Oh boy, new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. Can I read some reviews that mingle the sadness at roguelike gameplay mechanics with withering contempt for Pokemon spin-off titles? There's nothing I would like better.
Actually, I'm not sure I don't side with the reviewers on this game. Something about the first wave of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon titles didn't feel right to me, as if the ChunSoft and the Pokemon game mechanics just couldn't co-exist. The second wave has the distinct whiff of cash-in about it, especially since it's getting far more heavily advertised than the million-copy moving first wave did. Where the difference between Red and Blue in the first wave was whether you'd rather play GBA or DS, the difference between Time and Darkness is essentially one Pokemon you'll never encounter until the post-game.
There are a lot of interesting DS games out there, especially as far as RPGs and roguelikes go. A lot of people are snapping up the new PMD titles over either of them just because of the recognizable brand name attached. When people buy games out of habit like this, they don't do the industry - or themselves - any favors.
So as you might expect, the Metacritic rating for the new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon stuff is not especially high. Right now it sits at 66%, and it's taken nearly two weeks for enough reviews to come in that it could post a percentage at all. The game's high score is, uh, equivalent to The World Ends With You's low score, and it's all downhill from there.
The high score comes to us courtesy of GameSpy, who awarded the game four out of five stars. It's worth noting that GameSpy awarded the same score to last year's Pokemon Mystery Dungeon wave, too, and the review text gives the impression that reviewer Gerald Villoria is a fan of roguelikes in general, although one who appreciates making the games a little easier.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a lot of fun, in that it provides countless hours of classic dungeon-crawling gameplay in an ultra-accessible, user-friendly environment. Sure, Nethack die-hards will scoff at the idea of being able to keep your experience points after failing to clear a dungeon, but there are already games out there that cater to this masochistic base. If you've wanted to play Rogue-like games in the past, but found them to be a bit too unforgiving, this is an exceedingly good alternative to look into. If you're a Pokemon fan looking for something to tide you over until the next full-fledged RPG, you may be pleasantly surprised by something altogether different than you're used to. Either way, these latest Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games are worth checking out.
The representatives of the middling scores are IGN and GameSpot, who both award the game mediocre 6.5 out of 10s, and both accompany their reviews with fairly bored, strained review text. Whoever got these assignments wasn't too happy about it. First, IGN's Craig Harris articulates his boredom:
But even though I believe that Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a better Mystery Dungeon doesn't mean I think Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a great game, because I don't. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon might have some charm in its story, but the gameplay -- while having some bouts of fun -- is still sluggishly paced, tedious, and repetitive. And even with the randomly constructed dungeons they all end up looking and feeling the same. There are two versions of this game, but it feels incredibly forced since there's almost no differences between them. It made sense in the first game in the series since Chunsoft made a GBA version and a DS version, but in the sequel there are two versions on the same system that play identically and only offer up a hidden character or two.
Now, it's time to hear basically the same thing from GameSpot's Austin Shau, although focused on the graphics:
Of course, there's also the plethora of familiar Pokemon creatures available for you to discover, and they're all represented in vibrant colors and smooth animations. Nevertheless, it's a shame that the visual presentation isn't more consistent. The set pieces for the town, your guild, and key areas in the story-based dungeons are drawn in a soft, whimsical cartoon style with rich coloring. This is all matched in whimsy by the well-composed, youthful soundtrack, which boasts crisp, varied instrument samples. However, as soon as you step into a dungeon for a mission, you're greeted with a heaping face-full of boredom. Repetitive visuals lack detail and employ wholly uninteresting color schemes, making dungeons look almost monochrome and making the combat seem even more like drudgery than it actually is.
The low score comes to us from GamesRadar, although the review itself is a little surprising. The game takes no flack for being too hard or being too... well, roguelike. If anything, reviewer Raymond Padilla seemed utterly bored by the lowered difficulty that Darkness and Time are boasting, presumably to make it easier for small children and, uh, game journalists to play.
On the plus side, the game looks and sounds nominally better than its predecessors. There are also hundreds of Pokemon to battle and adventure with. In typical Pokemon fashion, players have to interact with owners of the game's sister title in order to unlock all of the game's features. There's also a WiFi feature that enables players to send out rescue requests, should they die. All told, this game ends up as a much cuter, much brighter, and much dumber version of Shiren the Wanderer, another DS RPG.
If you're dead-set on playing the new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, you... probably already own them. If you just want a good DS RPG (or RPG-like game), you've got much better options even if you want something basically easy. Heck, even Izuna is incredibly easy as roguelikes go, and a lot more fun than PMD. Scare up a copy of that if you can and give it a try instead.
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