated with the kid-friendly creatures. Instead, Bandai Namco seems to be intent on channeling the brutal action of their Tekken series. It makes sense, seeing how the game’s executive producer is Katsuhiro Harada, the same producer behind the long-running Tekken franchise.
Pokken Tournament has been turning up in arcades across Japan and is now being released internationally for the Wii U. So far, the game’s roster features several faces who are no stranger to the occasional brawl—Charizard, Lucario and, of course, Pikachu—thanks to the Super Smash Bros. series. This has caused some fans to speculate that maybe this new fighter will be another known attendee of the Smash arena, namely the agile water-type Pokemon, Greninja.
Even with this new addition, the roster seems a little bare. The new face brings the total to twelve, which is a bit sparse by today’s standards. It’s likely though that there will be more characters added in the coming months leading up to the game’s release in the first half of next year.
The Wii U version of Pokken Tournament is set for release in Japan on March 18, 2016, and in the second quarter of the year for North America and Europe.