Pokemon Rumble Blast Release Date Revealed

Pokemon Rumble Blast, the first Pokemon game designed exclusively for the 3DS, will be released during this holiday season. Today Nintendo announced an October 24th launch date for the action RPG.

In Rumble Blast, players guide their Toy Pokemon through a stage and defeat any enemy Pokemon that stand in their way in real time. At the end of each stage, you'll battle a massive Boss Pokemon. By defeating Toy Pokemon, you'll be able to add them to your team. There are over 600 Toy Pokemon to collect, some of which are from the recent Pokemon Black Version and Pokemon White Version games.

Rumble Blast also takes advantage of the 3DS' wireless capabilities. Players can join forces via local wireless and battle through dungeons together. The 3DS StreetPass feature will populate your game with Toy Pokemon belonging to other Rumble players you passed during the day. StreetPass will also enable tou to see other players' Mii characters in the game.

"Pokémon Rumble Blast delivers instant Pokémon gratification," said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing. "The controls are intuitive and simple enough for anyone to pick up and play, while new battle modes, more than 600 Toy Pokémon and social play opportunities offer deep experiences for longtime fans."

Rumble Blast will debut in Japan on July 28th. The release date for PAL territories has yet to be announced. It wouldn't be unreasonable to expect the game to arrive in those countries before the year is out, though.