Pokemon Rumble World

Genre: Action-RPG

Players: 1, StreetPass Compatible

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS AND WAIT MECHANICS

Pokemon Rumble World is the fourth entry in this spin-off Pokemon series featuring toy versions of the franchise’s Pokemon in a simple Action-RPG where players fight multiple enemies at once. This game was originally released as free-to-play on the eShop in 2015, and then later released in physical form in 2016.

Both releases are still available, but players looking to get the game might want to consider paying money for the physical version, as it comes with a significant amount of diamonds (an in-game currency) along with unlocking an in-game diamond mine to get more. Players using the free-to-play game will be stuck either paying real-world money for these diamonds (which are needed to open new areas), or putting up with the wait mechanics.

As per the rest of the games in the series, this game’s presentation features simple 3D “toy” versions of its various Pokemon that seem like a lazy way to render these Pokemon in 3D without putting much effort into it, its sounds are the same digitized sound effects copy-pasted from other games in the series (as well as a voiced Pikachu), and its energetic music is completely forgettable, but it’s still cute and has a colorful, juvenile charm to it.

As for the gameplay… not much has changed since the prior installment in this series. There’s the inclusion of Miis and there’s all this new microtransaction junk, but the core gameplay is still as shallow and repetitive as ever. What’s worse, while the Wii U entry in the series brought 4-player gameplay into the mix, Pokemon Rumble World goes in completely the opposite direction, removing multiplayer gameplay save for StreetPass and SpotPass features.

Why would you even bother with this game if you already have Pokemon Rumble Blast? Well, I suppose the expanded roster of toy Pokemon may mean something to some players out there, and the availability of a free-to-play version means that if you want to try this out it won’t cost you anything. But I think that for most players, Pokemon Rumble World will just be a game that does nothing to improve the simple, dull, repetitive gameplay of the series and actually makes things worse by adding in microtransactions and removing multiplayer features. Yeah, don’t bother with this garbage.

tl;dr – Pokemon Rumble World is an Action-RPG with extremely simple, dull gameplay and simple, ugly 3D visuals that does nothing to fix the long-running problems with this series and actually makes things worse by adding in microtransactions and wait mechanics, and removing multiplayer features. Regardless of whether you’re considering the physical game or the free-to-play version, I suggest you skip this one entirely.

Grade: D

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