Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team - DS
So; the story. After answering a short number of questions, you wake up as a Pokemon in a coniferous forest. The Pokemon you are depends on how you answered the questions, which are basic personality ones. The Pokemon that you can be are the three sets of starters on various Pokemon RPGs. You don’t remember who you are, or where you came from. You are revived by a Pokemon, who later on becomes your partner in your very own rescue team. This new friend of yours tells you about the natural disasters that have been occurring recently all over the Pokemon world. The two of you then decide to form a rescue team, to save those in danger and to get to the bottom of the recent disasters, along with you trying to change back into a human!
So, one game, released on two formats: Blue Rescue Team for Nintendo DS and Red Rescue Team for Nintendo Gameboy Advance. The difference? One has a touch screen. The touch screen functions in the game are relatively useless, because unless you want to scroll through an endless number of menus you will end up just pushing the A button (action/attack button). The graphics in Blue Rescue Team are exactly the same as the graphics in Red Rescue Team, which is a huge disappointment. We all know that the NDS can handle more 3D like graphics. My conclusion is that it doesn't matter which you buy, there's no difference apart from some touch screen functions.
The main goals of the game are 1) To find out why you are a Pokemon, and 2) To rescue the helpless Pokemon from the dungeons with your rescue team. You find out about these lost Pokemon through your mailbox or from the notice board, in the form of missions. You can read the briefing before deciding to accept the mission. It tells you how hard the dungeon is, by way of letters ie. A being the hardest. The dungeons are randomly generated, which means you will never enter the same dungeon twice. If you think this gives the game any replay value you’d be wrong. The gameplay is extremely repetitive. There are different environments, mostly colourful ones that boost your spirit. This prevents you from killing yourself with frustration. There are a certain number of floors in a dungeon, and to rescue the said Pokemon from a horrible fate you must reach the correct floor of the dungeon. To exceed a floor you must find the stairway. Yes, a stairway in a dungeon. If you’re looking for realism this isn’t the game for you. Back on point, the dungeons can be quiet complex, so you could be stuck on the same floor for about 10 minutes before you find the stairway. This isn’t helped by the wild Pokemon which have to battle you if you step within one foot of them. The battles are turn-based like the originals, which is one of the better qualities of the game. You can take a break if you want and let your cronies fight, who, by the way, follow you everywhere once inside the dungeon. This is a novelty which wears off 5 minutes into the game. They can, however, come in handy every once and a while. One more annoying aspect of the dungeons is the massive onscreen map, which takes up the whole screen (the screen which your Pokemon is on). The map, although transparent, can sometimes confuse you (otherwise it's just me). This can be turned off.
The sounds in the battles are quiet good, although they can get annoying after a week or so. They are the basic ones that we first heard in Pokemon Yellow. That's all I can say.
When you're not rescuing the tiny, helpless Pokemon, you're chatting with other Pokemon Rescue Teams in the village. Then there's the bank to save your Poke's (the town's currency), item storage to store the items that you found in dungeons, a shop, where you can buy items with Poke's that you earned from saving the Pokemon, and a post office where you can go for a multiplayer game. The main multiplayer occurs when: You're in a dungeon and you faint, you can either restart the dungeon or call for help. When you call for help you can either insert Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and save your Blue Team with your Red one, or you can receive a code. You then give this code to your friends who then type it into their game, which leads to them saving you. This is a brilliant function, as the dungeon restarts are very frustrating. The game also takes advantage of the DS's wireless function, so when you faint in a dungeon you can wait for someone else's team on another DS to come and rescue you wirelessly. Another function of the town is the training dojo. This is good for improving your level for a difficult dungeon.
In the dungeons, you can use a certain function to locate Pokemon on that floor that wish to join your team. When you defeat these Pokemon, they ask to join your team. You can accept them or deny them. If you decide to let them join, one of two things happens. 1) If there are less than 4 Pokemon in your party, they join you on the spot in your search for the endangered Pokemon, or 2) they leave the dungeon and go to the correct Pokemon area. The Pokemon Areas can be visited by you before entering a dungeon, so you can choose which of your team members will accompany you on your next mission. Each Pokemon has their own level like the originals, and the harder the dungeon where you met them is, the higher their level. The system of evolving is slightly different. Usually when you reach a certain level you evolve there on the spot. In Mystery Dungeon, however, to evolve you need to complete the story. You then go Whiscash's Waterfalls where you then evolve. Similar to the Pokemon levels is the Team Levels. The more dungeons you complete, and the harder they are, the higher your level is. You can get badges to show off to the town's villagers. There are Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum badges to achieve.