QCF: Pokémon Rumble U

t’s kind of ironic that an incredibly Japanese property fuels one of the most American ideals in the most feverish ways: materialism. Collecting for the sake of completion regardless of the practicality to utilize the innumerous amount of trinkets, objects, and uhh, Monsters who resemble that of the pocket variety. Aside from the main games of the franchise, there are quote unquote “side” games that try to be creative with Pokémon and try to have a theme of collecting within it’s formula still—for the majority of the side games, this mechanic has always played out like it’s tacked on in the process.  

However, there a particularly overlooked entry in the list of spinoffs from the main franchise, the Pokémon Rumble series; while the last two games were fairly unremarkable, Nintendo and Ambrella have finally got it right this time around. Pokémon Rumble U reinvigorates the joy of compiling Pokémon and raising and battling them in ways that set itself apart from the rest of entries, and does the formula justice outside of the main series.

For those who’re unfamiliar with the premise that Rumble sticks itself in, here’s the low down; the Pocket Monsters are all depicted as small windup toys that battle it out with one another once you crank them up because Pokémon. While shallow in concept, it’s the stupid dumb fun from the scaled back fighting that make a Pokémon game anyone can enjoy. 

You start off with a selection of iconic monsters like the famous yellow mouse and certain starter Pokémon, and gradually build up your collections through repeated battle stages that you encounter. Each stage has a hulking Boss Pokémon that can summons smaller monster dudes to defend again the onslaught that you and either a group of buddies or the AI launch at them. The setup rings of a top-down Diablo-esque affair as you maneuver whatever you chose, taking down hordes of proxy monster foes, and collecting capsules that house additional monsters; whether you won or lost the stage—you keeps the spoils of your capsule loot. The beauty of Rumble U is that even though it’s constructed primarily towards the player’s patience to build up whatever team they need by mining additional Pokémon, it never feels like a tedium in practice. Even when you acquire doubles  of the little guys, your efforts are still vindicated by the variation of attack stats, moves, special traits, and even a possibly enhanced Shiny version; the incentive to replay stages is inherently genuine versus monotonous when you’re trying to get the right Pokémon.

The battle formula in Rumble U is some majorly nominal stuff at it’s core, especially when you compare it to all of the nuances in the main series but the illusory depth that gradually unfolds through progression is rewarding when the wind-up toys start to get real in the Poké-ring. Aside getting punch drunk on the screen, the light aspects of the Pokébattle formula is present with type advantages, and special traits, each type and trait will have stages designed with conditions  to be vulnerable against them. Soon you’ll be destroying objects in the environment and dealing with stage hazards and stipulations that further account into who you choose for your team. So of course, experimentation is key and you’ll find yourself toying around (no pun intended) with team options after your face has been shoved in the mud enough times. Collecting more monsters for your team isn’t always dictated by capsule grabs, you’ll have a list of meta-objectives beyond surviving the round that will net you one of the rarer monsters to grab if you complete all of them. These extra goal conditions can range anywhere from collecting a certain amount of coin or capsules, beating the stage with a certain type of monster, sooner or later you’ll encounter objectives that are going to require multiplayer participation simply because AI is only good for laying smackdowns indiscriminately; this can be annoying for completion when you prefer playing solo. Rumble U has it’s dumb fun, and is great to pick up and play, but sometimes it’s a bit too dumb…

There are over a hundred stages, and aside from minor aesthetics, hazards, or particular powerup drops, they’re all the same layout, with a bunch of missed potential over what Rumble U could have added. While I mentioned earlier that mining and grinding can be fun and it doesn’t feel like a chore, the game still placed me in this predicament of needing to do so because of the suddenly sharp difficulty curve half-way through to the very end of the story mode. If not for the empty-calorie, yet grandly-assorted approach with the combat, Pokémon Ruble U would play out to be a lot less gratifying a hell of a lot sooner.

For those out there with a Wii U who fancy themselves a top-down hack-n-slash crawler with a baby learning curve on one side, and a not so baby difficulty curve on the other, and some Skylanders sprinkled on top, then Rumble U is honestly for you. Just be prepared for a casual venture that offers those pure pick up and play moments, because there isn’t a whole lot beyond that, but for what it is, it’s a solid title in the franchise.