Red Rescue team is my favorite spin-off game, period. I love Ranger, Pinball, TCG, and I LOVE Trozei, but the mystery dungeon series were in a league of their own. I remember reading about it months in advance in Nintendo Power, and attempting to comprehend the fancy "Blast seeds" and "Warp Orbs". Nothing made sense at first, but I was hooked immediately on the Mystery Dungeon manga in Nintendo Power. Through six months and probably about 100 pages of manga, Nintendo Power published the storyline of this new Pokemon game, and it all clicked for me. I have to get this game... I was going to get to BE a Pokemon. Oh I saved and I saved, and I remember the day I went to buy it. Crisp autumn day, school had just started up again, and my best friend Aaron and I were playing on the playground pretending to be Treeko and Mudkip in a dungeon. We had called each other a lot that summer and were both highly anticipating the game which we were to buy that night. We went to Target, and emptied our pockets, but we left the store with two copies of Red Rescue Team. I was not disappointed upon going home. When I used Tackle on a Sunkern and for the first time ever knew that it was ME, the Pokemon, using Tackle, I had a sense of euphoria. I have insane amounts of nostalgia for that game, and remember talking to Aaron after a soccer game several days later about evil Skarmory and how cool Alakazam was. That game makes me think of my childhood so much and I spent so much time on it. I really should stop rambling, because if I don't I'll have to stop my review and go find that game, because it really meant a lot to me.

In case you have never played any of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, the basic concept is to complete missions, such as rescuing a Pokemon from floor 6 of a certain cave and finding items that Pokemon had lost at "around" the fourth floor of another. The missions could range in difficulty from rescuing a Bellsprout from the third floor of Tiny Woods to escorting a level 1 Wurmple to the 94th floor of Western Cave. To do these things, you need to be a rescue team. As you start a New Game, you will be asked to take a personality quiz. The questions can be serious ("A hard worker?") to insane ("A hand reaches out from a toilet. What do you do?"), and then ask you for your gender. This will determine your nature. Depending on your nature and gender, you will become a certain Pokemon and be asked to choose a partner. You then wake up in a forest, Tiny Woods that is. You have to go rescue a Caterpie, the easiest Possible mission you can imagine. Battle some Pokemon, reach the stairs, rinse repeat. It may sound monotonous, but it becomes addicting immediately. Once you reach the 3rd floor, you'll rescue the Caterpie, and go bunk with your partner for a night, at least until you figure out why the heck you are a Pokemon. It turns into your Pokemon being asked if you wish to start up a rescue team. You're not allowed to answer no, so you accept! Thus begins the grand adventure, through meanies, accusations, exiles, and an apocalypse only YOU can stop.

The graphics of this game are cool, because every Pokemon not only has a sprite, but also a face sprite, with all the starters having different expressions. I love the look on Charmander's face as he's thinking. It's a face of great concentration and I love it. Every dungeon is unique, and there are some really cool art drawings that are on the main menu every time you load up the game. All in all, I really love the beauty of this game, and the way it all comes together.

I love the music of this game. Maybe it's because of how often I played that game, and how devoted I was, but the music is ingrained in my head. I can't type out the music, but listen to this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQSY4JlI_Uk

Pretty good stuff eh? It's catchy and sticks in your head if you've spent half as much time on this game as I have.

For me, because every time you enter a dungeon it's different, you never know what to expect every floor or every room. You never know when a Monster House is gonna pop up, and boom! you just might die. Recruiting Pokemon is a combination of math and luck, similar to catching with Pokeballs, so when you finally recruit a legendary after battlingit 15 times, the feeling of triumph is like no other.

The story of the is a nice change from the typical, obviously evil team. It has a twist right in the middle that got me when I first played the game. I really love the game's story, and even after the credits roll, the story continues with a great post-game.

Depth... This game has more depth than you could ever imagine. For one, all 386 Pokemon can be recruited or obtained through other means within the game, meaning that you definitely get a lot of game play from just that. There are also over 20 Bosses to battle, and plenty of legendaries. Even if you recruit all the Pokemon and defeat all bosses and clear all dungeons, you can still complete rescue missions to try to boost your rank all the way to Lucario rank. That would be some serious dedication and anybody posts a screenshot of them at Lucario rank has my utmost respect.

Another thing I didn't mention was the fact that truthfully, Mystery Dungeon was the first worldwide online Pokemon game. You could post rescue codes online for when you faint in a dungeon and someone will send you the A-OK code within an hour. It was a great system, and worked great in conjunction with the internet.


This game is great, with a cool idea, an addicting way of presenting it, and the fact that it's Pokemon makes it so much better. This game is just awesome.

I have tried this game out, it is a very interesting Pokémon game to play.  It is so adventurous.  Very good review.

Never played it. I bought the cart a year and a half ago and I never actually put it in my GBA. I might play it just because it is supposed to be really good from what I have heard.

That gives me something to do this weekend.

Nice review.

yeah i get that so bad i searched for my old game boy i haven't used in like 4 years and rep mystery dungeon wasd in there it felt so good running around as mew and ho-oh and mewtwo following me and beating other pokemon sensless but i broke it unfurtunately and i'm so happy to have it on this site it desreves both versions on game boy advance in my oppinion

This game isn't too bad. Its actually very enjoyable. It has its ups and downs, but it doesn't bother me. I enjoy this game, its fun and addicting. Nuff said.

Oh, great review TJ. Classic review is classic