Pokémon Rumble Blast (3DS) review "Want to beat up Toy Pokemon? This may be a game for you then!"

Have you ever wanted to pick up a toy Pokemon and beat the living peanuts out of other toy Pokemon? That's what I thought when I first saw the original Pokemon Rumble on Wii-Ware, however, that was a huge disappointment. Did the sequel do it better?

To start off as I said I really liked this concept, having to constantly switch around your Pokemon for newer more powerful ones. That's something the main series didn't have. While the original messed this up, because of not having all 492 (don't count Arceus) Pokemon at the time, but now we have all the Pokemon from all the generations (not counting some of the event Pokemon).

Another cool thing this version has over the 1st is not the same boring repetitive levels over and over again. Sure there are similar levels but in the original they were almost identical. This version has you going through beaches one level then a power plant and maybe a tree fort.

At the end of each level you have to face a boss. This boss is generally just a giant Pokemon that has something to do with the level you just completed. I really am trying to avoid posting spoilers but the bosses in the last area are a little different (that's all I'll post).

Something people will recognize if they played the original is the Battle Royal. It's pretty much just a big area with a bunch of boss battles and you must beat all the Pokemon to complete it (don't forget to pick up clocks to). The other Pokemon will attack each other, but you won't get any clocks from them.

There are new types of battles as well. Charge Battles, you rotate the circle pad and mash buttons to try and push all the Pokemon out of the way. Team Battles, are kind of like Battle Royal except you bring two other Pokemon (A.I.) from your collection to help you. As long as one of you lives you can continue. Last thing with this is if one of your partners faints you can stand by them to heal them to about 1/8 health.

Overall with the story improvement (your not some weak Rattata who lost the Battle Royal for no reason) as well as many other improvements I would say pick this up over the first on, but with 3d land and Mario Kart 7 out you may not play it often.

Community review by Doublethree1 (February 16, 2012) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.