My first Pokémon who was Treecko in Pokémon Emerald, so what got me really interested in Pokkén was when Treecko’s final evolution, Sceptile, was announced to be playable in Pokkén. Waller: I’m an Illinois Pokkén player who’s played Pokémon ever since I was around five years old. SQUAD: Let’s chat about you first, and how you got into the competitive Pokken Tournament scene. To better get an idea of where the Pokken Tournament scene is now, we recruited the expertise of Players Cup III winner, Jacob “Jukem” Waller. In fact, the recent Pokémon Players Cup III, which concluded last week, had a Pokken Tournament segment – a good sign for the game’s future. However, it is still supported to some extent by its publisher, The Pokémon Company International. There haven’t been any software updates to the game since late 2018.

The game isn’t nearly as big in the competitive space as, say, Tekken or Street Fighter. Pokken Tournament‘s arrival on the Switch was much better received, with at least one reviewer noting that the the game is “so much better on a platform that’s not dead.” Dubbed Pokken Tournament DX, the game sold almost 2 million copies on the Nintendo Switch, easily outselling its Wii U counterpart. Thankfully, the fighting game got a second chance of sorts with the Nintendo Switch. Pokken Tournament was one of these games. Shunned by many as a “non-gamers’ console”, the Wii U underperformed, and so did a number of games released on it that perhaps could’ve found some form of commercial success otherwise. When it first came out, Pokken Tournament launched on Nintendo’s ill-fated Wii U system.

Pokken tournament