Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX Review (Switch) –

The Switch is getting a dirge of remakes and remasters of late. Some good, some great and some so-so. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX falls into the latter category. While it’s got a cutesy, fun aesthetic and a suitably silly narrative, the gameplay quickly grows tiresome and monotonous. The minor revamps made to release Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX on Switch don’t do much to change the 14-year-old gameplay.

Initially, dungeon-crawling as a human trapped in a Pokémon’s body is a lot of fun, however, it’s not long before you realise you’re just doing the one thing over and over and over again. Where Dungeon Crawling RPGs usually shine is the depth of combat, abilities, combos and more.

Sadly, in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX there’s a real lack of strategy. You can pretty much win by holding down the A button and that might be ok for younger players but even they are probably a bit more sophisticated than that.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX Review

After waking up one morning to find yourself trapped in a Pokémon’s body and along with a newfound friend and teammate, start up a rescue team. Who are you rescuing? Other Pokémon who have become lost or trapped in dungeons littered around the countryside.

It’s light and quirky and just silly enough to work. That being said, there’s not a lot of depth there. Different Pokémon have their own personalities and quirks but overall, the story acts as a bit of fluff between the dungeons.

And with dungeon crawling being so limited and so repetitive, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX tends to be a game best played in really short bursts.

You and your Pokémon team descend into procedurally generated dungeons and move along a grid. Occasionally, you’ll bump into enemy Pokémon and will be forced to fight. This should be the most exciting part of the game but it boils down to pressing A a few times.

See, each Pokémon in your team (of up to 8) can learn four moves and you can simply press A to use your most powerful attack. Of course, you have the option to select which moves to use but it’s only slightly more interesting. This is exacerbated by the fact that Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX isn’t played in full real-time. Instead, as you move along the grid, enemies move in step with you.

As you make an attack, they respond. It’s a simplified version of a dungeon crawler, but one that’s been simplified too much so that it almost plays itself.

Younger Pokémon fans will probably get some fun out of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX though, with games like Snack World and Diablo III available on Switch, there are plenty of other dungeon crawling options.

Additionally, with Minecraft Dungeons coming later this year, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX falls short. It’s cute and quirky but too shallow and repetitive to remain engaging in the long term.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX was reviewed on Switch using a digital copy provided by Nintendo Australia.