This entry should come in as no surprise to Pokken Tournament fans seeing how this particular Pokemon was called well before its announcement. It was just recently publicly announced over on Pokken Official’s Twitter account. The new Pokemon joining Bandai Namco’s arena fighting game is Empoleon, and it’s joining the ranks of the 3D fighting game, which is already out for Wii U and in arcades.

I’m a big fan of Pokemon and I like a lot of the fighting type pocket monsters in the realm of Pokemon too, and if you are like me it is likely that you are pretty well versed when it comes to guessing Pokemon that will be in an upcoming title or a title that is set to get a new Pokemon. In this current situation, it should come in as no surprise that Empoleon would be the 20th playable fighter in the game.

Although most fans wanted Greninja in the fighting game, which wouldn’t be ill fitting, the devs decided to go with Empoleon — who ultimately isn’t a bad choice in my opinion. The announcement can be seen below courtesy of Pokken Official’s Twitter account.

アーケード版「ポッ拳　POKKÉN TOURNAMENT」に、12月15日より新バトルポケモン「エンペルト」が参戦決定！　#ポッ拳https://t.co/UxRljq3YL9 pic.twitter.com/e0Q5hyh5PK

— ポッ拳 公式アカウント (@pokken_official) December 1, 2016

I know now that I’m sounding like a broken recorder repeating that Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan would have been two great entries in the series, but I guess we won’t be seeing them this time around, although they would match greatly in the setting of Pokken Tournament.

Lastly, I see a lot of fans talking about the Wii U version not getting any updates containing the new fighters. According to the devs I’m not sure when the update will hit the Wii U seeing that there is no info out yet. But, take this next segment with a grain of salt, a lot of hardcore fans around different forums think that the devs will release the full updated version on the Nintendo Switch… but, again, take this info with a grain of salt.

Pokken Tournament is out now for Wii U along with its arcade version.