Pokemon Rumble U - first impressions

Pokemon Rumble U just came out here in Europe, so I bought a copy, on a spur of the moment thing. 

It's a downloadable Wii U action game where you control a little Pokemon figure, to go into an arena with 3 other Pokemon figures on your side, and fight dozens of enemy Pokemon figures. Sometimes enemies turn into coins when they are beaten, sometimes they turn into capsules containing new toys to add to your army.

The new toys are more and more powerful as you progress.

You can theoretically collect all 649 Pokemon in this game.

There's also a feature where you can use special real-life Pokemon figures in the game, using data transferred by NFC. Unlike the ones you win in battle, these can be powered up, and can be taught new moves. You can also take your Pokemon with you to a friend's house, and use it there. I think this is like the Skylanders games, and the upcoming Disney Infinity.

The special edition I got comes with 2 Pokemon gacha figures - one Black or White Kyurem legendary, and one normal Pokemon. I also bought 2 gachas separately. So I have a White Kyurem, Pikachu, Litwick, and Lucario. Kyurem is 10 times more powerful than the others, starting out. It also comes with a fold out poster which I haven't bothered to fold out. It's a very big box for a downloadable game!

Pokemon Rumble U appears to be exclusive to GAME here in the U.K. - the normal edition is £13.49, the special edition is £19.99 and the gacha figures are £3.99 each.

My thoughts so far - 

1. Pokemon Rumble U NFC figures are super cute, they are all low-polygon and adorable.
2. The game looks very pretty
3. It's very repetitive. Each level is a circular arena with hordes of enemies to beat. Not like the 3DS game where there were different terrains to explore.
4. Not much of a story really. I mean, there is one, but it's very shallow.
5. Not sure whether this is a complaint about the game or the Wii U in general - the gamepad's power ran out far too quickly. Perhaps it's all the NFC stuff, maybe it's just that the gamepad battery doesn't last very long anyway.
6. I don't think there's anything to spend your in-game coins on if you aren't playing with NFCs.
7. Using NFC figures gives the game an unnatural progression in terms of balance. Without them, you are limited to using a Pokemon which is at most as powerful as the toughest thing you beat. You'll swap around from level to level, and collecting 'em all will benefit you. With NFC figures, you are limited to whatever power you could buy - which may well be far beyond the toughest thing you've beaten (making the game super easy), and you will probably want to stick with just your NFC Pokemon as you power them up (switching them depending on type), which I think will make collecting less interesting. But I suppose that depends on the player.
8. The game is very sparse on instructions. It doesn't, for example, let you know how to actually use the NFC figures in battle. There's an option in the main menu to scan them in, and power them up, but when you exit out of that and go into the game, looking at your army of Pokemon, the ones you scanned in aren't there. There are no instructions to say how to add them, either. You have to re-scan them on the character select screen in order to choose them.

On one hand I feel like I've barely scratched the surface, because I'm slowly seeing new features as I progress. On the other hand, I feel like I'm already doing the same thing over and over, possibly because the urge to redo levels to "catch 'em all" is great.

There will be passwords for this game published in Official Nintendo Magazine, and on twitter. The first is 87818558 for a Samurott: http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/53425/first-pokemon-rumble-u-password-revealed-unlock-samurott-now/