Pokemon Fighting Game Pokken Tournament Is Getting An Official Wii U Controller

The controller you see in the image above may not look like it, but it's actually for the Wii U. The thing is, it's meant to be used with one game in particular: Pokken Tournament, the Pokemon arcade fighting game that is headed to Nintendo's home console next year. It's a wired controller and is notably missing any analog sticks, but those are unnecessary when it comes to dedicated fighting game fans, who prize smooth directional pads and zero latency button presses above all else.

The Pokken controller doesn't have the large touchscreen in the middle like the standard Wii U GamePad, making it fairly similar to Nintendo's Pro Controller, often meant to be used with GameCube games or those sold on the Virtual Console. This goes a step further in limiting its game compatibility by not only eliminating the analog sticks, but by relegating the ZL and ZR buttons, often used as triggers, to nonessential face buttons alongside Start and Select.

Instead, the Pokken controller keeps things simple with the standard A, B, X, Y action buttons, two standard shoulder buttons, and a D-pad. This is in order to make the controller as close to the game's original arcade controls as possible.

The bad news is that while Pokken Tournament will be coming to the US at some point in 2016, as of now this controller is only seeing release in Japan. It's scheduled to launch in March, most likely on or near March 18th, which is the Japanese release date for Pokken Tournament. If you happen to be in Japan at that time, it's also been revealed that the game will be included in a Wii U console bundle, priced at 36,800 yen (about $300).

SOURCE Serebii