The latest installment in the Pokémon Rumble series has been announced: Pokémon Rumble Rush, for iOS and Android players. In the Pokémon Rumble games, the player takes on the role of Pokémon characters depicted as wind-up toys who battle their way through levels in real time. Some of the Pokémon who players will battle may ask to join the player’s team upon defeat, thus building and strengthening the player’s collection of potential Pokémon to play as.
The first Pokémon Rumble game was a released on Wii via WiiWare in 2009. In the decade since, Pokémon Rumble has reappeared in a few other places, such as the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. According to the Pokémon Company International’s website, players will venture across uncharted islands to encounter different Pokémon to befriend in their efforts to defeat the islands’ Super Bosses in Pokémon Rumble Rush.
For the first time in a Pokémon Rumble game, players will be able to equip gears to their Pokémon to aid them in battle. There will be two types of gears: power and summon. Power gears boost Pokémon’s individual stats and make them more powerful during battle; summon gears allow players to temporarily summon another Pokémon to help their character in battle.
Though this release announcement came completely separately from another recent announcement of new mobile Pokémon game in development, Pokémon Rumble Rush comes after a 2017 announcement that a new mobile Pokémon game would be part of the Pokémon Rumble series. Back then, the unreleased game was titled PokéLand and was going through alpha testing in Japan.
Pokémon Rumble Rush is a free-to-play app. The new title has already released in Australia for Android users, while all iOS players and Android players in other regions must wait. The Pokémon Company International didn’t set an exact release date, but claimed it will be available soon to everyone else.