One of the things that makes the Pokémon franchise so beloved is that, not unlike Mario and his long list of games, you can take things into just about any direction and make them work. The franchise is filled with spinoffs of every shape, size, and color, not unlike the Pokémon themselves, and that includes a fighting game being made in the form of Pokken Tournament. The original title came out for the Wii U, where it did well, and then it got ported to the Switch, where it did even better.
By all accounts, though, that should’ve been the end of it. It was a nice experiment, but it wasn’t likely to grow from there, right? Enter this account dedicated to watching Nintendo and its patents. Yes, that’s a thing. Apparently, Nintendo has filed for some new applications for Pokken Tournament, and done so across a LOT of countries…including filing a LOT of them a few days ago…
Back in June a new trademark application for ポッ拳 Pokkén Tournament was filed in Japan by Nintendo. That was interesting but might not mean much. On Aug 18, however, a new application was jointly filed for 17 other territories, including …1/
— Nintendo Patents Watch (@ninpatentswatch.bsky.social) 2025-08-20T09:44:33.921Z
… Australia, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, China, EU, UK, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Mexico, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, USA, and Vietnam.So something is happening? It could be as simple as Pokkén soundtracks in Nintendo Music though.branddb.wipo.int/en/brand/WO6…2/
— Nintendo Patents Watch (@ninpatentswatch.bsky.social) 2025-08-20T09:44:33.922Z
They’re not wrong that this could be a simple Nintendo Music thing, but why not think/dream bigger?
It’s not impossible for a sequel to happen, and for the most basic of reasons. First, the original game and its port sold well. Second, Nintendo and Bandai Namco, who made the original game, are super tight, as proven by the announcement that they’re making Kirby Air Riders alongside Sakurai, and thus, all it would take is for one of them to go, “Can we do this and do it even better?”
It could be a good exclusive for the Nintendo Switch 2, and build up the fighting game genre on the system more while we wait for the OTHER Nintendo-exclusive fighting franchise to show up…
Just saying.
