A good WiiWare title.
There really isn't that much of a story to the game. You start off with a lone toy Rattata and you need to befriend stronger and stronger toy Pokemon till you can beat the Champion. That's about all there is to the story. What this game lacks in story, though, it makes up in gameplay. You start off with one game mode, Normal, and work your way through the ranks to beat said Champion. There are six stages for each rank and a Battle Royale. In the Battle Royale, you knock out all the Pokemon before time runs outs. You can earn five seconds for each Pokemon you beat, but more on that later. And once you beat the Pokemon you unlock the next rank or mode and get a chunk of cash.
There are three modes in all, Normal, Advance and EX. The firs two have you start at Rank C and make you work your way up to Rank S (it goes C, B, A, then S) and try to beat the Champion in both modes. EX is only one rank and the Battle Royale is a double knockout challenge without healing. The other differences between the modes is the Pokemon and level cap. In Normal you start off with the first generation Pokemon and the highest a Pokemon can get, and be that power level, is 799. Advance mode brings in fourth generation and your level cap is 1999. There are no new Pokemon in EX rank and there is no level cap.
There are only really six different stages in all. The differences in between the stages are the Pokemon, stage boss, and level. There are different Pokemon available in each stage on the different ranks and some lap over. The six different stages base the Pokemon in them by type. Water Pokemon will be found on the beach while Grass and Bug types are in the forest. In EX Rank, every Pokemon from the other eight versions of that stage are found in it.
To get new Pokemon, you must either knock it out while in a stage or get if from the Recruiting Area in each Terminal. Here you can pay money to get one, use a ticket you pick in in the game, or use a special code that can be found on the internet. Each Pokemon has two moves it can learn. While this seems like a draw back, it makes you work harder. Luckly, there is on PP limit like in past games. There is only one way to get new moves for Pokemon, buying them. Each rank has an area to buy moves for the Pokemon you are using and they will cost more as you move up in the Ranks, but they are be better moves. If you get way to many of the same Pokemon, and you will, you can release them like in any other game. Once they leave, they will leave money for you or a ticket to get a new Pokemon. The other main way of getting money is by knocking out a Pokemon in a stage, and if you're in the Battle Royale you earn extra time. Be quick though, money will disappear if you don't grab it fast enough. If you're Pokemon dies you can pick a new one from your ever growing list, but if three die, you lose the stage.
To play the game, all you do is go through waves and waves of Pokemon through each stage and try to beat them all down with your two moves. At the end of each stage there is a boss Pokemon that has a life bar as big as the screen. They are huge (I'm not joking, they grow in size before you fight them) and get harder to beat as you go around. The hardest part, though, is that they have four other Pokemon (who are all the same) running around attacking you as well. Once you beat it, thought, it leaves a lot of money. The bosses are the hardest to befriend because if you don't knock them out fast enough (once they have stars floating around them) you may not get the chance for a while.
The models of each Pokemon are reused from Pokemon Ranch. Some of them look weird, but they grow on you over the course of the game. The stages are pretty much the same, detailed well, but they will have a purple haze float about once you hit Rank A and Rank S in the first two modes. Attacks are well animated and the game doesn't really lag, other then when you knock out a Pokemon and then you can befriend it. It more like a slow motion kill, but it drives me crazy. The music is fitting, but you mainly hear the battle music since you will mostly be fighting.
Unlocking all the modes and playing through them won't take more then ten to fifteen hours, and that's pushing it. Where this game brings the replay value from is the mutiplayer option and getting all the Pokemon. Up to four players can battle through waves of Pokemon together while trying to beat the most Pokemon. You can even bring your own Pokemon to a friends copy of the game via WiiMote.
Overall, Pokemon Rumble is a fun game that Pokemon fans will enjoy and is a nice WiiWare title that anyone that likes their WiiWare should get. If you're not sure if you want the game, try the demo. The game is one of those easy to learn, but hard to master games that anyone can play.
Pros:
+Multiplayer
+Fun, easy to learn gameplay
Cons:
-You can't level up
-The low heath reminder
Score:
Gameplay: 7.0
Graphics: 7.0
Story: N/A
Sounds: 8.0
Replay Value: 9.0
Fun Level: 8.0
Overall: 7.7