Mark Julio has talked about the optimal way to play Pokken Tournament in a competitive tournament environment. The fighting games community ambassador first stated that using two Wii U consoles is the best option:
Regarding Pokken Tournament VS setups and controller woes(?). For an optimal VS(tournament) setup, you’d need two Wii U units anyway.
— Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) January 26, 2016
When asked for an explanation, he revealed that the game relies on the player’s perspective as the camera is always behind one of the fighter’s back. As a result, you will need two consoles in order to make it a level playing field:
Simple. The game heavily relies of individual perspective. Both players cannot have the same perspective. https://t.co/21chUwFQj8
— Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) January 26, 2016
So on ONE console, you need two points of view (Gamepad). On TWO, you naturally have both. https://t.co/EEMQL0N8Vx
— Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) January 26, 2016
By design, POKKEN Tournament was never a fighting game with a fixed perspective. There was always going to be a need for two viewpoints.
— Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) January 26, 2016
If you have no idea what I’m talking about just watch some H2H matches or actually play the game first. https://t.co/UwrvaNwR65
— Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) January 26, 2016
For the uninformed, Pokken Tournament supports LAN, so you will be able to connect two Wii U consoles together, giving each player their own separate screen. Another advantage of LAN is that the game will be able to run lag-free (when compared to online multiplayer) as well as 60 frames per second (as opposed to the 30 frames when playing two player matches, with one using the TV and the other with the Wii U GamePad, on one system).
Pokken Tournament will be released in Japan, North America and other regions on the 18th of March. The fighting game, which is being developed by Bandai Namco, is a part of the Pokemon 20th Anniversary celebration (the original Pokemon mainline games came out in Japan in 1996, two years before the North American release). If you are interested, you can preorder the Pokemon fighting game with this link on Amazon.