The Mystery Dungeon games are a strange beast, and for many, one that can't be tamed. Practically none of them are received well in the West, and their fan following is a small, but dedicated bunch. I count myself among that group, as the spartan control schemes, punishing progression, and inventory management speak to me on a level most games simply don't.

This is why I'm so keen on the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon spin-off series. They take that formula I love and alchemize it in such a way that it's more accessible to newcomers. If somebody wants to understand the appeal of these things, but doesn't want to get thrown in the deep end with something like Shiren The Wanderer, Spike Chunsoft has them covered. All the nuts and bolts are there, but their clamp is loosened ever-so-slightly to make for a breezier experience.

Now, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX seeks to revisit the roots of this sub-series while adding in the mechanical refinements made in 2015's stellar Super Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. By marrying the charming, whimsical story of the original and superior gameplay of its sequels, the developer has crafted a game that excels on all fronts and gives players the very best that the series has to offer.

Go Go, Rescue Team!

Rescue Team DX hits all the same narrative beats of the original. You take the role of a human that's woken up as a Pokémon, which is either determined by a personality quiz or picked out from a roster. The game then whisks you away to a microcosmic society of Pokémon, which is seemingly based around the existence of Rescue Teams - squads of creatures who wear stylish bandanas and help their fellow 'Mons out of jams.

It's a cute little romp, without much in the way of narrative heft. Even the abjectly nightmarish concept of mind-breaking yourself to revert to an animalistic form in order to integrate with Pokémon society isn't explored with the dark inclination it could be. Which is fine! For a series that often straddles the line of cute and edgy, I'm fine with something just being cuddly and sweet.

That inherent sweetness also helps to offset the foreboding nature of the game itself. It wraps a strategic, hardcore RPG experience in a welcoming package to help ease you into the world of navigating grids, managing menus and watching numbers go up.

Related: Shiny Pokémon Have Been Added To Mystery Dungeon On Nintendo Switch

Hardcore With Soft Edges

For the unfamiliar, the Mystery Dungeon games are top-down dungeon crawlers built on a grid. Players progress through randomly generated dungeons, which get longer and longer as the game goes on. When you die, you lose items and money, and get yeeted back to the beginning of the dungeon. In a traditional Mystery Dungeon experience, you lose everything; here, you just lose your cash and some items. Oh, also, you have limited inventory slots to watch and a hunger meter that lowers with each step. Fun!

It seems daunting, but the best thing about Rescue Team DX is that it prepares you for everything. Right off the bat, you're introduced to a bank to put your cash in, a storage facility for your excess items, and a dojo to grind levels away at. There are also camps that you can fill with a ton of different Pokémon - potential partners that you can raise and take on your journeys with you. There are so many systems put in place to help players maximize efficiency and stay on top of everything, so you don't just end up getting boned early on. Whereas other Mystery Dungeon games are very clear in their intent to straight-up destroy you, Rescue Team DX is determined to help you understand every possible mechanic right up front.

The only drawback of this is that the first few hours will seem like amateur hour to a veteran. Rescue Team DX is aiming to both satisfy longtime players and those newcomers, but by front-loading a lot of tutorials, players really have to paw away for a few hours to get to the level of challenge I want from these things. Still, I understand why it's structured this way and I don't totally begrudge Spike Chunsoft for trying to make their games less byzantine. I only wish that there was some kind of difficulty slider so I could get thrown straight into fuzzy hell with Pikachu from the beginning.

That gripe aside, Rescue Team DX represents the culmination of fifteen years of hard work on this sub-series. It offers mechanical nuance and depth that rivals the biggest games on the market, and scratches so many little itches.

A Hand-Crafted World

Nobody does aesthetics quite like Nintendo. The AAA space is drab and devoid of much life, for my tastes, but the Big N manages to still do interesting stuff. First the ornate ramshackle look of Yoshi's Crafted World, followed by the plastic toy aesthetic of Link's Awakening, and now this. Rescue Team DX looks as if it's made entirely with colored pencils, and the result is sublime.

While I do miss the pixel art (which makes an appearance in a very cute way that I won't spoil,) I'm left impressed by what's been pulled off here. This is a sixty-dollar game that isn't trying to blow me out of the water with polygon count or frame rate. Instead, it settles on a gorgeous aesthetic that's unlike anything else in the big-budget space and makes the most of the Switch's capabilities. It's a beautiful game, and has one of my favorite looks of the year so far.

Also, the music? Impeccable. Arata Iiyoshi's original compositions are given new life, while never sacrificing the old-school cool of synths and chiptune. The result is a game that has fidelity that the GBA never could, but still manages to capture the satisfying chirps that were hallmark to music on that system.

A Legendary Pokémon

Look, the Mystery Dungeon games? They're not for everybody. But when they're as accessible as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, they're at least worth giving a shot. These are some of the most mechanically sound games on the market, with numerous deep systems to dig into, loads of content, and a tactile satisfaction that has to be played to be believed.

So, if you're on the fence about Mystery Dungeon, don't be - let this bundle of cuteness be your gateway into the world of grids, numbers, and menus. I've been in love with them for well over a decade at this point, and if there's any game that I could use to sell someone on them, this would be it.

A Switch copy of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX was provided to TheGamer for this review. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is available now for the Nintendo Switch.

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