Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team

"Fun for the Main Game."

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team - The new installment of Pokemon on the Gameboy Advance.

Gameplay - 6/10

The gameplay of this Pokemon title is very different compared to the others. For one, you are the Pokemon, and you assembled a rescue team. Therefore, you take on rescue missions. Some are mandatory, and many are side-missions (although they get boring.) The maps are randomly created and they can get confusing and in the way. The battle portion of the gameplay is fairly ordinary, it's turn based. Move one square on the grid, opponent does the same. I think the AI in the game can be alot better, although you can select tactics to somewhat control the way they move. It's fun at the beginning, because it's different, and it seems innovative, but then again it's just a lot of repetition.

Graphics - 7/10

It may not be the best graphics as Pokemon games tend to be, but it did work with the game. The colourful atmosphere and the various environments in this game defeats other games. The backgrounds are really nice, and some cutscenes are superb. The ingame graphic leaves a bittersweet taste. It's nice to show the reactions with the little pictures at the side, but the dungeons are towns are very pixelated in parts. The moves seems to be done nicely, as there's not much repetition with all the moves in Pokemon.

Story - 8/10

This is one of the best story that Pokemon had. It helped the players to advance with the game in a way that the gameplay lacked. There were many twists and allowed me to be entertained most of the time. It starts off with a human turned into a Pokemon and it continues into a tale of self-discovery. It's quite moving in the end, and its ending was satisfying (to say the least). Story is one of it's strong points, even though it didn't really go where no games have gone before.

Sound - 8/10

The music in the most parts are pretty good, while the battle sound effects were mediocre. Although in the end, the music fits the mood so well, that I bumped the sound portion of the review from 7.5 to 8.

Value/Replayability - 8/10

There are ALOT to do after the main game finished. It can even be fun to replay with other Pokemons as there are many starter Pokemons. Although, many would continue after the maingame finished as the story was its strong factor, and it feels boring after.

Fun Factor - 6/10

This game is fun, even though I gave it a 6/10. It's just repetitive and after the 20 hour story, it's more than enough to satisfy to the Pokemon fan in you.

Overall - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/16/06