Pokemon Rumble
SCORE: 71
The Pokemon franchise illicits one of two
mainline responses. Either the person love Pokemon, or they hate it. I
have never been one of those who fits neatly into boxes, or mainline
categories. I find the good and the bad in games, relay that on and do
my best to discern where all the chips fall. Pokemon Rumble is the
latest Pokemon title I am tackling.
Pokemon Rumble is a WiiWare game, which means it is downloadable. It was
also released before the Nintendo 3DS version. So there are some
definite differences. I believe Nintendo improved quite a few things in
the Nintendo 3DS version. Pokemon Rumble does not give me that adventure
feel. It is more of a progress through levels/classes to get to the end.
If you are not sure on whether Pokemon Rumble would interest you or not,
there is a downloadable demo. Nintendo was kind enough to provide that
to Wii owners who have their machines hooked up to a router that is
connected to the Internet. Pokemon Rumble costs 1500 Wii Points, In
essence fifteen dollars.
Graphically Pokemon Rumble is much larger, and has longer levels than
the Nintendo 3DS version. But I am not convinced the graphics look any
better. Especially when I moved from 3D to 2D. Maybe if we had reviewed
Pokemon Rumble on the Wii first, the outcome would have been different,
but I doubt it. The level of detail for the Pokemon is lacking. The good
news is there are a ton of them, and various levels to explore.
The music in Pokemon Rumble is sort of like a jolt of electricity from a
Pikachu. It wakes players up. It tells us to get our head in the game.
Pay attention to what is going on - especially if you want to keep your
Pokemon alive. With so many different Pokemon to choose from it may not
matter that much, but still its nice for a game to contain sounds that
keep us awake.
Pokemon Rumble does not require the player to own a PhD in Pokemon.
Learning about the various types is helpful, but the core of Pokemon
Rumble is finding the more powerful Pokemon. Use them, and swap when the
health bar gets low. Also avoid Pokemon with lame attacks like teleport,
leer, and growl. Especially if that is all they happen to have.
Up to four family members can enjoy Pokemon Rumble. At times this game
is organized chaos. Certain concepts from boxing work masterfully in
Pokemon Rumble. What is that concept? Punch and move, strike and dodge.
I found I did better with a defensive mindset. Do not let them behind me
whenever possible. If I was surrounded I learned to make a hole, and get
to a safe striking distance. Using Pokemon with a longer reach is
another strategy I employed whenever possible.
I understand that Pokemon can be highly controversial. Pokemon Rumble is
a friendlier hack and slash. Instead of weapons, the Pokemon use their
various powers to dispatch their comrades. Quite often we can bring
defeated Pokemon to our team, and use them in the battle.
- Paul
Graphics: 69%
Sound: 76%
Replay/Extras: 80%
Gameplay: 67%
Family Friendly Factor: 64%
System: Wii
Publisher:
Nintendo
Rating: 'E10+' - Everyone 10+
{Mild Cartoon Violence}
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