Super Pokémon Rumble (3DS) Review

Pokémon games have always been one of those shining beacons of light; ever since the originals on the good old Game Boy they have ingrained something in to my soul.

I get waves of nostalgia just from hearing one of the original 151’s names and similarly the notion of ideas for new Pokémon gets me more excited than a four year old on Christmas. Now days though there are a lot of spinoff games, some which I’ve enjoyed and others that were probably only ever made to squeeze more money out of the ever popular franchise. Sadly I must admit Super Pokémon Rumble feels like it fits more in to the latter of these two boxes.

In this game you don’t actually play with real Pokémon, which takes some of it away for me. Part of the wonder of Pokémon games is the amazing world that they inhabit and the idea that you could control and befriend all these incredibly powerful monsters. In this game the Pokémon are wind-up toys and you start off as one of them. It’s not explained too clearly but it looks as though people buy and collect these toys and are unaware that they are alive and have their own problems and their own magical world. For those who have played its predecessor on WiiWare, you’ll notice that a lot of this sounds familiar and as a whole the game feels very much the same. I think the worst part about the whole ‘toy Pokémon’ concept is that it feels lazy. This way they’re simpler models of the characters and have fewer animations and when you consider how basic and repetitive the level design is, it really does feel like the game was pumped out in one or two afternoons.

As a toy Pokémon you apparently have an urge to battle and get stronger. Unfortunately for you the game doesn’t actually let you do this, as the toys are set to what they are. They have a power level, some moves and in some cases a special trait and the only one out of those that can be changed are the moves. The Pokémon doesn’t level up, or gain experience; instead as you journey through levels you ‘befriend’ one of the other toys you’ve knocked out and are usually of a higher level to what you currently have. This means that you are constantly replacing your toys, but somehow remain the same character when friendly Pokémon are talking to you. It also means you never really get attached to any of your Pokémon, which is another thing for me that should be integral to any Pokémon experience.

When you battle you also gain coins, whose only function are to teach or rearrange the moves of your Pokémon. Most of the worthwhile moves are expensive and because you are constantly switching Pokémon for stronger ones it never really made sense for me to waste my coins on a character that in a few minutes time would be long forgotten about. It can be helpful if you’re tired of the grind and just want to beat a boss without having to go back through a level to try to find a Pokémon with a better move set, but with how much decent moves cost it isn’t a viable option to help you get through the game.

Gameplay wise at first I thought it was a lot of fun. It’s pretty mindless and you get the excitement of managing to befriend a strong or unusual toy. As a veteran of the series my knowledge of Pokémon moves and types was helpful, but not as much as I had wanted it to be which means that it’s very accessible to new players. Type advantages do come in to it a little, but are never really that crucial and there are no moves that ‘have no effect’ regardless of what your previous knowledge of the games might tell you. What you’re really looking for in moves is how much power they have and what kind of range/area of effect they fire at. Some moves can be especially handy to use from far away and stay out of trouble, whereas others may be best used in the thick of things.

The other important thing when choosing which Pokémon to send out next is their traits. I didn’t come across a Pokémon with traits until about a third of the way in to the game and by this time I was desperate for something new. Traits give your toy a special power, or attribute that makes it a more fearsome foe. They’re quite varied; one makes your Pokémon slowly regenerate health, while others may make their moves stronger, or give them a chance to inflict a status change on the enemy. I noticed that many toys that are gained via codes have special traits, so even if you may already have that Pokémon, if some awesome site just happens to have codes to be entered I’d recommend you do so.

The collection aspect of Pokémon is thankfully still here. The game lists all the levels as well as what you’ll find within each one, eventually ticking them off as you befriend each Pokémon and best of all there are Pokémon from all the generations. Some Pokémon are much harder to come across than others and the challenge of catching them all is a welcome throw back, but there are no items to find and no rewards for exploration. Unfortunately after the first few maps I was so bored and frustrated by the incredibly repetitive game play that even this wasn’t enough to have me wanting to go back and play old levels, because it felt like I was constantly playing old levels. There’s no freshness to the game, the levels look and feel the same and essentially you’re just strategically running around hitting either A or B. Even the boss battles are all the same and on the one occasion where there was a new battle mechanic, it was a quick time event.

If I had of reviewed this game after only an hour I would’ve given it flying colours. It starts with beautiful 3D graphics, in both cut scenes and in game play. They’ve managed to put the 3D effect just enough that it means you can play with the sliders all the way up and never really have to worry about a headache and despite that the characters are just toys, they do look quite cool in 3D. The controls work quite well, although there’s not really that much to do with them, but I must say the Circle Pad is a god send as I think it’d be nigh unplayable with a D-Pad. The sound is reminiscent of old Pokémon games, until you start battling when (depending on the level) it throws out some jPop-esque electronica, or rock that lets you know the action is on. Battling starts out as quite fun and if the game had been comprised of more than this, then it probably would’ve been a really good and fun game.

Super Pokémon Rumble suffers immensely from what feels like it can only be laziness on the developer’s part. The game is really quite long for a 3DS game with little to no variation, but I swear some of the linear dungeons were actually copied from the previous areas already explored. They look and feel exactly the same and, as there are no environmental factors, they play exactly the same as well. It’s probably not a bad romp for younger players, as it is simple and doesn’t require too much skill while still having the Pokémon appeal. Or if you just want something to do every now and again then maybe you’ll have a chance at keeping the game fresh, but with little to no variation, Super Pokémon Rumble is a disappointing first entry for the franchise on 3DS.