Pokémon Rumble (Demo)

Pokémon Rumble is a basic brawler that draws on the Pokémon licence and sensibility: "Gotta catch 'em all!" Game play consists of fighting through six regions with linear areas full of wild Pokémon. Defeated Pokémon either cough up coins to be used for purchasing or upgrading Pokémon, or occasionally leave a body to be recruited onto your team. New team members may be brought into play at any time in order to replace a damaged fighter. Once you obtain a Pokémon of high enough level, you may enter the Battle Royal, which pits you against a ring full of opponents. The demo ends there, but presumably winning the Battle Royal opens up more advanced regions.

Prior interest: none

I've never played a Pokémon game and I didn't have any particular interest in what looks like a dumbed down entry in the series. Pokémon Ranch, a previous WiiWare game, received miserable reviews as I recall.

Odds of purchase: STOP ME!

I now understand the insidious nature of Pokémon. Even though I knew I hadn't accomplished anything special in the first few regions I played, I found myself reluctant to end the game and give up the cute little fighting creatures I'd collected. And there was something mindlessly addicting to wandering around beating up underpowered opponents. It's got the Animal Crossing je ne sais quoi that makes you want to keep doing the utterly boring things the game asks without questioning. Nintendo has a gift for that sort of design.

Again, this sort of game demos especially well. Screenshots and reviews could never do the experience justice. Unlike the Bit.Trip: Beat demo, Pokémon Rumble does not satisfy the casual player who is interested in the title. Rather than being a relatively self-contained demo which may be abandoned after a few minutes, collection games demand hours of work to be truly satisfying.

Update:

Last night my son and I played a few minutes of Pokémon Rumble together and the multiplayer option works fine. It's always nice to find games that let parents play with their children, but this game is a bit too shallow for my tastes. He had a pretty good time, which might increase the odds I'll break down. I hope not.