Happy Saturday BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! This is Game Grind, the place where any and everything related to the video game industry or culture is analyzed and critiqued. Today’s topic is a review for a game that has received a fairly low amount of coverage from mainstream video game news outlets.  Today, I’ll be reviewing Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon for the Nintendo 3DS.

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is a spin-off from the main series of Pokemon games. The hook in these games is that, rather than playing as a trainer, you take control of a Pokemon instead. The game play is also much different from the mainstream Pokemon games, and, is instead, a roguelike, isometric dungeon crawler. In this game, a party of anywhere between one to five Pokemon explore a randomly generated dungeon while fighting other Pokemon and attempting to complete a predetermined objective, such as getting to a certain floor or defeating a specific enemy.

The story of Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is, admittedly, pretty forgettable. You play as a human that was turned into a Pokemon and uncovering the mystery of how that happened more or less takes a back seat to the mystery of numerous Pokemon being turned to stone. Both of those plot lines really are not touched upon by your character until the second half of the game, and the first half more or less consists of unrelated plot points. There are a couple fun instances of foreshadowing, however. Honestly, my favorite part of the human turned into a Pokemon shtick, was taking a personality test to determine which Pokemon it was recommended I play as. I got Charmander because of my fiery spirit (ladies ;p) and my kind personality (ladies again ;P).

As someone who has played the previous Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games for handheld consoles, I felt that this game improved upon those titles, while still holding on to the approach-ability that made those previous titles stand out. Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is a bare-bones dungeon crawler. It is not difficult whatsoever to pick this game up and withing half an hour have a firm grasp of the controls and the mechanics of the game. As someone who does not play a lot of dungeon crawlers, I appreciated this aspect of the game and feel like this was done intentionally as a way to introduce younger players to the genre.

I personally also enjoyed the general atmosphere that the game presented, although it may not be for everyone. This game is very lighthearted, bubbly, and campy. I literally spent the first half of the game playing as a Charmander in elementary school with a Chikorita for a best friend. Pretty much every character is some combination of vibrant, zany, or eccentric. The music in the game also does a surprisingly good job of helping to set this tone. The main theme is catchy and jovial. The dungeon music also does a great job of creating a sense of exploration in the beginning, but also shifting to a heavier, more dire, tone as you get further into the level and it becomes more difficult.

Is Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon a must buy for 3Ds owners? I don’t think so. However, it is most certainly a well done game that could serve as a great introduction to the genre of roguelike dungeon crawlers. While this game is not extremely memorable or exemplary of what the 3Ds is capable of, it most certainly is fun and has given me more than enough reason to keep coming back to it. If you need something to keep the dust off your 3Ds until the 2016 titles start to hit, I recommend Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon.

Alright, that just about does it for this installment of Game Grind. Thank you so much for reading and please leave a like and/or a comment down below. If you want to keep up to date with 4B, you can do so via email in the upper right tab. Alternatively, you can learn when new posts are made by liking the official BaddaBing BaddaBlog Facebook Page or by following me, @LucasDeRuyter, on Twitter. I hope you all have a great weekend and please remember to come back on Monday for the next installment of  Manga (And Also Anime) Monday.

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