Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (Nintendo DS, 2008)

It's been about a year and a half since the release of PMD Red and Blue, a pair of games that took Pokemon into a whole new direction, from a full-on RPG, to a turn-based strategy/RPG cross, and one that definitely thrilled a good bit of people, including myself. Many people held the new pair of games Darkness and Time in high anticipation, and at long last, it is out. (Well, at least in the one language I can read.)

GRAPHICS: Best unrated.

I'm never one to give a crap about graphics. (No wonder the PS3 isn't held so high in my mind.) Basically, as long as they aren't complete crap, I'll play anything with good gameplay.

SOUND: 10/10

Sounds are quite detailed all around. And, unlike last game, each dungeon has its own music. (Or at least as far as I can tell...a good 20-25 dungeons in) No music is reused.

STORY: 10/10

You can barely remember a thing. You wake up on the beach, with no memory. The only thing you're sure of is that you are human. [Partner] is the first to Pokemon to find you, lying on the beach as if recovering from passing out. To your massive disbelief, he points out that you are a Pokemon. You look at yourself, and...you ARE a Pokemon!

A Koffing and a Zubat come along and mug [partner]'s most precious treasure, his Relic Fragment, a little stone with a peculiar drawing on it. He doesn't know what it does, or where it came from, but it is his personal treasure, and begs your help in getting it back. You give chase through Beach Cave, and from there...

I think I'll stop there. If you want to know more, buy the game. Trust me you do. The story, unbelievably, can actually be (this has gotta be a first for the video gaming world) unpredictable! It's a wonderful story for a video game. At times, I can actually FEEL the story. This is actually the very first game (out of at least a good 100-150 with a story) I've bought in which I created a word document of all the questions I felt would be answered as the story unfolded. I made a few predictions, and all of them were wrong.

WI-FI INTEGRATION: 6/10

Yes, this game has Wi-Fi. No this game does not have multiplayer. The main purpose Wi-Fi serves is player rescues.

As in Red and Blue, players can rescue other players who die in dungeons. But, last time, the only ways were by password and by wireless comm./link cable/dual slot. Passwords were used for random rescues, but it was very hard to successfully post them in multiple places. Wi-Fi, however, gets your rescue out to all Wi-Fi using rescuers, and also allows to rescuer to send a helper Pokemon and item! Passwords do not allow helpers. They could still be sent through wireless comm. etc. in Red and Blue, but only for the gamers with RL friends. (Few and far between) With Wi-Fi, if you die, you can send out your SOS to Wi-Fi, go watch a little TV, and come back to hopefully see your team rescued.

Regrettably, the game is still missing multiplayer features that it could benefit from so much. Having a second player over Wi-Fi or even Wireless play your partner would make the game so much better.
OVERALL: 10/10 (Not an average)

The release of this wonderful sequel came quite quickly, as only 19 months ago PMD Red and Blue was released. In this abnormally small time, PMD has seen some serious improvement, and feels a lot better. They didn't go out of control with changes. They improved what they needed to, and kept what they did right the first time. Between awesome gameplay, wonderful story, and...well...awesome!