Pokken Tournament is "Pokemon for Adults"

The Pokémon games are, ultimately, games designed for children.

Now, thats not to say adults cant play or enjoy it, obviously, and there are people over at Smogon University who could write textbooks about the complicated, surprisingly math-heavy rules of raising and composing Pokémon Teams. But if you look at the world of Pokémon, the games, the ascetic, the anime, the characters, ect yeah, its pretty obvious the main audience Nintendo and Game Freak are looking to appeal to is children. Which is fine, but since these games are getting rather old now (19 years old!) its time to ask ourselves: what about the fans who have been with the series since the beginning? When do they get a Pokémon game catered to them?

Apparently, the answer is the Japanese arcade exclusive collaboration between Nintendo and Bandai Namco, Pokken Tournament. This comes to us from an interview with Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara by Japanese TV program NHK World, who had this to say:
 

"Considering that many of the people in the generation who experienced Red and Green are now nearing their thirties, and those who were in elementary school then are now in university, we aimed to make a game for those who grew up playing Pokémon-rather than just target children. The bottom line is, we want to show adults that this is the new Pokémon, and get them to play."

 
While the play is certainly different, being a fighting game and all, there are more minute differences we can see from the odd trailer and screenshot. The attitude is certainly different, with traditionally cute Pokémon ignored for their tougher, bigger counterparts. Even Pikachu, who shows up due to some contractual obligation, tries to look a little more intense. This is helped by the art style, which is more standard anime than the cartoony graphics from the traditional games.

Odd choice of words near the end, though. We want to show adults this is the new Pokémon as if this was the direction future Pokémon games will be headed. I very much doubt thats what he meansits more likely hes talking about some of the newer Pokémon that have been released since the original 150. But its also not impossible hes hinting at the idea that more adult-oriented Pokémon might be more commonplace in the future? Hmm

Its worth mentioning in the interview, he discussed that he can see a strong possibility of localizing the arcade machines and bringing them to the west. I wouldnt hold my breath on that one, it will probably hinge on how well the machines do in Japan and even over there Arcades are slowly dying, but, the possibility exists nonetheless.
 
Plus, the Wii U port. I very much doubt there won't eventually be one of those.