Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time

Developer: Chunsoft
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: April 20, 2008
System: Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web site

In a nutshell: The Pokémon go Rogue-like.

0:00 My only experience with the Pokémon series has playing Pokémon Emerald for a review many moons ago. Oh, and Pokémon Snap. That game was great. And watching the cartoon with my sister. And seeing a lot of Pokémon in the Super Smash Bros. games. Y'know what? I have had a surprising amount of exposure to Pokémon!

0:01 Nintendo sent me both versions of the PMD: Explorers games. I choose Explorers of Time over Explorers of Darkness because time is objectively better than darkness. Unless you're emo.

0:02 Pikachu and some other Pokémon walk down a tunnel. They find a big chest. "The discovery of a lifetime. The start of a new adventure. Welcome to a grand tale. A tale that spans time... and darkness. It's the dawn of epic exploration." The "epic dawn"? Really? I'm pretty sure plenty of other games beat you to it.

0:03 "Welcome! This is the portal that leads to the world inhabited only by Pokémon." That should be easy for an eight-year-old to relate to.

0:04 The game tells me to be truthful in answering questions like: "You abruptly notice you're alone at a restaurant. What do you do?" and "You discover a secret passage in the basement. What do you do?" Do these things actually happen? Are they common? I'm like a presidential candidate: I refuse to address hypothetical questions.

0:05 I end up just picking the funniest responses to the questions, including: "I unleash my cookie fury!" "Not a problem! Chow Time!" and "Woo hoo! Water Fight!"

Read the full review at Crispy Gamer