Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red and Blue Rescue Teams

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon
Developer	Chunsoft
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Game Boy Advance (Red) Nintendo DS (Blue) Wii U Virtual Console
Release Date	Game Boy Advance/DS JP November 17, 2005 US September 18, 2006 AU September 28, 2006 EU November 10, 2006 Wii U Virtual Console PAL February 11, 2016 JP March 23, 2016 US June 23, 2016
Rating	ESRB: E

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team are two versions of a Pokémon spin-off that utilizes roguelike gameplay in the style of Chunsoft's Japanese Mystery Dungeon series. Each version was available for a different system, with Red Rescue Team being available for the Game Boy Advance while Blue Rescue Team was made for the Nintendo DS. These games acted as the beginning of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon subseries.

Story

The player character is a human who has suddenly woken up one day in the body of a Pokémon and in a civilization of Pokémon. This person has no memories of their life as a human but quickly befriends a partner Pokémon.

The world has been devastated by an unusual number of natural disasters lately and the pair are asked to help a Butterfree find her child, a Caterpie. After the rescue, the two form a Rescue Team together to solve the world's problems. Along the way, they look for clues to solve the mystery of the human's transformation into a Pokémon and missing memories.

Gameplay

The player has their own home near Pokémon Square. At Pokémon Square, there are a number of helpful resources that can be employed for dungeon crawls, such as an item shop, bank and storage. The player can take on a number of missions and travel to different areas that are unlocked over the course of the game in order to accomplish these missions. These dungeon areas consist of multiple floors that are filled with enemies. Battles are turn-based, but take part in the field where even steps taken by the player count as a turn.

The player's Pokémon form can be one of sixteen Pokémon (including all of the starter Pokémon from the first three generations) and is decided by a quiz taken by the player at the beginning of the game as well as the gender chosen by the player. The player can then choose one Pokémon from that pool of Pokémon (excluding Pokémon of the same type as the player character) to act as the player's partner. The partner character acts as a loyal friend. In dungeons, both the player character and the partner have to be kept alive, or the player could be ejected from it. Players can recruit other Pokémon at different times throughout the game, but they must obtain Friend Areas to house them. The player can assemble a party of up to four Pokémon for exploring dungeon areas. By completing missions, the player can increase their team's rank and earn rewards.

The two versions of the game are mostly similar, with one of the main gameplay differences being Blue Rescue Team utilizing the DS's second screen. As with the main games, there are some Pokémon that are exclusive to each version. The two versions can connect to each other with a feature called Wonder Mail, which can be used to unlock Pokémon from the other version. Wonder Mail could also be used to send out SOS Mail after a player fails at a dungeon, which can summon another player to rescue them.

Blue Rescue Team also had a wireless feature called the Unknown Dungeon, which can be used to find rare items, and it can also connect to copies of Pokémon Trozei!, which will trade Prize Coins to that game in exchange for random items.

Legacy

This spawned a new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon subseries to the Pokémon games.

Ports/Remakes

• In 2016, both versions were released for download through the Wii U's eShop as part of the Wii U Virtual Console.
• In 2020, the games were remade for the Nintendo Switch as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. This game featured a new graphic style and changed to the gameplay, including quality of life changes such as autosave and elements from later games such as Mega Evolution.

Sequels

These games were followed up by a second pair of games for the DS: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Darkness.