The core games of the Pokémon franchise are huge hits, but this expansive series contains so much more than its mainline titles. Some of the franchise's most popular side games are the Mystery Dungeon games, maꦰssive dungeon-crawling RPGs wiꦏth rich stories and characters.
With the original Mystery Dungeon Red and Blue Rescue Team titles recently being remade and released for the Switch as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX, its time to look back at why these ar𝔍e so beloved. What better way to do that than throughꦉ memes?
10 Them Stairs Thou🍰gh
Anyone who's played any of the Mystery Dungeon titles should be familiar with how to progress through said dungeons. Throughout each procedurally-generated map will be stairs to the next floor, and every dungeon consists of increa꧋sing levels of floors before the final battle. The longer one lingers on a single floor, the more dangerous that floor becomes, un✅til players will completely and automatically wipe out. But after making way through twisting tunnels an enemy-infested rooms, there it is! The iconic stairs that will either lead players to ascend higher or descend deeper into the dungeon, until they reach that final boss!
9 Logic? What'sౠ That?
For Explorers of Time, Sky, and Darkness, one of the first, most iconic quests of the game has our rookie team go after a rather rotund, rogue Drowzee, which kidnapped a sweet little Azuril to go steal treasure. Why couldn't the Drowzee get this treasure on its own? Apparently said riches were hidden behind a gap which it's too rotund to fit through. Obviously, the next smartest thing to do was kidnap a child to do the dirty work. Well, too bad this bandi🐈t didn't know Palkia, the Pokémon god of Spaceও. After all, this legendary won't have any problems squeezing his titantic tush into our team's tiny home later on in the game (or opening an entire pocket dimension inside it, too).
8 🌳 Gluttons F🧸or Punishment
Before Rescue Team DX, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon was the latest entry to this spin-off series, featuring Pokémon from all the way up to X and Y. Even with these newer generations, the Mystery Dungeon series always held its own challenges, depending on which types players and their partners are. Certain pairings carry disadvantages against dungeons, spanning from only a select few to almost the entire game. Given that the Sand Dune of Spirits is a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:post-game dungeon, it already had a guaranteed increased difficulty. But add Fennekin's type-disadvantage against the Pokémon encountered there, and no partner to act as support, and suddenly what appears to be an easy ten floors becomes an agonizing crawl to the end. So, if anyone craves a bit of a challenge, try playing through Super Mystery Dungeon as Pokémon's psychic little fire fox.
7 Something Old, Someth꧟ing N𓄧ew
The Surprised Pikachu meme isn't the freshest anymore, but it's still a good, wholesome, and hilarious one when done right. And sometimes to do something right, doing it old school and doing it subtle is best𝔉. It's surprisingly easy to make a few quick edits to the pixel-art, shocked expression of our favorite electric mouse. But once that's done, well... The results speak for themselves, do they not?
6 Hindsight's 202♌0 🐻
This is slightly dated, now that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX is out. But does it really count for a remake, instead of new content? Not that remakes are necessarily bad, of course, but when the main franchise has two new generations yet to be thoroughly explored in spin off games - and fans are still hungering over a remade 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Diamond, Pearl, and/or Platinum - remaking an older Mystery Dungeon seems a far more disappointing choice 🌸t✅han making something new and original.
Imagine a Mystery Dungeon where we can finally delve into the psyches of the Ultra Beasts, or where Galarian and Alolan forms of Pokémon interact with their Kant🌳o counterparts. Now, unfortunately, keep imagining, because that game seems like a di⭕stant dream, right now.
5 🌳 Meme-Ce💝ption
Speaking of the Surprised Pikachu meme, it appears that even Rescue Team DX isn't immune from the electric mouse's meme-ability. Translating 2D graphics into 3D can make for awkward art and animation choices, and the Red and Blue Rescue Teams weren't an exception. Should players become a Pikachu, the animation for their shocked revelation is surprisingly hilarious and suspiciously familiar. Combined with the age of the original animated still-frame for the Pikachu meme (23 years old), the age of the original Rescue Team games (15 years old), and the recentness of the DX remake, this meme is undoubtedly going to make as many Pokémon fans feel, indeed, old, as it'll ꧑make them laugh.
4 💖 Fingers Still Crossed ✱
Much like the disappointment in having no Generation IV remakes, there's been quite a bit of disappointment in the Mystery Dungeon community in having no new or original game, too. After all, each main series title from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Generation III to VI had a corresponding Mystery Dungeon title alongside it, but we never got that equivalent for Pokémon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, or Ultra Moon.
Now, we're in Generation VIII with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon Sword and Shield. Although Rescue Team DX shows promise for the Mystery Dungeon series, with controversies like the Dex-cut still fresh in players' minds, there's a very real chance that a new Mystery Dungeon title could also cut ma♐ny Pokémon out. Depressing as it is, players may never get to experience the Pokémon world as a Generation VII starter. But one can still hope, right?
3 The MVP
When traipsing around these iconic dungeons, players can rarely stumble across one of the game's shopkeepers - the Kecleon brothers - having set up shop on a dungeon floor. The shop will have a small variety of random items, and sometimes it's so tempting to just grab and go. Although, if players have sticky fingers, then said br✱other will warp over to make sure that the lack of payment is merely an accident. We wouldn't want to shortchange a well-meaning friend and business owner, right? Well, if players do decide to pull a five-finger discount, then our dear Kecleon will immediately turn hostile and start swinging. Hard. For a no-evolution, normal-type Pokémon, Kecleon has surprisingly wrecked the dungeon crawls of many a thieving player, and with relative ease, at that. This Kecleon brother will make sure that players know crime doesn't pay.
2 ꦓ One Seedy Boi ⛄
The biggest boss of Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky is the Pokémon deity of Time, Dialga. Two unevolved Pokémon facing agains𝔍t a corrupting god certainly sounds like an unbeatable challenge (though rest assured, beatable it is), and the Temporal Tower likes to live up to that difficulty. Though not the longest dungeon in game - only being 24 floors - it's full of med-to-high-level enemies that can tank a hit and give in kind. And Dialga is just as much of an obstacle, no matter the players' types, or their partners'. But despair not, for there are these wonderful items players can access, called "seeds." Stock up on a few Reviver Seeds and chow down on some Blast Seeds during fights, and boom! Dialga is beaten, the main story is over, the future is saved, and we can move on to the post game. But speaking of the post game...
1 Gamefreak Did♚ It First
It's been long enough since both Avengers: Infinity War and Explorers of Time, Sky, and Darkness came out, right? So pointing out this small scene is okay, right? Because, yeah, changing the future means changing the events that led to our characters existing, and that means, after we've saved the world, we technically don't exist anymore. But we knew that, and we did it anyways, because that's what heroes do. The effects of nonexistence take a little bit to catch up with us, but when it does, it still packs that emotional punch, on both players and our partner Pokémon when we finally dissolve away amidst teary goodbyes. We don't feel good, indeed, M🍌r. Stark.