Parent's Guide: Pokemon Rumble U - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Pokémon Rumble U is an arcade style action game for 1 - 4 players, and is a spin-off from the massively popular Pokémon role playing games. The title takes the series trademarks of collecting, training and battling the titular creatures and distils them into a fast paced mini-game with pick-up-and-play controls.

Unlike the handheld games, there's little in the way of a storyline here - and little in the way of barriers to younger players, too. Ditching the traditional turn based battles, all you have to do is choose a Pokemon and jump into the compact battle arena, as you run around mashing buttons to perform attacks, and defeat the dozens of Pokemon that appear, before finally toppling a giant Pokémon boss.

With full support for local co-op multiplayer, the entry requirements are suitably low in terms of required controllers, too. While the first player uses the Wii U GamePad to control the action, any additional players only need a Wii Remote held sideways (if you want to play with 4 players, you'll need 3 Wii Remotes handy). The game's controls are very simple, using only the analogue stick (or +Control Pad) and two attack buttons (the GamePad's touch screen can optionally be used for a special move), and we found that children as young as four or five should have no problem playing alongside adults or older siblings.

For older Poke-fans, there's a lot to like here. For younger ones who enjoy the TV show but haven't yet delved into the handheld games because of the amount of reading involved, this could also be a perfect foot in the door to the world of Pokémon games. The repetitive battles and bite sized structure allows them to get to grips with the controls without having to deal with too much extra complexity, and whether it's playing as their favourite critters, teaming up with (or against) family members, or seeing the NFC figures 'come to life' in the game, Pokémon Rumble U should be a great hit with a young audience.

Being a Pokémon game, there's nothing here for parents to be concerned about. Although frantic battles are the main component of the game, it's hard to categorise it as true 'violence'; it's really just brightly coloured wind-up toys "whacking" each other by either swaying in their general direction or making a brightly coloured graphic appear next to them, until they're finally defeated and disappear. There's no bad language or inappropriate content to be found here, making it fully suitable for players of all ages.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Nintendo Wii U