From Mario to Legend of Zelda to the Pokemon games, Nintendo has a truly impressive franchise lineup. Many of its characters are widely recognized even by those who rarely, if ever, pick up a controller. But every publisher has at least a few games or franchises that just don’t quite hit with their intended audiences. If you’ve ever wondered which Nintendo franchise got its worst reviews, it’s honestly not that surprising. It is, however, a spinoff from the highly successful Pokemon brand.
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Metacritic has a handy feature where it lets you sort a publisher’s entire library of work by review score. So, you can easily pick through and find the best and worst-reviewed games from names from Bethesda to Nintendo and beyond. And in the case of Nintendo, its attempt to make Pokemon Rumble happen as a franchise just never quite landed.
Some individual game titles have lower review scores than the Pokemon Rumble games. But as a whole, the entire series never even made it into the 60s with review aggregates. And for the most part, the games didn’t fare much better with fans than they did with critics. Given how little Pokemon Rumble is referenced today except by the most diehard Pokemon fans, it’s not too surprising to learn it was Nintendo’s most poorly received franchise.
Pokemon Rumble Was a Fun Idea Nintendo Never Quite Got Right
The first Pokemon Rumble came out in 2009 for the Nintendo Wii. That iconic era in Nintendo history saw its fair share of fun experiments, thanks in part to the Wii Remote technology. Pokemon Rumble, however, was more of an attempt to turn Pokemon into a sort of dungeon-crawling Super Smash Bros. In some ways, it’s sort of a Pokemon Unite prototype, where players control Pokemon that go into battle while navigating a series of dungeons.
The idea itself is an interesting one, combining the fun of fighting games with the beloved IP of Pokemon. But in practice, the first game fell short of critic expectations. It received an average Metacritic score of 59/100, with many reviewers disappointed by the repetitive gameplay loop. Not being able to really dig into the mechanics of raising and strengthening your Pokemon also makes the title feel weirdly alienated from the franchise as a whole.
Despite the first game’s mild reception from critics, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company went on to make several more Pokemon Rumble titles. Pokemon Rumble Blast released in 2011 for the 3DS, with Pokemon Rumble U following in 2013 for the Wii U. Finally, 2015’s Pokemon Rumble World would be the last attempt to make the franchise stick for the 3DS era. Another iteration arrived in the form of the 2019 mobile game Pokemon Rumble Rush, which shut down after just one year. Clearly, despite several attempts, Nintendo and Pokemon were never quite able to crack the Pokemon Rumble code.
The Original Rumble Had Its Fans, But The Sequels Only Got Worse from There
Despite its relatively lukewarm critical reception, the first Pokemon Rumble performed fairly well with fans. The game has an average 8.1 score on Metacritic when it comes to user reviews, with many fans actually enjoying the repetitive nature of the game. Fans have praised it as “really addictive” and entertaining, thanks in part to the fun of 4-player co-op modes. Despite not being incredibly in-depth, the game managed to garner interest from some fans. But the sequels fell off in both critical and fan reception, in large part because they kept trying to rehash the same formula rather than improve upon it.
Pokemon Rumble Blast received more critical reviews than its predecessor, but it resulted in a lower overall Metascore of 56. This time around, fans didn’t come in with quite as much enthusiasm, either. Rather than build and improve upon what worked in the first Pokemon Rumble, the game instead repeated many mistakes from the first. Its gameplay remained repetitive, without really adding anything new except more Pokemon to choose from. As a result, where fans wanted to see the series get better following feedback, it stayed the same.
Alas, the next few games didn’t manage to crack the formula, either. The Wii U console stumbled in its own right, and the Wii U Pokemon Rumble U didn’t perform much better. It remained as simplistic as its predecessors, with some calling it mostly an attempt to prove that the Wii U’s controller technology had a purpose.
Despite all this feedback on the prior games, Nintendo didn’t stray from the formula with the final 3DS title, Pokemon Rumble World. Rather than address complaints of repetitive and simplistic gameplay, this game repeats those same sins. But many fans felt it went a step further, lacking the charm even of the original in part due to its free-to-play model and lackluster story.
As for 2019’s mobile attempt? I’m not sure I have to say much about this one at all, save that it only lasted a year in the free-to-play mobile gaming space. Given the longevity of subsequent Pokemon mobile games like Pokemon Go, it’s clear that the Pokemon Rumble formula was part of the problem with this one.
Despite an interesting premise and fan hopes from the first attempt, Pokemon Rumble as a franchise never managed to learn from its mistakes. That led it to being the overall lowest-rated franchise in Nintendo history. While some fans would love to see another attempt, we’ve not heard any rumblings of a new game for this series. If we ever do get one, let’s hope it manages to stick the landing this time.
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