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Pokemon Rumble Hands-On

We fight our way through hordes of Pokemon in this upcoming action brawler.

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Originally called Ransen! Pokemon Scramble, this WiiWare title was released in Japan earlier this year and has been renamed Pokemon Rumble for the North American audience. Instead of sounding like something you'd order for breakfast, Pokemon Rumble is a much more appropriate name, given that this is an action brawler with windup Pokemon toys.

Who's Making This Game: The game is developed by Ambrella, who also worked on My Pokemon Ranch.

What The Game Looks Like: Pokemon models were reused from Pokemon Ranch, so your lovable characters are going to look like little plastic toys. In the game, they actually get wound up before jumping in a fight, so try not to get too attached, because they're just toys, and you'll toss them aside for a newer model soon enough.

What There Is To Do: This is a really simple game of button-mashing. You explore different areas and battle with other Pokemon, collecting currency and attacking waves upon waves of Pokemon along the way. Every now and then you'll be able to capture one and get it to join your growing list. There's a boss at the end of each area, whom you'll need to defeat to move on.

How The Game Is Played: Holding the Wii Remote sideways, you use the D pad to move your Pokemon. The 2 button is to attack, and the 1 button is to hop into gateways. The A button brings up a menu that keeps track of all the Pokemon that you've collected, and you can wind one up and bring it out at any given time.

What They Say: Pokemon Rumble lets you battle with Pokemon like never before.

What We Say: It's true that we've never been able to plow through an entire army of Squirtles with Pikachu, and this is a cute little game if you really like your Pokemon. You don't actually build up or upgrade any of your Pokemon; instead, you continue to collect more powerful ones to add to your inventory. The gameplay is really basic, though, but to change things up, you can play with up to four players cooperatively and competitively. We weren't able to get a release date or price point from Nintendo, but we'll be sure to update the site with more information as soon as it becomes available.

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