The game has a simplistic plot: It starts with Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin walking in the Hundred Acre Wood. When Pooh complains that he's hungry, Christopher Robin tells him to remember his favourite times. Pooh and Christopher Robin read through birthday scrapbooks of several of Pooh's friends and end with Winnie the Pooh's birthday.
Winnie the Pooh's Rumbly Tumbly Adventure has three different modes: Birthday Adventures, Junior Mode, and Multiplayer Games. "Birthday Adventures" acts as the Story Mode, "Junior Mode" is for young kids and has no objectives, and "Multiplayer Games" features multiplayer minigames.
This game provides examples of:
- All for Nothing: In the level selection screen, if you haven't completed Pooh's story yet, the image shows Pooh finding the treasure chest you'll find at the end of the level, but it's empty.
- Ascended Extra: Not for the franchise as a whole, but for this game specifically, Pooh is now the primary playable character.
- Birthday Episode: The game is themed around the birthdays of various characters.
- Cash Gate: Bees barricading your path can only be dodged with honey, which can be found by interacting with (read: kicking) certain objects.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Heffalump-bees make the same cackling that the bee in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree made.
- Eeyore's level introduces a cave whose entrance resembles a skull, recalling Skull in Pooh's Grand Adventure. Piglet can also be carried by butterflies as he was in that film. Owl also directs Pooh to find a treasure map for his treasure hunt, and the final portion of the game takes place in a crystalline cave that greatly resembles the interior of Skull.
- The frogs in Roo's level are designed after the ones seen in The Tigger Movie. The plot of Tigger's level also revolves around the group taking a picture in Tigger costumes, the picture ending up using a frame from the movie.
- Demoted to Extra: Piglet, who was the primary playable character in Piglet's Big Game, is now only playable in specific areas.
- Easier Than Easy: "Junior Mode" has no objectives and is aimed at even younger (5-and-under) players than the main game. It mostly serves as a tutorial for Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore's controls without the (relatively) scary Heffalump and Woozle enemies that plague the main campaign.
- Final Boss: Averted. Unlike the previous game, the game ends with only bees barring Pooh's path to the treasure chest.
- Interface Screw: Towards the end of the game, Piglet begins encountering Woozles who flip and tilt the screen while the player still needs to hit the right combination of buttons.
- Multiple Endings: The selection screen for each level shows what happens if you don't complete the story, namely each of the characters looking sad and upset at their birthdays going badly. Once you complete that character's story, the screen changes to instead show them looking happy and having fun at their birthdays.
- Playable Menu: The main menu works by having the player move Pooh around a small hub area to interact with the options scattered throughout. The options menu consists of a separate area full of machines accessible through a railway cart.
- Promoted to Playable: After being non-playable in Piglet's Big Game, Eeyore was made into a fully playable character with his own sections, usually revolving around Pooh riding on him as he attempts to catch butterflies, frogs or birds.
- Stealth-Based Mission: If you're ever playing as Tigger, there's a 100% chance this is what you'll be doing. Tigger, unlike Pooh's balloons and Piglet's scary faces, has no means of defense against Heffalumps or Woozles, and once caught slows to a snail's pace, so he must avoid confrontation at all costs.
- Took a Level in Badass: Played with. Pooh himself is no more powerful than he was last game, but through the balloons he can pop, he now has a means of actively getting rid of Heffalumps and Woozles when they appear. Previously, he was defenseless (like Tigger remains) and was doomed once he got caught between two enemies.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The game is a series of memories based around characters birthdays.
