Nintendo's Pokemon fighting game is going to be hitting arcades long before we ever get to see it debut on the Wii U.

According to Destructoid, the Pocket Monster fighting game (now that just sounds dirty), Pokken Tournament, will be coming to arcades before its inevitable Wii U launch. As of now, Pokken Tournament has only been confirmed as an arcade-only release. Given the current state of arcades throughout North America, we're pretty sure most of these Pokken Tournament arcade machines will be predominantly be located throughout Japan, but we still hope Dave & Busters decides to pick it up. Pokken Tournament will be helmed by Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada and play quite similarly to his beloved fighting series -- we hope that Machamp plays like Paul Phoenix.

Super Smash Bros. enthusiasts and the expected surge in Wii U console sales throughout the next few months will likely help open the door for Pokken Tournament's release on Nintendo's next-gen console. Harada explained that its arcade release will allow Pokken Tournament's development team gauge fan reactions at a closer level than a Wii U launch. Considering that Nintendo isn't too fond of doing post-release patches for its games, we're fine with this decision.

"Once you have a title that can make it out of the lion’s den called arcades, it’s something you know you can be proud of for being the real deal. Additionally, there aren’t too many developers that take on these kind of challenges nowadays," Harada said. "It's important for fighting games to at least succeed in arcades once."

Just as long as you include Poliwrath and Hitmonlee in Pokken Tournament, Mr. Harada, we'll believe anything you say.

Some of these Pokemon better be in Pokken Tournament:

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