Back in the day, having a dungeon crawler spin-off was the ultimate goal of every big JRPG franchise. From Digimon to Final Fantasy, a lot of role-playing universes tried the dungeon crawler formula, with Mystery Dungeon as the most popular saga of them all. Originally created by Chunsoft, it all started with Dragon Quest in 1993, but it gained worldwide popularity after the release of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team 14 years ago (2015 in Japan).

For obvious reasons, this remake caters to all those who played the original Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, but also a whole generation of kids who own a Nintendo Switch and want to see all their favorite pokémon doing their thing without any trainer forcing them to battle. However, not every Pokémon fan is fond of exploring never-ending mazes with pokémon who can talk...

Since the original games were released for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance, the one thing you can expect is more high-grade graphics, but also better sound quality. We'll get to that later, but we feel like we shouldn't ignore the elephant in the room, mainly because that's one of the reasons why remakes exist after all.

In terms of gameplay, this is less about fighting and more about exploring, so this game has no gym badges, no complex battle mechanics, and to be honest, no trainers at all. But fear not, pokémaniacs; you can still befriend powerful pokémon, train them, and make them fight alongside you!

This is the one area where the new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon excels. The whole game looks like a children's book painted with watercolor, and it definitely suits the spirit of a cute adventure like this. All dungeons and pokémon are full of different vibrant colors to catch your eye, but it still feels so different from the main Pokémon 3D models, which is good in our books. Thanks to the Nintendo Switch's hardware, there are no pixelated characters or backgrounds, and all animations and transitions are smooth.

To be honest, it's hard to resist the urge to live in the Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX world, just chilling with all these creatures living in their adorable pokétown. One thing we love is how clean the UI is, which also helps when it comes to admiring the art-style.

The Pokémon games are full of memorable songs, and Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX—although some may consider it rather niche game—is no exception. It offers a vast selection of beats that help reinforce all the emotions you get from the story; there are upbeat songs, epic battle songs, melancholic songs, etc. However, all tracks perfectly fit the already mentioned children's book art-style.

With all dialogues in text form, this game relies a lot on the little details and sound effects you get from all interactions. Yes, it would be better to have pokémon cries—like in the anime, not just 8-bit sounds—instead of plain text, but maybe that's asking for too much?

The Pokémon games are full of memorable songs, and Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX—although some may consider it rather niche game—is no exception. It offers a vast selection of beats that help reinforce all the emotions you get from the story; there are upbeat songs, epic battle songs, melancholic songs, etc. However, all tracks perfectly fit the already mentioned children's book art-style.

With all dialogues in text form, this game relies a lot on the little details and sound effects you get from all interactions. Yes, it would be better to have pokémon cries—like in the anime, not just 8-bit sounds—instead of plain text, but maybe that's asking for too much?

One of our problems with this game is that the gameplay feels extremely repetitive: you accept a quest from a concerned pokémon, prepare your team and maybe buy some items to help you, and then you head to a procedurally generated dungeon. Once there, you'll find several wild pokémon eager to fight you and a lot of traps you need to avoid; at the same time, every step you take and every second that goes by helps deplete your hunger meter, so food comes in pretty handy between battles.

All this wouldn't be a nuisance if it wasn't for the poor gameplay mechanics when it comes to fighting. For the most part, Rescue Team DX is fairly easy, and we know how much gamers hate when a remake is easier than the original. On the other hand, the second half of the story is significantly more difficult (all bosses have more HP and more powerful moves), but not because of the strategy needed; RNG is a big factor in some fights.

While every pokémon has 4 moves, just like in the main games, they all attack automatically, so you only need to walk past near them to engage in combat. You can press ZL to select a specific move or just press A to continuously attack your opponent. However, you need to be careful because enemies have no health bar, so you never know for sure how close they are to fainting. At the end of the day, being successful in a dungeon comes to using type advantages, but most importantly, mastering the art of running away when low on health and using the right items at the right time... or, you know, farming a lot of levels with Makuhita at the training gym.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is a very enjoyable game, but nothing out of the ordinary. Some new features are interesting and really add to the experience, while some others feel like nothing but a gimmick.

With around 10 hours of gameplay plus all the time you want to dedicate to the post-game, Rescue Team DX is a charming yet flawed remake. If you're new to Mystery Dungeon, you won't regret playing it, but it's hard to say the actual gameplay is better than the original Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games or any other dungeon crawling title for the Nintendo Switch. For example, you can get Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon EVERY BUDDY! (released last year) for a third of the price... just saying!

So that was our review for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX! Remember you can download the demo version for free and try it for yourself before potentially buying it, and if you don’t have a Nintendo Switch, you can go back to the original games and play them for the sake of nostalgia. At least it’s a nice filler while we wait for the Pokémon Sword/Shield expansion packs, right?