Pokemon Rumble

Have you ever stared at shelves full of videogames and not been able to find anything to play? I did the other day. I never thought that I would see the day when I found myself so bored that I didn't want to watch anime or play a videogame. After wandering back and forth between my living room and my office thinking of something that I could play and talk about with my readers, it finally hit me... I haven't touched my Wii in ages. Now don't get me wrong, I love my Nintend Wii, but I haven't seen a lot of games as of late that really made me want to pick it up and start playing. I have been on such a kick with my PS3 and even PSX games that I couldn't really get myself into a Wii groove. After much deliberation about what exactly I wanted to do on the Wii I started looking for some new channels to add through my HBC (HomeBrew Channel) I forgot that I had a Wad file for Pokemon Rumble but forgot to install it many ages ago. I was sure that it was going to be another add on program for my DS and store my Pokemon or something essentially useless.

Rather than bothering to take the time to read what this WiiWare game was all about I just installed it and took a chance. I have to say I am glad I did. Pokemon Rumble is probably one of the most addictive games that I have played in a long time. It is a dungeon map based game much like Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer or Izuna: The Unemployed Ninja. As players progress through the game they are moved to more difficult maps with stronger Pokemon. Rather than throwing Pokeballs and weakening Pokemon as in previous games, this one focuses more on the ability to get through the dungeon floors and beat the final boss in each dungeon (usually some super sized legendary or evolved Pokemon). Depending on whether or not an enemy dies from a critical hit seems to determine if you have the ability to catch them and add them to your roster.

I should also mention that the Pokemon in the game are not really Pokemon but rather windup Pokemon toys that you use. The other change is that there is no box system to store your Pokemon, so you get to carry them all around with you in the levels and change them as you wish. In order to add some challenge to the game, the player gets three windup keys that represent lives when they enter the dungeon, so in other words you can change as much as you like, but one three Pokemon die the level is over.

Each Pokemon in the game can learn a maximum of two moves. Moves can be learned through the game by trading in coins collected from killing enemies. The moves seem to be random and based on the level of difficult form which they are acquired. The levels begin at C and work their way up to S.

An interesting feature of this game is the ability to store Pokemon in the Wii controller for multiplayer play. This concept is pretty cool since it still promotes the idea of taking a dungeon crawler game and lets players individually build their teams for multiplayer action.

I have yet to reach the end of the game, but I have managed to beat the first set of sections which includes the original 150 Pokemon from the Red and Blue series. The new section I have started allows players to fight and recruit Pokemon from the Diamond and Pearl games.

I would have to recommend this game to any Pokemon fan. If you like dungeon crawler games and hate Pokemon  it is still worth the time to play this one. Be aware though, it is highly addictive and time gets lost easily.