Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (Nintendo Switch) - Review

When it comes to Mystery Dungeon, you either love or hate the series. When these games first came out, it took me forever to understand the gameplay, but once I did, I was hooked. I've enjoyed every PMD game since, but things started going south once they moved over to the 3DS. Something just wasn't right with Gates to Infinity, and even though Super Mystery Dungeon helped bring it back to it's roots, something still felt off. So how does this remaster of the original games compare? Let's find out!

The game fully captures the charm of the originals and doesn't notably change anything up. The dialogue and story remains faithful to the source material, and a number of gameplay tweaks and improvements have been made for better quality of life. The game now auto-saves, and also has an "auto-mode" in the dungeons, where pressing the L button will make the player automatically walk through the dungeon until L is pressed again, or an enemy is near.

For those that aren't familiar with the series, the main thing to remember here is, yes, this is an RPG. Even if you're full up to scratch with your Pokemon knowledge, some things aren't just going to fly. In the main series, a weak multi-hit attack, like Fury Swipes isn't all that strong, but in the PMD games it can be deadly. Whilst your Pokemon knowledge is still important (such as type advantaged and what not), if you don't learn and use the other elements to the game, such as Seeds, Gummis and Orbs, you're going to really struggle to make any sort of progress.

One of the biggest negatives with Gates to Infinity was that they didn't include all available Pokemon. As much as we'd love every Pokemon to be in the game, this is a remaster, not a new title, and when the original games came out, the Pokemon world was only up to Gen III. That said, if a Pokemon from Gen I through III had an evolution introduced later (par Riolu), they've been included. It makes the game feel rustic and fresh at the same time, and here's hoping a new entry later down the line will include all Pokemon.

And then there's the art style... We remarked on Twitter that this style gave strong Winnie the Pooh vibes when it was first announced, and it still does, but the more we've played it we just loved it that much more. The new art style is a perfect blend between the original 2D sprites, and advanced 3D models that came with the transition to the Nintendo 3DS. The classic 2D sprites make an appearance, too!

As mentioned, we've always loved the PMD series of games, but they do take a bigger page out of the RPG book than your standard Pokemon game. There's also a tonne of replay value once you've completed the main story, but the Mystery Dungeon games aren't for everyone. Thankfully, there's a demo on the eShop that you can try out if you're still undecided. If you're a Pokemon fan, or take a general interest in the series, it's certainly worth taking a look at the demo before laying down a purchase.