Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team Blue (DS) Review
Posted by Sean Garmer on 09.29.2006
Pokemon crawling through a dungeon, is it as fun as it sounds? Let's just say you might want to think twice before making a purchase. If you read this review it could help you make a good decision.
Pokemon has been around for ten years now and it still holds a place in videogame lore. The original Pokemon enthusiasts may have grown older, but there are millions of kids ready to give Pokemon another shot. Every time a Pokemon game comes out, it manages to give Nintendo major profits. However, when Nintendo has moved Pokemon away from its base they either sink or swim. Innovations such as Pokemon Snap and Pinball were well received, while others like Pokemon Dash or Hey You Pikachu! Made you wonder why Pokemon still exists. While everyone waits for the new RPG installments (Diamond and Pearl) Nintendo decided to team up with Chunsoft to create “Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.” Chunsoft’s Dungeon crawling series has been made for other RPG series, but mostly, are only, released in Japan. Can a game with the cute and cuddly Pokemon finally be Chunsoft’s ticket into the American Market? Or is this another bad attempt to rush out a Pokemon game? Find out right here.
Story You play as a human that has been turned into a Pokemon. After taking a personality test (to determine what kind of Pokemon you are) and choosing a partner Pokemon, you must save a Caterpie from a dungeon. After this, you decide to form a rescue team. Once here, it is up to the player to continue the story or build up their Pokemon with side missions.
Graphics Since Nintendo decided to make two games for this series, one for the GBA and one for the DS, they obviously didn’t want to keep people from buying the GBA version. So there isn’t much of a graphical difference between both games. The DS screen is a little bit brighter and more colorful, but other than that, they look the same. That is a shame considering what we know the DS can do in the graphics department. The bottom screen is where the action takes place, while you can either, see the dungeon map, the world map, or your team stats on the top screen. Pokemon has never been a game based on big time graphics anyway, but still, at least it would have been nice to see some Pokemon DS graphics.
Gameplay The first thing I should mention is that this is not a regular Pokemon game. This is a dungeon crawler with Pokemon in it. There really is not a whole lot of variety in this game either. You go to a dungeon, follow a map around, fight some pokemon, and get to the end where you find the Pokemon you need, or a boss. The dungeon levels may be random but, the actual rendered backgrounds are bland and don’t entice the viewer to stay around very long. The actual gameplay is in pseudo real-time because you move around in real time, but battles are turn based. Since you see the enemies on screen instead of the random battles that are found in the other Pokemon games, every time you move, the enemy takes a step as well.
Here’s where some things differ from your traditional Pokemon game. First of all, there is no evolving of Pokemon until you beat the main story. That really doesn’t make sense because one of the appeals of Pokemon is that your monsters evolve and get stronger. Other things like digging and setting traps also aren’t available till the end of the game. So basically, during your first run with the game, you are left with the bare minimum, of fighting and crawling. A player can have up to four Pokemon, in their party at one time, but if you or your partner Pokemon die, it is game over. The Pokemon you obtain for your party are somewhat based on luck, more than skill. As the game requires you to have a living area for a friend before they can join your party. Sometimes the Pokemon wait around for you to buy them a place, others don’t, and therefore sometimes you feel like you wasted your time going through the dungeon. The game does provide you with tons of side missions, so that you can level up your Pokemon. However, thanks to the battle system everything just feels extremely repetitive. While in a dungeon you will encounter other Pokemon and if you get close to them, you will start a battle. You have one normal attack, with four special attacks that use up PP. You learn moves just like in the regular games and the elemental properties are in the game as well. Mostly, you will be using the same moves over and over on the five pokemon you see in one dungeon. However, if you can get past that, (I couldn’t, but maybe the target audience can.) The story is pretty good and brings you into what it would be like to be a Pokemon. You are just reading a bunch of text, but, it still warms your heart.
Sound The music is basically a couple of songs that loop over and over. While the other effects are Pokemon cries and effects from the moves, such as, a swipe sound that plays when you use scratch, or a thunder sound for an electric shock attack. That’s pretty much it for sound.
Lasting Appeal The side missions help keep you playing this game past the 15 hour story mode. However, unless you have another friend to trade Pokemon and missions with, there really isn’t anything extra for you. If a friend has the GBA Red Version, you can trade Pokemon and get special missions that would allow you to get Pokemon that aren’t in the DS version of the game. The overall world only has a few shops for you to buy things, like items and living areas, as well as, the post office, where you pick what missions you want next. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is mostly catered to kids. For me, this game didn’t offer a whole lot, but for others, they may think it’s a great new experience.
Fun Factor I had the most fun with this game in short stints, and the story kept me interested. However, the ridiculous repetition and bland look of the game prevented me from really enjoying it. In fact, if I didn’t have to review the game, I might have taken it back to the store a long time ago. Then again, it fits the target audience so you have to give them a little credit there.
The 411: Even if you are a serious Pokemon fan I suggest giving this one a rental first. The game gives you plenty to do, the problem is that the execution of the gameplay is a bit on the boring side. Diamond and Pearl will be here soon enough, you can wait.
Graphics
8.0
The game looks good, the problem is that these aren't DS graphics.
Gameplay
7.5
This can be fun in short stints, but it gets repetitive really quick
Sound
7.0
Pretty Generic
Lasting Appeal
8.5
There are a lot of side missions and the connectivity between the two different games helps give it some more length
Fun Factor
8.0
Again in short stints its fun, the kids may be able to get past that though
