Pokémon Rumble Rush

I enjoyed the Rumble games on the 3DS for the cute art style, the enormous collection of Pokémon, and their simple gameplay. When I found out that I could have that on my phone, I jumped in immediately. Although plagued with far more microtransaction schemes than its free-to-play predecessor on the 3DS, I never felt frustratingly compelled to put any money in the game, which I appreciate.

Most of the gameplay consists of exploring an island and defeating increasingly stronger bosses in an effort to uncover more of the island and collect stronger allies. This gameplay loop kept me engaged most of the time but offered an auto-attack mode for when I was feeling lazy (which was more often than I care to admit). Unique to this game within its series is the event-style island switching. Every two weeks, the available island would be replaced by a new one with new Pokémon available, leaving the previous island permanently inaccessible. This kept the game fresh by letting me start again at an easier difficulty right when I started hitting a wall in the previous island, but it was kind of a disappointment to lose access to everything that I had done on the previous island.

Unfortunately, at the time of this review, Pokémon Rumble Rush is on its way to the video game graveyard. On July 22nd, 2020, the game servers will close and all access to the game will be lost. In the meantime, I feel like playing the game is rather futile, so I have since moved on. However, it was fun while it lasted!
Although the distribution is ending at the time of this review, the game can currently be downloaded at these links:
Android (as of 6/28/20): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.pokemon.pokemonscrambleSP&hl=en_US
iOS (as of 6/28/20): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pok%C3%A9mon-rumble-rush/id1453000198

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