Help! Been transformed into...a Pokemon! Must...check mail! Must form...rescue team! Rescue team...ASSEMBLE!!!!

Yup, I've become a Pokemon, at least in Nintendo's latest DS title, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team. This occurred after answering some very simple questions, whereupon which the game "decided" what sort of battle monster best fit my personality (I'm a jokester...who knew?). Then I had to select my partner, because for whatever reason, my only desire was to form a rescue team, a Pokemon National Guard of sorts that goes out looking for work (much like Boba Fett) and wanders through randomly generated dungeons searching for trapped Pokemon. It's not exactly the best of jobs, but hey, it's a living. Besides, rescuing the little guys makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. All I know is, I can't play this game for very long because it bores the heck out of me. Yet at the same time, it's pretty addictive, so every time I swear that I'll never play it again I almost always pick it back up. To that I say, touchdown Nintendo!

Seriously, it's about time! The official sequels, Diamond and Pearl, won't hit the U.S. until 2007, and the Pokemon spin-offs, the awful racing game Pokemon Dash and the mildly entertaining puzzler Pokemon Trozei weren't enough to satiate me, so the much more robust Blue Rescue Team is definitely appreciated, even if it's a bit monotonous and looks like a GBA title (as it should, seeing as how it communicates with its GBA counterpart, Red Rescue Team).

Basically, the whole goal of the game is to, along with your team of Pokemon, accept missions and then go frolic in one of many randomly generated dungeons, collecting Poke as well as other useful items while battling a host of enemies. It's a 2D game that's played from a top down perspective, and while you control your character in real time, all of the combat's turn-based. In other words, you'll engage the enemy, launch an attack, and then you'll be unable to move while the enemy goes on the offensive. Meanwhile, your partner will go crazy and attack on its own. It's a neat little system and one that's not nearly as boring as standard turn-based combat, which more often than not puts me to sleep. It's also fairly rewarding. It seemed like I leveled up almost every time I beat a small handful of monsters, and that just made me happy. There's also a satisfying collection aspect to the game (no surprise there, since it's a Pokemon title), and I enjoyed picking up money, berries, and other useful items.

To get missions, you can either wait until the bird drops mail into your mailbox, or you can take a trip into town and check out the local bulletin board. But there's other points of interest that are worth looking into, such as a bank (it's wise to deposit all of your money here before going to battle), a post office, a dojo, and other cool places. There's also lots of Pokemon walking around that'll engage you in a little chat, and they come in handy when you're lost. I recall not being able to find the Post Office, and as soon as I spoke to a passerby, they pointed me in the right direction.

Ok, so Mystery Dungeon has decent combat and a nice exploration element. For that, Nintendo and Chun Soft deserve a cookie. But this game isn't exactly the best that the DS has to offer for few reasons beginning with the gameplay, which, as a whole, isn't globs of fun. There's a ton of Pokemon to rescue, but the format's almost always the same. Accepting missions and then going to a dungeon and walking down some stairs until I find who I'm looking for gets old.

Then there's the touch screen implementation. You can cycle through all of the menus using the stylus, but the text is so small and bunched together that it's easy to select the wrong option.

I'm also not too impressed with the presentation. The graphics are just simple 2D sprites and the music is quite repetitive. I understand that the visuals had to be on par with Red Rescue Team, but considering that the GBA is on a decline, why even bother with a game for that system? Why not just go nuts and put both of them on the DS and trick out the visuals? The game is far from ugly, but considering some of the other adventure games for the system, it looks ancient. However, considering Blue Rescue Team still looks decent enough, this isn't that big a deal.

Unfortunately, Nintendo didn't ship me a copy of Red Rescue Team or another copy of Blue Rescue Team, so I can't comment on the multiplayer options. But as a single player game, Blue Rescue Team delivers a good, solid adventure that's worth experiencing. But it's definitely not the next evolution of Pokemon, nor can it hang with the DS' best action RPGs. But in a world where Diamond and Pearl may not come out for several months, it's a decent appetizer.

Our Final ScoreOK

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