Topic: can I play through Pokemon Rumble World without spending money?

With the immanent demise of the eShop, I've downloaded a bunch of games while I have the chance. I'm actually really enjoying Pokemon Rumble World, but I haven't advanced far enough to know if I'll be able to 100% it for free. Any such luck?

Oh, same question for Pokemon Shuffle, if you know.

It would require a lot of grinding, but yeah, it’s possible to beat the game. If you pay up for all the gems though, the game will switch into a “paid” mode, which is the same as if you had purchased the physical version.

You can technically 100% them for free. But you don't want to.

I played Rumble a fair bit when it came out and it was fun for a while but later you have to play same stages over and over which combined with Rumble's simple gameplay, makes the game boring. You could buy a physical copy which removes all free-to-play stuff from the game if you like that option instead.

As for Shuffle, you could call me an expert on the subject. I have over 700 hours in that game. Never paid anything for it. I caught every single Pokémon. I also S ranked all 700 normal stages, all 700 extra stages they added later, which are just the first 700 again with way more HP, and 51/53 expert stages. I gave up on the last 2 S ranks after a while. I'm just not good enough and you have to grind coins just to have another go at it because you need all the extra help you can get.

Do note that Shuffle's online connectivity stops alongside eShop closure. You won't be able to get daily login bonuses and events stop running so you can't catch event specific Pokémon. The Meowth event that ran every weekend was the best way to earn coins which are crucial later on. As far as I know, the mobile version will continue its service so if you have a compatible phone, you could play it on that instead. Mobile version is slightly harder from what I've heard.

My advice would be to just play both games as long as you have fun and once they start getting grindy, just stop there. You got your enjoyment out of them. Both are fun games, as is Pokémon Picross, which I also recommend if you haven't downloaded it yet. You can complete Picross without spending money.

EDIT: Forgot about the thing Eel mentioned. I believe this is how the physical game handles it as well.

@eel @late thank you so much for your advice!

700 hours! Hot dang! You must be really good at match-3 games now, right? Have you played many others? Am I dumb for not realizing shuffe is on phones too? That's a good point about Rumble too; I think I'll look out for the physical someday. Thanks!

P.S. I have downloaded Pokemon Picross but have not tried it yet.

@Gryffin I've played quite a few different match-3 puzzle games. I wouldn't say I'm great at them. I can't set up huge combos or anything. I'm sure someone else would've been able to S rank all puzzles in Shuffle in half the time I took. Especially if they actually build a team that can handle the later challenges. I didn't experiment with skills enough to know what the best way to deal damage was. I looked into it later once I finally hit a wall in the harder versions of normal stages.

It's not that surprising that you didn't know it's on phones too. They didn't market Shuffle much. They just released it one day and some time later added it to mobile. Nowadays Café Mix, which is kind of their new Shuffle, gets its own short section in every Pokémon presentation, even though I don't think it needs to.

Is there a thread about pokemon games for 3DS?

And does anyone know any codes for Pokemon Picross?

Some levels needs codes to unlock. four numbers in each code. for example: 0014 (it id not work)

• • • *

The codes are available somewhere outside of the game. But where?

I thought they might be here in the Nintendo Life forum in some pokemon picross thread or pokemon thread.

Or maybe if there is like a .. pokepedia?

• • • • ???? Hm.