Title: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness

Platform: Nintendo DS

Developer: Chunsoft

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date: N/A

Genre: Dungeon RPG

This game marks the second time developers Chunsoft and publisher Nintendo have paired up together to make a game. With that said, I kinda hoped for a better outcome being that they have worked side by side before. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work in their favor at all. If you played Red Rescue Team & Blue Rescue Team a few  years back, then you probably remember some of the flaws and issues the game had. And…even if you didn’t play it or don’t remember the problems you will be given another chance to experience them in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness. Why did these issues carry over to the newest installment of the series? I have no idea! To summarize it shortly, the game is very slow feeling and definitely lacks in the challenging department. They really fell short on what could have been a truly awesome Pokemon adventure for fans to enjoy. We all know Pokémon has always been about collecting obsessively to progress yourself, and that the game is a long-term commitment. You can’t just play every now & then and expect to be at the end of the game any time soon. The progression in past games has always been fairly slow, but it was at least steady. The problem I have with the Mystery Dungeon games is that they abandon all of the good qualities of other Pokemon games. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness focuses more on achievements more than anything else. That doesn’t sound so bad eh? Not really, but the fact that you have to be prepared to get sent to the beginning of the game and start over with nothing except for whatever happens to be in storage…sucks. It’s basically like playing an RPG game with no save points. You either make it all the way or start over, and that becomes very very frustrating. To mix the two downfalls together…one of the achievements is to survive two hours without being sent back to the start. Yeah, that sounds like an accomplish that will be fun to achieve…

The game is constantly testing you. Every time you enter a dungeon the whole goal is to see how far you can get without meeting your fate. With that said, this game will only appeal to those of you who are fans of this style of gameplay. If you enjoy trying over and over, and perfecting your gameplay to see how far you can actually get then this game should be quite a treat for you. However, if you are not a fan of this you will be in for hours and hours of boredom, frustration, and nearly break your DS when you lose for the 40th time.

Not all is lost with this game though. The plot is actually pretty good. It manages to grab you and push you to progress further and further. So if you decide to give this game a chance you can look forward to that. The story can help counter the frustration a bit, and the Mystery Dungeon series can become strangely addictive. If you really want a dungeon crawler style game I would rather play Shiren the Wanderer anyday, but if you just can’t pass up Pokemon games, feel like collecting 100’s of cute lil’ characters and power-level them like no other…then you can’t lose with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness. My advice? Rent it before you buy it! You never know how you will feel about this one. It really depends on the individual gamer to make that decision.

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