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'Pokemon Mystery Dungeon' feels familiar

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By Aimee Green | Wednesday, April 23, 2008 1:18 PM CDT | () comments

(Contributed photo)

If there's one good thing the ''Pokemon'' series is good at, it's recycling the same concept over and over.

When ''Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team'' (and ''Red Rescue Team'') came out a few years ago, it was something different. You played as a Pokemon instead of as the trainer who gives the creatures commands. It was inevitable, however, that a near-identical ''new'' version of this would crop up.

''Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time'' and ''Explorers of Darkness'' essentially are ''Rescue Team.'' The specifics have changed, but the overall game mechanics and theme are the same.

Even the interesting way in which ''Explorers'' decides which Pokemon you control was in the ''Rescue Team'' games. Before you start the game, you take a personality test, which then points to a specific Pokemon. If you're curious, I'm a Totodile.

The story involves a Pokemon trainer who awakens as a Pokemon on a mysterious beach. You don't know how you got there or what you're supposed to do, but eventually you partner up with another Pokemon. You join an explorers' guild and proceed to run through dungeons in search of loot, Pokemon in need of rescue and ''bad'' Pokemon.

''Explorers'' is a role-playing game, but it's more shallow than most. It's a dungeon crawler, and each dungeon you enter is randomly generated, so it's never the same twice. If you faint in a dungeon (Pokemon never die), you're taken back to the guild, having lost any money you had and nearly half the items you collected.

One thing you can do to avoid this is to send out an SOS Mail via WiFi to any friend who also has the game. The friend then can gather his or her crew and dive into the dungeon to rescue you.

Part of the appeal of the ''Pokemon'' games is collecting all the types of Pokemon. There's no collecting in this game because you are the Pokemon, but you can recruit Pokemon you battle in the dungeons. You're allowed to take two Pokemon of your choice, plus your partner, into the dungeon with you.

''Explorers'' is fun, but it's not as deep as a standard ''Pokemon'' game. If you're a ''Pokemon'' fanatic, you're going to get it regardless of what I say. However, if you're more discerning, there's nothing different in ''Explorers'' from ''Rescue Team.'' You could make do playing just one of those.

Also, keep in mind that, like all ''Pokemon'' pairs, ''Explorers of Time'' and ''Explorers of Darkness'' are virtually identical. Only a few select Pokemon and the order in which they appear are different.

Reach Aimee Green at (402) 473-7326 or Aimee.Green@lee.net.

POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON: EXPLORERS OF TIME AND EXPLORERS OF DARKNESS

Nintendo, for DS

Rated: Everyone

Cost: $34.99

Score: 7/10

Scores based on an evaluation of gameplay (4 points), visuals (2), sound (2) and replayability/value (2).