DS Review: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time / Darkness

In September of 2006 Nintendo released two Pokémon Mystery Dungeon titles, one for each of its portable gaming devices, GBA and DS. Developed by ChunSoft, a team with more than enough experience with the genre, Nintendo seemingly started a revival of dungeon crawlers. Not only that, but these Pokémon spin-offs introduced an interesting idea; no longer do you play with Pokémon, now you are one of them, and it’s up to you to figure out why. This premise, the relatively obscure genre, and obviously the brand name made the games a success. Unfortunately, reviewers in general weren’t too keen on the titles, not able to look past the repetitiveness of gameplay and level design. These factors didn’t matter to gamers, though; the franchise quickly found a dedicated ‘cult’ of sorts, populating forums and exchanging rescue codes. A pair of sequels was released in Japan last year, and North American DS players just received the latest updates of the series, Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness. Unfortunately, most of the flaws present on the first titles remain.


Explorers of Time / Darkness start off with a personality test of sorts. Using a variety of multiple-choice questions, the game determines which Pokémon you identify with the most and assigns you that character. You wake up on the beach with no recollection of who you are or how you got there. Once a fellow Pokémon assists you, you settle in town and join a rescue team in search of Pokémon in peril. To do so, you must explore a variety of randomly-generated dungeons, each with multiple floors to scavenge. Along the way, you will find items, Pokémon to battle and recruit, bosses to defeat and missions to complete. You can manage your items and team members in a town hub, train to level up your party, or send rescue messages to friends if you fall in battle. This is the core of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, and it hasn’t changed enough.

This time around, both versions are available on the DS, with the minimal difference of a few exclusive Pocket Monsters to each. In fact, the only true difference between these titles and the previous ones is purely aesthetic. Levels, although random, remain simple and crude. Menus are complex and a bit clunky, meaning it will take you quite a long time to know where everything is. Leveling up and recruiting Pokémon takes a long time to begin with, and when you enter a new floor with the exit right next to you, it’s tempting to skip exploration and move on. At this point, many gamers won’t enjoy the titles. However, this is the crucial moment of the experience. If you stick with it, Mystery Dungeon ramps up on challenge, a bit of variety, more things to do, unlockables, and an overall better experience. For those that continue playing, an expanded rescue system will be quite a blessing. You can send rescue codes to friends over Wi-Fi to an e-mail account, a Wii system, or a cell phone; these are quite impressive communication features. And if this all fails, you can always exchange rescue codes at online forums and send and receive thank you notes and item rewards.

The previous Mystery Dungeon titles looked and sounded well, and thankfully both new versions continue this trend perfectly. Colorful, pleasing visuals decorate the world, with well designed character sprites and animation to go along. Catchy and moody tunes blend greatly with each dungeon and part of town, as well. And for those wondering if this spin-off is Pokémon enough, rest assured; over 490 Pokémon are present, with many moves and items from the franchise and the tried-and-true ‘rock-paper-scissors’ style of battle system as well; this is Pokémon all the way.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time / Darkness aren’t much of a sequel, but they can be quite enjoyable if you stick to them. Repetitive gameplay becomes addictive and challenging, simplistic level design is somewhat expanded and becomes less apparent, and more items to find, missions to solve and Pokémon to battle and recruit keep things interesting. It all comes down to how long you can play either game without giving it up. In reality, this is also the case for the big-name Pokémon games such as Diamond and Pearl, and if those games can be great, so can these dungeon crawlers.

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