Wii U's bizarre Pokemon fighting game has a March release date

Pokken Tournament, the only game that lets you play as luchador Pikachu and suplex a Machamp, now has an official release date. It will hit Wii U in North America and Europe on March 18, 2016.

That's an especially important date to keep in mind if you fancy playing as Shadow Mewtwo right from the get-go: Pokken's first retail run will be included with a limited edition Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card, which you can use to unlock the special character. Otherwise you'll have to unlock it by playing the game, like a plebe.

Pokken Tournament was created by Bandai Namco, taking the company's Tekken fighting series and replacing its jaguar-headed dudes and bear-bodied bears with Pokemon fighters. Don't worry, unlikely combatants like Chandelure (the chandelier Pokemon) will keep that good old Tekken weirdness intact.

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Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.