Over the years, no franchise has been as consistently popular as Pokemon, ever since the initial invasion years back, kids, and even some adults, have been attempting to catch em, all. Unfortunately for them, once they finally do catch em, all Nintendo decides to drop about one hundred more into the mix, thus making all of the prior efforts pointless.
With the release of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo finally decided to change the formula of their wildly popular RPG and go with a different style of gameplay – giving fans a new way to enjoy the world of Pokemon with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.
In this outing, rather than controlling the standard Pokemon trainer, the protagonist is a Pokemon. Which one of the Pokemon you are is decided based on a questionaire that is filled out before beginning the adventure. The questions are simple and basic, basically just getting a feel for the player,s personality. I was selected as a hero type because, well, let’s face it: I rock. After the game selects a Pokemon for you, the player has the opportunity to select their partner. For this outing. I selected everyone’s favorite ball of fur, Pikachu.
The story revolves around a character who falls asleep and awakens as a Pokemon, and beging the arduous task of regaining their humanity. Along the way, you will meet and make friends with many various creatures – and can even get them to join your party.
Combat in Mystery Dungeon is wildly different from previous games in the franchise, there is no special battle screen or random battles, all fighting is all real time, similar to an MMORPG. The game can either be controlled by either the D-pad and buttons or fully with the touch screen, the touch screen controls are a tad bit complex, and in the time that I demoed the game I could not grasp it and had to use the D-pad.
The top screen displays a couple of different things: the over world while exploring the map and your party’s statistics while in a dungeon or battle. This party can consist of up to four respective pokemon, unless in a party-restricting dungeon, where the amount will differ.
Even the gamer that dismisses Pokemon as childish and stupid can find something to enjoy in Mystery Dungeon. The game plays very well and is a ton of fun, the story is deep and moving, and almost drove one very sensitive Nintendo rep to tears from what he told me. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon will be released November 17 in Japan, with no release date set for the US yet.
