Pokemon Rumble U

Banjo

Now that we're firmly entrenched in the Gaming forum, I don't have to feel self-conscious about talking about this game!
Anyone pick it up?
Anyone play it for more than 5 minutes before wondering why they bought it?

For the uninitiated, this is the story of a wind-up Pokedoll making his way back to the pokemon store. And along the way meeting hundreds of other pokedolls (multiple copies of all 649 existing Pokemon), befriending some and destroying the rest in a button-mashing frenzy.

The Wii U version is special. It's an e-Shop only title. It includes an NFC feature that allows you to scan expensive real-world Pokemon statues a la Skylanders for use in-game (these 'mon are temporary additions to your team, to prevent you scanning and selling on). The figures are sold through expensive blind-bag Pokeball gatchas. You don't need these pokmon to play the game, win the game or unlock the specific 'mon (I think all of them can be gotten in-game with enough luck or patience) but this is Pokémon. You're not here because you are bound by the shackles of what is strictly necessary.... Alas, for the collectonutbags amongst you a dark cloud obscures this shining sun of obsessive compulsion. Those gatcha balls are only available from Game, and they're not operating over here any more. (Although with HMV coming back, there's always hope)

Each round consists of your team of 4 Pokemon running around like headless chickens spamming your one (or later 2) attack to clear the one-screen arena of all other Pokemon. And there are hundreds of the buggers. As you knock 'em out, you earn coins, power ups and gatcha-balls - you can open them after the round to meet new team mates for your collection, and sub them into your team for subsequent rounds.

Each arena has a number of challenges, each challenge has a boss and a couple of hidden challenges - usually easily achievable on your first go through - and clearing the challenges usually rewards you with a gold or blue Gatcha containing a rare / powerful Pokemon. There is a tiny bit of strategy in the relationship between attack types and pokemon types - your knowledge of Pokemon lets you pick a team that will be super-effective against the Boss (you can see a pick of the boss when you choose the challenge).

So there you go.
I played it. Had I played it before I got it I would not have gone on to buy it. It seems like a pointless excercise in pounding the A button and finding out if you have photosensitive epilepsy. Have you played it to? Am I missing some subtlety of the game that makes it awesome?

Urizen

How's the DS one?

Banjo

Oh Nintendo, you magnificent bastards. You don't need to buy a single gatcha to play the game... But if you do everything changes. While they're not permanent team members, the NFC mon are the real team - you can power them up, buy new moves and crucially, permanently write those changes to the figure and carry it around to your mate's. Genius

White Kyurem kicks ass, btw

SamIAmNot

Urizen wrote: »

How's the DS one?

I personally loved the one for the handheld console. When I saw this title announced for the Wii U and the Wonderful 101 I nearly ran out to buy a Wii U...Which I held off on cause HMV is coming back! Yay.