Hello. Name's Jack. Some of you may know me already from the recent tournament.

I am posting my feelings about a certain game (not a review) based on my brother's playthrough and all that I've seen other Pokemon players say and do with this game. Agree or disagree if you like.

Dear Pokemon fans,

Nintendo and Game Freak have been the real host of Nintendo for so many years for many of us veteran players. We played through each game and continued to show our loyalty and fascination to the series by buying the following generations that came out, adapting to the new aspects of the gaming universe that we know to be "Pokemon battles." We are dismissed as too young to play the game by our peers or obsessed with the the intricate battling system once those people find out the game's secret complex nature of "true training." Yet we say "We're young at heart" and "it's a great challenge" and "I've been with this for so long and the game never seems to get old."

Yes, in general, we feel that Pokemon has a special place in our hearts. We were there when hold items came into Silver, when EV's and IV's and natures came with Ruby, when attacks took on physical and special damage move pools in Pearl. Yes, we adapted and learned the constantly and pleasantly rewarding systems of Pokemon no matter how complex it got.

Because we are the fans.

On the other side of the spectrum are what we call "spin-offs" of the Pokemon franchise. Now given, some of these games too hold a special place for us and were fun for their own reasons. Pokemon Snap was the first Pokemon game in 3-D, thus increasing our fascination of bringing our creatures to the big screen with two Stadium games to follow. If you consider the Orre region games to be spin-offs but still a stable part of the same Pokemon system, this was a success as well. We can even concede to the Mystery Dungeon and Pinball series for their novelties.

Yes, there are more spin-offs that are successful at holding our attention and reminding us of the simple but good fun Pokemon can bring to all of us, young and old.

But, with every good spin-off, we can name off plenty bad. It mostly started with Hey You! Pikachu, a strong and innovative idea on box, but poorly implemented. Add the insane costs for the game and we end up wasting good money on a poorly executed game. Pokemon Channel was waste of money for many as well. Not enough content for what the boxart and description would suggest. Just a strange spin-off of the tv show and movie series.

And (as the 2nd most recent spin-off for the Wii) Pokemon Ranch. My, how I loath thee. Sure, in theory, it's a storage device, but no other game coding can be used for it outside of the first one you use (dashing my hopes of transferring Pokemon and starting a new game for the sake of the adventure) and the visuals were mostly insulting to us Pokemon fans. We've grown for so long appreciating the artwork of the handhelds and the models of the console Pokemon that this monstrosity makes us all sick to our stomaches. We realized that this was merely one Pokemon game with this art style and we overlooked it, saving our money for Pokemon Platinum instead. We figured we could just forget about that game and the strange and disconcerting models Umbrella brought with it. We forgive you Nintendo.

No, I take that back. We can't forgive you now.

Now we have Pokemon Rumble. Now, I realize some of you that have tolerated reading this so far will start to see where I'm going with this (though if you're considerate enough to read what I write, those of you like me get my point) and disagree with me. But Pokemon Rumble is, quite simply, a bad game for Pokemon and an insult from Nintendo. Those of us that believe in the "Nintendo Fanboyism" already know how much we get attacked for the lack of good games on the Wii. We stay loyal, but Nintendo shows this garbage to Pokemon fans now and we can't help but wonder where the company (and subsequent companies) are going now with Pokemon.

First of all, we are met with the same horrible visuals we encountered in Pokemon Ranch. Sure, there's the Kanto and Sinnoh Pokemon to fight and collect, but do you want them? Maybe the environments are different, but come on Nintendo! We expect more from this! The locales are changed mostly by color and subtle music. Give us the old Pokemon atmosphere.

Secondly, the combat. I have played games that have this kind of button-mashing mentality (I play Kingdom Hearts lol). This is just ridiculous though. The combat doesn't feel rewarding and you get only two moves now instead of four. Yes, it's simple and only requires the Wii remote, but it doesn't seem to really matter what Pokemon attacks you use. I think weaknesses are incorporated sometimes, but not from my playthrough. I just keep using Ivysaur's Vine Whip and Muk is gone.

And Thirdly, the price. Cat333Pokemon mentioned the price increase for non-Japanese countries. $15 dollars doesn't seem like much, but it's certainly a profit for Nintendo with this garbage. They figured they'd slap Pokemon on the front and add in some pretty bland combat and promote the hell out of it. Thank gosh they had the conscience to put out a demo for the game. Some of us were able to save our money now for the true Pokemon games that do take into account all the things we've grown to love in the series: straight-up battles.

Is it all money now? Will Pokemon Heartgold and Soulsilver be the last true Pokemon games? We know there has to be a 5th generation because Nintendo needs the money and we don't want to lose our favorite series, but something's gotta give the way things are looking now. Games like PBR and Rumble only serve to tease us true fans into thinking Nintendo cares.

No, only Gamefreak cares now, and if we lose them to the dark side, I think it's over.

So this is my view: spin-offs are losing heart, Nintendo wants more money for less quality, and we as true Pokemon fans will suffer for this trend.

Post your feelings if you actually read my post (rant lol). I understand I will be contradicted but I had to get this off my chest...

I 90% agree with what you wrote, and feel the same way exactly.

this is why I don't have a Wii yet...I can't believe in this day and age of superior 3-D video game graphics, the Pokemon on Wii look like squares, circles, and triangles...they were so much more realistic on the GameCube and N64...

My only gripe is the crappy graphics, but if there gonna make a true pokemon fighting game with good graphics it would be a reaaallly long project to animate all 493 well.

I like Rumble, it's a good game! I've had fun with it!
Now... The visuals...
Smaller Pokémon look cute in this game. However, bigger Pokémon look horrible (WTF is up with Machamp?!), though the black lines around them in rumble made it slightly more bearable.

Here's my view on Rumble.

I don't mind the price. I don't mind the graphics. I don't mind the gameplay. I don't care about crappy spinoffs.

The only thing I really, really, really, reeeeaaaallllyyyy can't stand about this game? The lack of second and third generation Pokemon.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, to prevent a graphics ***** arguement that I KNOW is going to break out because some random noob will walk in here, ignore all the actual backed-up opinions, and spew drivel all over this thread.

The graphics used in this game are used in accordance to the cuteness and size of Miis. In Ranch, your Mii and Hayley would be seen alongside other Pokemon, right? It would seem kinda out of place if you're walking next to a millions-feet-tall Dialga and your Mii is only like, 5 feet tall. Thus, chibi-art. Also, Yoshi brought up the file-size of WiiWare games. This is also a contributing factor.

Now, in Rumble, it is mentioned that the reason these Pokemon are so diminutive is because they're simple windup toys. Show me one toy that is lifelike in every detail (not almost lifelike, or almost like the real thing, but IS lifelike) and then I'll take back this arguement. But, seriously. What kind of small windup toy doesn't look like these graphics??

Moving on to Rumble's gameplay. An all-out melee fighter? In my opinion, that's one of the greatest things to ever happen to Pokemon. It's a tad slowpaced, but otherwise, the devs pulled this off well in the Pokemon enviroment given to them.

Now the price. Every good WiiWare game that comes to mind is 1000 or more. Final Fantasy's My Life as a King is 1500 points plus DLC. Mega Man 9 is 1000 points, again, plus DLC. World of Goo is 1500. Lost Winds was 1000 points. The combined price of all episodes of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is 5000 points. The price simply tells you how much value you're going to be getting out of the game. The hiking of the price from 1000 to 1500 is kind of lame, but come on, you're going to be buying a $20 Nintendo Points Card anyways.

This game looks like utter trash, from what I've seen.

While I agree on the graphics of rumble and ranch being disgraceful, I like the idea behind rumble, even if it is poorly executed, and ranch needed some actual development. I think that rumble should have been bigger, more areas, ALL pokemon, etc. too, but I will give it some credit for being fun to play if you don't mind an eyesore.

The Wii lacks many features the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 has. Motion control is just a gimmick. [s:3upa50nu]It is only a slightly improved Gamecube, in terms of hardware.[/s:3upa50nu] 80% of all Wii games are shovelware, and the only fantastic games for the system I can think of are Nintendo developed games. That's my perspective.

I really don't want to start an argument about this. Anyway, I might buy this game just to see if it's playable for more then 20 minutes.

Now, THOSE games, are for kids. The actual game is what we are after.

It's simple to avoid this- Look at reviews, don't like don't get it. Simple.

I know you're just trying to get your point across but it's still komplaining. But I do agree with you in certain points.

Besides, I would say the games you kan purchase online aren't really good. I don't play'em. I prefer actual games.

Each to their own.

(Btw, I didn't read the WHOLE thing. Just to where you got about Pokemon Rumble.)

Ign?! Again?! I know what he's talking about. He's getting this stuff from IGN.com again. But, then again justjack91 has also played Hey you Pikachu! He said it was bad and I agree that some spin-offs are just a waste of money. When will Nintendo and Game Freak ever ban Ambrella.

I've played rumble, it wasn't bad.
One thing I can't stand about it is the fact that they used the same stage over, and over, and over (and so forth). It gets repetitive and boring quickly, BUT ONLY IN ONE SITTING!!

The stages themselves (besides the repetitiveness) were easy and quickly beaten, it makes it seem like Nintendo should've added a "choose your difficulty" feature.

Even the mewtwo battle was pretty easy, but the music was pretty darn epic! But there should've been at least some challenge to that battle.

If there was one thing I could change, I would probably change the enemy AI, or add at least and adaptive difficulty setting so that way the enemies would act just as good as you (after a long-enough time).

While there was many things over-looked, the game still grabs me and i continue to play it. It might be the story, even though it seems different, its actually quite similar to the main-stream series (in a way). You collect pokemon and battle your way to the top of the strongest battlers/pokemon in the league.

It's also filling the void of the fact I'm pretty bored of fire red, diamond and other pokemon games i have at the moment (waiting for Hg Ss, but more towards Ss)

All in all, while it could've been alot better, its still a win in my book and I don't see how it's an insult to fans, its a spin-off, it's not going to be the next best thing since sliced bread (or pokemon main-stream series in this case).

And if your going to judge it, base your judging on the fact its a spin-off instead of it being a pokemon game in general.

And if I had to rate it, I would give it a 3.5 out of 5 (woot for unintentional reviews)

The visuals and graphics are...Eh..Horrible to me. I haven't had the time to get the demo, but, now I doubt I am going to get it.

Here's my view on both Rumble and Ranch:

Rumble:
Now I don't mind the graphics TOO MUCH this time around unlike Ranch. Now, It's just the gameplay that does seem a bit out of it's range. Ranch is basic unplayable but, we will get into that in just a sec. Rumble is reptitive and is just not rewarding like Justjack 91 said. I think YOU SHOULD GO FOR THE DEMO ONLY.

Ranch:
There is the definition of a word called crap. Which means it's a pile of crap and I would definitly classify Ranch as that. No playabilty and replayability. It's probably terrible in every way. If somebody can think of something good please qoute and comment. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS GAME. DO NOT LOOK AT THIS GAME. DO NOT EVEN HEAR ABOUT THIS GAME. It's a sin it even exist.

Well, that's it! Hope you enjoyed!

The spin offs have been losing it for a while

Pokemon Rumble isn't that bad
Hey You! Pikachu is not bad, bad.
But Pokemon Dash is it!

but it depend of the player's taste of game/genre