Pokémon Rumble Review

Years ago, the Pokémon series transitioned from a popular anime and trading card franchise to one of the most popular gaming franchises of all time. With dozens of great RPGs available on all versions of the Gameboy, the Pokémon brand has never been nearly as successful on home consoles.

There were a few Pokémon Stadium games on the N64 that got some attention, but nothing has sparked a craze like the handheld versions are still managing to do after 20 years. Maybe Pokémon just doesn't fair as well at home? Or do the console games possibly need a better formula?

Whatever the case may be, Ambrella is taking a more humble approach to bringing a good Pokémon game to Nintendo's latest home console. Pokémon Rumble is available on WiiWare for 1500 Wii Points (U.S. $15.00).

The concept is that you're controlling a toy Pokémo and fighting against other toys. It's pretty questionable as to why they had to be, too, because it doesn't make much sense to be playing as a fake toy or a fake creature. It seems like it's just being used as an excuse.

For starters, it allows Ambrella to reuse the same wacky character models from Pokémon Ranch (another WiiWare title), and it also lets the Pokémon pound on each other without bringing morality into the equation. It won't end up being too much of a distraction, but most players would agree that they would prefer to have living, breathing Pokémon to enhance the experience.

To begin the game, you are given a Rattata (which, for those who don't know, is a purple rat). You control your toy Pokémon by holding the Wiimote horizontally and using the D-Pad to move around the level and the two buttons to attack. That's it! This carries both pros and cons. The controls are simple enough that everyone can play, and while they're effective, the rinse-and-repeat formula can get repetitive after a while.

Oh, and there are no tacked-on motion controls. You move your Rattata around the game's hub world (named "The Terminal"). From here, you can access six different levels: Silent Forest, Rocky Cave, Bright Beach, Eternal Tower, Fiery Furnace, and Windy Prairie.

Select one of these to travel to, and you will be transported off to that level. You run around the linear level path, fighting other Pokémon who are on that level. There are different Pokémon in each level, so for example, in Silent Forest, you might find Pokémon like Pikachu, Ivysaur, and Caterpie, while in Fiery Furnace, there will be Charmander, Vulpix, and Primeape waiting to battle.

When you defeat an enemy Pokémon, it will either drop a coin for you to collect or tip over. When the latter occurs, you can run over to your fallen prey and collect it. Once you have done this, the Pokémon will be added to your inventory, which you can use to battle. This livens up gameplay because each Pokémon has a unique attack, giving it a different feeling to fight with.

It can also be fun to see how many Pokémon you can collect. While the Pokémon can't level up like in the Gameboy counterparts, each Pokémon has a numbered ranking, with a higher number indicating a stronger Pokémon.

As you continue your way through the level, fighting more and more Pokémon, collecting as you go, you will eventually run into a boss. This is a regular toy Pokémon, but it has been wound up excessively to make it gigantic in comparison to you. Not only will you have to take care of the boss, but there are still normal-sized Pokémon roaming around the level, and you have to watch out for them.

Once you take down the boss, you will taken back to The Terminal. From here, there are many options. At the very bottom of the hub world are various things to take a look at. You can view your Pokémon collection, release any you no longer want, look at information such as how long you've played and the number of toys you've defeated and befriended (collected), turn on multiplayer (which we'll get into later), store Pokémon on your Wiimote to take to a friend's house, or you can give your Pokémon a new attack move.

This is where those coins you've been collecting come in. Spend a certain amount of the coins, and one of the characters of your choice will obtain a new attack that takes the place of the 1onebutton. It's nice to see just a little more depth added to the combat system here.

Now you can go back and play another one of the six levels to collect more coins and more Pokémon. You continue to repeat this process until you have acquired a Pokémon who has a ranking of a certain number or higher. You can then take this character into the Battle Royale.

The Battle Royale is basically a huge arena full of Pokémon in a free-for-all battle against one another. Your object is to defeat all the other Pokémon and be the last player standing before the allotted time runs off the clock. Win this contest, and you unlock the next rank.

Unfortunately, the next rank is basically the same thing you just did, but with the difficulty of your opponents slightly revved up. That's not to say that the game is ever difficult. Since you can switch to another one of the Pokémon in your collection at any given point in a level, you're never given a real challenge.

Even when you're bombarded with 20 other Pokémon attacking you, it can be easily taken care of by your single user-controlled Pokémon. The boss battles don't pose any more of a challenge. The giant boss can be defeated by simply mashing on the attack button(s,) and when you're hit by an attack and thrown across the level, you can simply run back up and continue pressing two until the boss goes down.

If you're struggling (or just want to play along with friends), there is a multiplayer option available for up to 4 players. So if you have 4 Wiimotes and three other friends who want to battle it out with virtual toy Pokémon, invite them over to play some Pokémon Rumble. But don't expect to get too much out of the experience.

It's the same as playing solo, except now you have three other friends jumping in to help make the game that much easier. Actually, having someone there to coincide with you while you're beating up on Pokémon could potentially provide some fun times if there was actually a challenge, giving you a need to work together.

Pokémon Rumble is a game I would recommend almost exclusively to a younger gamer who is big on Pokémon (which I assume there are a lot of). The mindless, simple gameplay is surprisingly fun for the first few hours, and collecting as many of the 150 Pokémon included in the game will give players something to aim for.

But Rumble's issues keep it back from being something exceptional. The linearity of levels and lack of any way to freshen up the games as you advance to different ranks hinder what could've been an enjoyable game. For certain players who may be able to overlook the game's woes and not find the game to be extremely easy, they will find a cute and tolerable game.