Pokemon Rumble for the Wii was released in 2009 on WiiWare, which was very similar in function and purpose to the Nintendo eShop, where you could use Wii Points to buy the games on the digital game shop. This was one of the Pokemon games that could be bought through WiiWare and also obtained through a demo, and this was the first Pokemon game I have ever played.

In the very beginning of the game you've gotta crank these low-poly model toy Pokemon to life with a big key, and the first Pokemon that this is shown with is Rattata. This absolutely insane menace of a Rattata [ that has LITERALLY just received life ] then immediately proceeds to sneak into the gates of the Battle Royale where you engage in real-time top-view perspective battles with several Pokemon at once.

  

As expected, the Battle Royale is proven too difficult for Rattata, so we are shown how to go into wild areas and battle Pokemon, making allies with some that we defeat, in order to gather up a team that is strong enough.

As an adult around 15 years later [ oh my god ], I can really appreciate the kind of Pokemon games that stray from the core mechanics of the franchise, along with the beautiful low-poly models. I find them quite charming, and I think that this game aligns with my interests in low-poly models/graphics and videogame preservation and archival. The idea that I can't easily access the game and be able to play it to its entirety is a bummer.

Because of it's exclusively digital nature, it's hard to find a ways to play this game again. There have been multiple more installments in the Pokemon Rumble series, even a mobile game that was available from 2019-2020. So, I missed that. In a way it feels nice though, to feel kind of like I get to enjoy and feel attached to something that is a lot more "exclusive". As exclusive as a Pokemon game on the Wii can get. I do kind of wish for a potential revival, but it might be a monkey's paw situation if anything came out of that. Thank you Norio Matsumura!

images used and are from wikipedia, bulbapedia, pocketmonsters.net, and the youtube channel : the silent gaming fish