After plenty of teasing and fan speculation, Nintendo reveals that Chandelure is the latest surprising addition to the Pokemon fighting game, Pokken Tournament.

It finally happened. Nintendo has, at long last, managed to surprise dedicated fans with an oddball character addition to Pokken Tournament. After teasing the announcement a week beforehand, the big reveal has amounted to the confirmed appearance of the Ghost/Fire-type Pokemon Chandelure within the fight title. Understandably, many longtime followers were thrown for a loop with this revelation, but there's little doubt that it'll make for one of the more different combatants joining the Poke-fueled fray.

Sadly, the Pocket Monster in question is currently without any formal gameplay trailer, which is odd considering that the recently revealed Sceptile was accompanied by gameplay footage. Instead, Nintendo has promised that it will showcase the first ever footage of Chandelure in action during a "special fighting competition" on January 31. Not much is known about that, but fans hoping to see the newly-confirmed Pokken Tournament challenger in action will be able to do so then.

Chandelure's confirmation comes hot on the heels of the recent trio of unveilings for the fighting game in the Japanese gaming magazine CoroCoro. That update, which presumably arrived a little prematurely for Nintendo's liking, featured Mewtwo, Garchomp, and Braixen as new fighters for the title. Oddly, those beasts are also without any sort of gameplay trailer, so there's quite a few new things that hopeful players will be eager to see in action.

Many fans may also be a little disappointed after the initial tease left many assuming that Swampert, Hitmonlee, or Hitmonchan would be the next Pokemon joining the roster. Obviously, those predictions didn't pan out, but there's still plenty of room for those and more to join the game – the roster is only sitting at 16 fighters, after all. The remaining two Smash contenders, Greninja and Jigglypuff, are both still missing in action too, so there are still many possibilities pertaining to which monsters could end up making the cut.

There's been plenty of Pokemon news to keep wannabe Pokemon Masters in check lately, thanks largely to the franchise's 20th anniversary. Ranging from news of the re-releases of the original Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow games on the Nintendo 3DS to a brand new New 3DS bundle featuring the aforementioned classics and two special faceplates for the hardware, there's plenty for fans to look forward to in the months ahead.

What do you think of Chandelure joining the roster? Which other Pokemon should appear in Pokken Tournament? Get at us in the comments.

Pokken Tournament is set to arrive for the Wii U in Spring 2016.

Source: Serebii