Well, that was like our second win :p

Thanks for playing Chris, good games!

http://mynintendonews.com/2016/03/18/europe-theres-a-demo-of-pokken-tournament-on-the-eshop/

OMG YES!!!! Just What I need!!!!
Im still on the edge if I should buy it or not (The next game I will buy will probably be FE Fates in May 21, or if there is a demo of Hyrule Warriors Legends on the 3DS So I can see if the issues people had will greatly affect me. If it doesn't effect me then I might buy it in April)

Oh and for the Poll!
It has to be TMS #FE!
- The release date was earlier than I Expected!
- They are keeping the Japanese VA!!!!!!! (I was worried after the Whole FE Fates thing)

My little brother has kicked me off the TV so he can play Pokken all day, haha. 

While I've only watched him play, it says a lot that he as someone who struggles with fighting games was able to pick it up and immediately get the hang of it. His only complaint so far is that Green League is a total pushover.

The phase shift mechanic looks a lot less confusing than I expected, and the sound effects are nice and punchy. Was a bit surprised at the graphics though; the Pokemon are nicely modelled and shaded, and the framerate is solid, but image quality is quite chunky and low res. If I had to guess I'd say it looks like something in the region of 540p-576p. Not a deal breaker, but not what I expected given that other games on the system have managed to pull off similar levels of detail at 720p. On a more positive note though, load times are short and we've not encountered any glitches so far.

I thought the new Splatfest matchmaking was supposed to put equally skilled players together, but I'm getting more low level teammates than the past couple splatfest, and I mean really low level! Thank goodness you get more points for wins now as my W/L ratio was the same as my prior online ranked session in Pokken, 50-50. Still managed to get to King in record time so I definitely approve of that change, but the matchmaking system still needs work.

Just play it with him!

Pretty much my same thoughts after playing it. I'm also inexperienced with the more traditional fighters (as in not Smash or Naruto UNS), but I do feel like I kinda know what I'm doing already, I'm not just randomly button mashing hehe. I'm also really surprised at how fast the online matchmaking is, commonly taking less than 5 seconds. I haven't noticed a problem with the resolution, but then again I'm playing on a 20 inch screen. 

The graphics are a touch and go affair and it varies widely from stage to stage.  Tellur Town, Neos City, Neos City Night, and a couple of others have the worst of it.  It's probably due to all the stuff in the scenes (lots of foliage and big crowds), all of which had to be seriously scaled back.  But the Phos Volcano, Ferrum Stadium, Magicarp Festival, and Dojo (not the training one, the one with the wooden floor) all look quite good, in the case of the volcano and festival very good.  Then there are the middle ground ones like Diggersby Land and the two old town ones that seem to have issues but not as many as the Neos City et al.  The image quality also appears to fluctuate but that might be an optical illusion.  It's still a visually pleasing game in motion, it's just not as striking as it could have been if it were built from the ground up with the Wii U in mind.

And yeah, controls are intuitive.  And while the early leagues are real easy, it does mean you get ample time to learn the controls, potential combos and moves for your Pokemon partner, and get a feel for what your Skill Points should be put towards.  And the Phase Shift does feel quite natural after I adjusted to it.  It's an interesting juxtaposition, with Duel Phase being similar to an aggressive 2D fighter with smash-esque controls, and Field Phase being a sort of maneuvering game where you quickly try to get in position to launch a pivotal attack or combo to initiate the transition to Duel Phase.  It takes some getting used to but it's second nature to me after a few hours of play.

I wonder if maybe it utilizes dynamic resolution? Tekken Tag Tournment on Wii U, by the same guys, flucuates between 1280x720 and 700x720 on the fly. This could have carried over to Pokken. A post-processing AA solution might also be exacerbating the issue, as those can incure excessive blur when badly implemented.

But yeah, it is clear it wasn't made from the ground up for Wii U, as a lot of the foliage in particular has a very pared back look.

At least the framerate is smooth, which is ultimately what matters most in a fighting game. TAnd the Pokemon themselves look great.

And it's worth noting that there's a serious drop off in detail the further from the ring you get.  Case in point, Neos City.  Within the ring you have high res ground textures with some nice effects and at Neos City night you have reflective water puddles.  Also, the Pokemon Center featured prominently very close to the ring edge has nice detail.  But the other buildings, crowds, etc that are further away or less frequently  visible are far, far less detailed.  This same issue appears in Tellur Town (though for some reason I feel Tellur Town Autumn does look noticeably better in general).  I will say the effects look really, really good for the various moves.  

Yeah the effects for the different moves look great, along with the character models and framerate, that's one of the best elements of the game's graphics. It's definitely a bit of a mixed bag overall and has that "ported" feel, but again, it's nothing that ruins the experience, it just doesn't quite have the visual polish we're used to from Nintendo's first party offerings.