Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Blue Rescue Force Preview

E3 2006 First Look Preview

For over a decade in Japan and over eight years in the United States, Pokemon has been a key ingredient in Nintendo’s handheld success. Lengthy, immersive, and addictive in a way that should probably be illegal (grown men obsessed with kid-friendly monsters? Only in a video game…). Pokemon has consistently made its way to the top of the sales chart.

This fall Nintendo will bring their beloved franchise to the Nintendo DS in the form of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. It’ll come in two flavors: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team. Both will feature hundreds of Pokemon for you to collect and enjoy. This time, however, you won’t be playing as a Pokemon master, nor will you get to be a trainer dreaming of entering big tourneys. This time gamers, you are the Pokemon.

The story goes something like this: One day the player awakens to find that he or she has been turned into a Pokémon. The land is being ravaged by natural disasters so the player decides to form a rescue team with a partner Pokémon. The player can interact with many different Pokémon on various missions while trying to uncover their true purpose and destiny.

World navigation, world design and the overall look of the game is not far from the Game Boy Advance releases. Game goals, on the other hand, are immensely different. As a Pokemon, your goal is to form a rescue team with a Pokemon friend, not capture and master the little monsters. Dungeons are randomly generated to keep the game feeling fresh.

Players will get the chance to speak and interact with other characters in the world as a pocket monster. The world is populated by Pokemon, therefore you’re more likely to have a conversation with JigglyPuff than a human.

“Jigg JigglyPuff!”

Nintendo is touting the game as having a deep, dramatic, and highly involved storyline never before seen in the Pokemon world. I didn’t get that from my viewing of the game, but I did witness an amusing scene where a human was questioning why you’d want to be a Pokemon.

“But I don’t want to transformed….”

They could do a lot with comedy like that. Kick it up just a notch and it’d be nearly on par with the Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario games.

Look for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team to hit the shelves this September.

For All E3 2006 Previews