Pokémon
Rumble World
Year: 2016
Rating: E10+
Time Played: 10,653 minutes / 177.55 hours
When I first got my Nintendo 3DS in 2016, I downloaded all the free games I could. As a Pokémon fan, I was glad to have such titles as Pokémon Picross and Pokémon Shuffle to satiate my need for puzzle games. I also downloaded Pokémon Rumble World. As the free-to-play version of the game, there were a lot of things locked behind currency that took an incredibly long time to access. The game wanted you to spend enough money to buy the game (at full price) so you could access everything.
As is the case with any Pokémon game, Pokémon Rumble World focuses on the “catch them all” aspect. Each balloon you unlock lets you visit a randomly selected area with a specific elemental theme (e.g., volcano, beach, castle, factory, etc.). By battling hordes of the Pokémon found in these areas, they occasionally become “wobbly” and are caught once fainted in this state. As a Gen VI spinoff, this game includes the Mega Evolution mechanics that occasionally prove useful if you have a powerful enough Pokémon that can use it.
With cute little Pokémon sprites, Pokémon Rumble World was a chore to play. Sure, there were some battles with powerful legendary Pokémon that were intense, and the “story mode” (such as it is) provided its own challenge. However, the grind to build up the powers of the Pokémon—let alone to get the chance to catch powerful ones—dragged out this simplistic game much further than I would have liked. Sure, I dumped an embarrassingly huge amount of time into this game because I’m stubborn about not spending any money on a free-to-play game. It doesn’t mean I enjoyed it.
A grinding chore of a Pokémon spinoff, I give Pokémon Rumble World 2.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
