Pokemon Rumble U Will Use GamePad NFC

Following in the footsteps of Disney Infinity, which in turn tags along behind the Skylanders series, Pokemon Rumble U is the latest game to jump on the NFC (near-field communication) bandwagon.

According to Japanese magazine CoroCoro (as reported by Serebii), players will be able to buy miniature Pokemon figurines that will sit on the NFC square on the Wii U GamePad. Like with Skylanders figurines and the “Portal of Power”, and Disney Infinity figurines and the “Infinity Base”, setting down a figurine will cause the relevant character to appear in the game. The figurines will also store stats for each Pokemon, much like the Skylanders figurines.

According to Serebii, the story of the game is that “the toy Pokémon have been lost from the shop after falling in the river. The task is to get back to the Toy Shop, while facing various bosses such as Chandelure”. When the game goes on sale in Japan on April 24, six figures and one special figure will be available. The only one we know about so far is – naturally – Pikachu.

While it was only a matter of time before a Pokemon game that used the NFC on the Wii U GamePad was announced, it's something of a disappointment that it's a title in the downloadable Pokemon Rumble series. I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing there was a game more similar to the likes of Pokemon Black that used the technology.

Pokemon Rumble U has no release date for the U.S. or Europe yet, but will launch in Japan on April 24.