"Always something new to do."

We have all heard of Pokemon. Whether on TV or games. In Pokemon games, you would beat the Elite Four, go do sidequests, and catch all the Pokemon. But no one wants to do that for a long time! Mystery Dungeon helps here. A lot like MMORPG games (Runescape, Maplestory), ther is always something to do. But unlike The Rescue Team games, where you had to insert passwords for missions, Wi-Fi replaces this tedious task.

Graphics: 5/10
Compared to Rescue Team: Same

It's a DS game, but apparently the designers wanted to keep the same style of graphics. They could've at least done something like Diamond and Pearl, where you could see SOME 3-D effect. But it's Pokemon. Pokemon's graphics are a beast on consoles, not on portables. Let's ignore this and move on to better things.

Controls: 8/10
Compared to Rescue Team: Same

You can choose to keep controls on the top screen for shortcuts, making this a much easier game to speed through. Use the control pad to move in the direction, right? Easy.
What else can I say?

Story: 9/10
Compared to Rescue Team: A little deeper

I haven't beaten the game yet, but the story is a lot like Rescue Team, except deeper. You can tell it's deeper. You are a Pokemon, before you were a human. A partner comes and brings you to a guild, and you become a member. Now this guild is much better than Rescue Team's method (I'll explain later). You try to become the best explorers ever, but evil things keep happening. Calamities don't occur, but the Pokemon are just evil now. Evil. Can't go too much in, I'll spoil it. :P

Gameplay: 10/10
Compared to Rescue Team: If you liked it at all, you just found a great game!

If you've played an original Pokemon game, this is completely different. Think of the RPG style gameplay. Add a grid, movement, and strategy. There you go. You do a lot of awesome things. I don't need to get into detail for you people that never played Mystery Dungeon games (if you've never played a game like this, buy this one or Explorers of Darkness), so I'll go over the amazing differences between this and Rescue Team:

Recruiting: Sick of needing to bring small Pokemon to recruit rare or legendary Pokemon? Not anymore. You can recruit anything without Friend Areas, if you find them, you can basically recruit them. They're all in one place. Very simple recruiting.

Treasure Town: Upgraded Pokemon Square. If you've played Runescape, think of Varrock and Pokemon Square combined. Yeah, it's that good. I don't like everything being far apart, so that's the only downside.

Guild: Everything you'll ever need all underground. You get assigned certain tasks pertaining to the story, just doing rescue missions, or sentry duty. Each is very fun to do, especially the missions. You can either do an ordinary mission or face an Outlaw. Outlaw mission are exact opposite of rescuing; you must defeat the Pokemon. These are harder, so when you can do * missions on the rescue bulletin, try doing * outlaw missions. They're like bosses all over again.

Wi-Fi: 10/10
Compared to Rescue Team: Able to rescue people anywhere, but not through Internet. So much better.

Chunsoft is amazing, first of all. Using passwords to work like Wi-Fi but not as quick. You can do plenty of things. First is rescue missions. You can do Wireless mode, Passwords, or look on an Internet bulletin board-like thing. Fun, fun, fun...if you want a better game than Rescue Team out of this, Wi-Fi is the way to go. You can also actually link your e-mail account to you Mystery Dungeon, so you are notified via e-mail whomever needs a rescue. And, when you are awaiting rescue, since there is nothing else to do except wait online, you won't be bored. You can explore dungeons other than the one you lost in and keep money and items if you store them and don't lose. Very entertaining thing to do, you can even level up a little to toughen up before you get rescued and can play again!

Overall: 9/10

Nothing you can't do with this game. After the story, you are free to do whatever you want. You can set everything you need in ten minutes to get many more to set for the next ten minutes. You can do missions to save others and help yourself. If you are the kind without like of strategy (if you like Pokemon you should) GET IT. NOW.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/24/08

Game Release: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (US, 04/20/08)