Pokémon Rumble Demo - Part 1 of 3

Channel:

Overhazard

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Published on November 18, 2009 9:54:41 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLUDTNtH8rg

Game:

Pokémon Rumble (2009)

Duration: 9:51

32,347 views

121

As it seems, Nintendo has a demo of Pokémon Rumble available in the Wii Shop Channel. I don't think it was announced to anybody; people just picked it up slowly out of word of mouth. Nevertheless, this is a great idea that Nintendo should do more of in the future. I'm surprised Nintendo didn't realize this until now. The next step would be putting online play into more games...which is a point I'll touch upon later.

I get the feeling that Pokémon Rumble is just one of those "for fun" projects at Nintendo: quickly put together by a few people just because they wanted to, then got greenlighted by a Nintendo executive and was put on WiiWare. Pokémon Rumble has a look to it that suggests it was done by a very small development team: Low-polygon graphics, simple gameplay mechanics, a minimal plot, and the total lack of 2nd and 3rd generation Pokémon.

In fact, no 4th generation Pokémon appears in this demo aside from on the Wii Menu. If I hadn't known it was made in 2009, I would've thought this was a lost Nintendo 64 game. You know, the kind that the critics who were into Pokémon would give high scores and the critics who weren't would give low scores.

So I start the demo. It begins with this Rattata--when it gets wound up, it comes to life! With a childlike curiosity, it wanders into the arena where the Battle Royales take place. Unfortunately, it's not quite strong enough to compete. (Victory is impossible here, in case you're wondering if an expert going through this game would win. Even if Rattata dodges everything, the time will run out before it can defeat everyone.) Heartbreakingly, someone noticed the gap in the doors and slams it shut as Rattata remains incapacitated. Also heartbreakingly, you're told that this Rattata will not be good enough and that you must get better Pokémon. So you head the Rattata off to Silent Forest to be retired.

How do you do this? Well, you go through a bunch of places where you beat up lots of Pokémon. You do that to earn more of whatever currency this is, and on occasion, an enemy will just tip over instead of vanishing. You touch them to befriend them and add them to your collection. Rattata picks up allies and marches on through the Silent Forest; a Paras I found defeats a giant Ivysaur at the end, and we're given a whole bunch of P.

Well, I guess there IS a 4th-generation thing in this demo--at least one. Paras learns Grass Knot after I went to the move lottery, replacing the Scratch it previously knew. So now we head to the next place, the Windy Prairie.

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