PixlBit

Pokémon is traditionally a role-playing game featuring turn-based battles; however, Pokémon Rumble shakes up the formula allowing players to interact with the creatures in real-time in a beat-‘em-up style. Further varying the equation, the Pokémon appearing in Rumble are actually toy versions of real monsters that can’t level up, evolve, or learn new attacks. Furthermore, the toys only have two attacks rather than the traditional four.

The game starts with a weak Rattata that sneaks into an official Rumble event to attempt to defeat the champion. Unfortunately, when you gain control and try to defeat the other toy Pokémon, you are easily destroyed and ejected from the rumble, back to the hub. Shortly thereafter, players set off on a quest to the first of six areas in an effort to befriend other toy Pokémon. Players will do so by unmercifully beating enemy toy Pokémon. The Pokémon will often disappear rather than just faint, leaving players Rumble Points, the game’s form of currency, which can be redeemed for various items.

The game’s six areas each have a generic level layout and a variety of different Pokémon predominantly based on element types that correspond to the area. Eleven rooms comprise each area, one of which is a boss area that contains an oversized Pokémon along with his minions. It was disappointing to see that the level layouts were so repetitious. The ten rooms leading up to the boss fight in each area are nearly identical, with only the background and Pokémon varying in each level.

Though the game on its surface is a simple beat-‘em-up, players have the ability to switch their active Pokémon to one of their reserve characters. Since each Pokémon only has two specific attacks, the game features a hidden level of strategy in the switching abilities. Players can save their lives by switching, as well as attack more effectively because each enemy Pokémon have different weaknesses.

Like any other beat-‘em-up, the game is even more fun when you incorporate up-to-three more players. The only unfortunate part of multiplayer is that the game becomes even easier than it already is due to the subpar enemy AI.

Pokémon Rumble pushes its social features further with the ability to export Pokémon to a Wii Remote utilizing the Remote's internal storage. This allows you to bring your Wii Remote to a friend’s house and use your Pokémon in their game. For obvious reasons, this is a great feature that leverage’s some of the lesser utilized abilities of the Wii.

Players can also create in-game screenshots and save them to their SD card. The game creates the screenshots in .jpg format. Again, this is a nice touch that allows players to further enjoy their Pokémon experience.

Graphically, the game has a pleasant cel-shaded style, though the environments in each level are bland, but never ugly. The Pokémon are deformed and have a similar style to the ones found in Pokémon Ranch. Even though the Pokémon look deformed, I found this style for the Pokémon oddly charming.

The game’s greatest downfall is that it's very repetitive and simplistic. While this is the case, the game still has a tremendous amount of replay value because there are many areas to uncover and a lot of Pokémon to collect. Beating up Pokémon in real-time is also strangely satisfying, regardless of the repetition.

While 1,500 Wii Points is a steep price tag, given the game’s replay value and in-game content, the price is justified for fans of Pokémon.