Pokemon Rumble Review by: Clover
Gameplay 9/10: You start out as a "toy" Rattata that has been wound up to give it life, go through various stages, and defeat Pokémon along the way. Each Pokémon you defeat has a small chance of dropping a "toy" version of itself, which you can then add to your arsenal of available Pokémon. The farther you get into the game, the stronger the Pokémon and their respective toys become.When first playing the game, the concept is very simple: Kill, and don't be killed. After playing a little more, you learn which moves are ideal and how to change your move set. There isn't a place to train or level up here. Instead, you have to pay money (which can be collected via the dungeons) to a prize machine that gives you a random move depending on the Pokémon you are. Every Pokémon on your team can have up to two moves, so you have to chose wisely which to keep and which to get rid of. It becomes apparent as you play which attack and support moves are most effective.
An interesting feature they've included are Pokémon who have special abilities. Similar to the original games, these abilities can make one Pokémon stronger or faster than another Pokémon of the same type. For instance, picking up a "Speedy Ghastly" toy will allow that Gastly to move much quicker than any other one. These Pokémon are more rare than the normal toy drop.
There are other similarities between Pokémon Rumble and the original games as well like type advantages, stame type attack bonuses (stab) , and shiny Pokémon. It adds another level of complexity for the more experienced player.
Every stage has a battle arena where you can fight the strongest Pokémon, along with a horde of minions. This is especially fun using the multiplayer mode that is included in the game. There is potential for interesting team combinations. For instance, one person could be a support type who puts status effects on foes and only attacks long range, while the other Pokémon could be a tank with high HP and attack. There is a play style for almost anyone here with the bounty of moves available.
Sound 7/10: If you are a hard core Pokémon fan, you will appreciate that the cries for each Pokémon have been kept the same as the original games. The sound effects for the attacks are ok and the background music isn't anything you'd want to buy a sound track for. At times it can be a bit repetitive. For instance, every time you encounter a group of Pokémon, the music changes to a certain theme depending on the area. While fighting through a dungeon, the music is easily left where it should be: in the background.
Graphics 8/10: If you're looking for chibi, cute, and over-simplified 3D Pokémon, this is the game for you. If you want a game with more eye candy, stick with the Stadium series. Nintendo has proven to us again that graphics isn't what necessarily makes a game fun. If you've downloaded Pokémon Ranch for the Wii, then you'll know exactly what to expect graphic wise here. The attacks are all varied, and give you just a little eye candy depending on the move.
What the game needs: Online play! The co-op play is quite fun, and online play seems like it wouldn't have been that hard to incorporate. Perhaps Nintendo is just waiting to do a re-release of this game with minor updates and online play? Who knows. Online co-op play, or battles There doesn't seem to be a reason to not have this, and I think it would add a lot to the game. The battles could become one sided due to the moves that both attack and heal the user being quite broken, but it would still be fun to co-op through the dungeons. Again, my guess is that Nintendo is going to release Rumble 2 that will include ALL the Pokémon instead of just the first and last generation, and include online play as well. Levling up a Pokémon In this game, you can only alter a Pokémon's moveset, but you cannot train them so they become stronger. This causes a Pokémon that you've spent a lot of money on trying to get a good moveset to become obsolete in later levels. It is also annoying when you capture a shiny Pokémon or a legendary, and you realize you cannot train it to continue using it. Let us buy a specific move! In Rumble, you can spend money on a machine that will give you a capsul with a move in it. Purchasing a capsul becomes more expensive throughout the game, and can really hurt your wallet. I think there should be an option that lets you buy ANY move you want, but at a very high price. This would be much more convinient. More levels please! Each individual dungeon has lots of Pokémon to see, but every stage you get to has the same 6 levels. It would be nice to see some more variations in the dungeons in terms of theme. Maybe if they included more areas from the game like Villain HQ, snowy areas, more water levels, etc. They did include a cave, powerplant, beach, and haunted house though which is nice.
