"Sendin' out an SOS... Sendin' out an SOS..."

"Pi! Pika-pika-pi-ka-pika! Pi-pi-kaCHUUU!!!!"

Ever wondered what that means? ...Yeah, me neither, but for those of us who are, let's say "different," enough to wonder, here's your chance to find out. See, not only do those cute little guys (or not so cute, in some cases. Yes, I'm looking at you, Groudon.) love to fight, breed, and compete in beauty competitions, but they apparently also like to group together to save the world. Who'da thunk it?

In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time for the Nintendo DS, you'll play as the typical guy who goes around collecting Pokemon for use to beat down other Pokemon, collecting money and items, and even dresses his awesome little Piplup up with scarves and things. Well, I guess you aren't a completely typical guy, as most “typical guys” are, well, human. See, in Mystery Dungeon, you take the roll of a Pokemon and go around searching through dungeons to do everything from rescuing lost Pokemon to delivering packages to being a tour guide / body guard. Kind of an odd twist to the ever popular Pokemon franchise, in all honesty, but it sure worked out.

As the game starts out, you have to answer a series of questions to determine what you're Nature is, which affects what Pokemon you become. For instance, a male docile nature will yield you a Charmander, while you'll get to be Pikachu if you prove to be male and brave. After you find out what Pokemon you'll become, you have to press your finger (or stylus, whatever you want) onto the touch screen, and hold it down for a few seconds. That'll decide what color your Aura is. Without spoiling a (rather simple) puzzle, I can't go into too much detail what your aura color affects, but it doesn't really matter too much. Just remember to not forget what yours is.

Finally, you're done, and you can actually play the game. …Or not. Why does every game have to have a twenty minute opening cut scene? Seriously, I'm getting tired of having to leave before I can get anything out of the game I just paid upwards of thirty dollars for. Oh well, whatever. Anyway, you'll quickly see your partner Pokemon (which you get to choose after getting your nature) on the beach, watching the sunset and taking the absolutely stunning sight of the Krabby making bubbles, which refract the sunlight. It's truly a peaceful sight indeed, at least for a game with DS graphics. Your partner is walking along the beach when he sees something shocking; there's a Pokemon passed out on the beach! Being the nice fellow he is, he'll quickly run over to see if there's anything he can do to save the poor soul. Fortunately, the Pokemon is just fine, at least for the most part. Apparently, it has totally lost its memory, save for its name and the memory that it was once a human. Not exactly something you see every day, even in a world full of talking birds and turtles.

Of course, it's starting to get late, and there's really nothing more that the two new-found buddies can do on the beach, so they start to head over to your partner's house when tragedy strikes. A Koffing and a Zubat come and steal your partner's prized treasure, his Relic Stone, thinking that it should be worth something! The nerve of these Pokemon nowadays, picking on weak little kids. They should be ashamed. But, of course they're not, and they rush off with the Relic Stone. Your partner almost breaks down into tears over the loss of it, so you agree to help get it back. Without knowing it, an inseparable pair, as well as a great rescue team, has just been formed…

Time is a fairly normal dungeon crawler. For most of the main game, you'll be progressing through randomly created dungeons with the intent of getting to the end and defeating the boss. You also have the option of accepting missions that range from rescuing KOed Pokemon to capturing criminals for Officer Magnezone. As you complete more missions, your Rank will go up, which results in various rewards, but usually increases storage space for items. Speaking of items, there's a vast, vast range of stuff to use. Need some quick HP? Eat an Oran Berry. Want to put that annoying boss in its place? Just throw a Sleep Seed at it and beat the crap out of it until it's, well, permanently asleep.

Once you get far enough into the story of the game, you'll be able to get new recruits to your team to aid you in your travels, and use them in addition to the basic pair of you and your partner. You can have up to four Pokemon in a party at the same time, but you can still recruit Pokemon even when your party is full; they simply go back to your rescue guild's home base to await being used on a latter day.

As to be expected from a Pokemon game, you'll be putting quite a bit of time (no pun intended, of course) into playing Mystery Dungeon. With a main story that'll last you just about twenty hours, and then quite a lot of post-game content, it'll be quite a while before you're done with this. Nintendo really has gone overboard with the amount of Pokemon nowadays. Yes, I realize that it's not necessarily a bad thing, but how exactly are we supposed to catch ‘em all? Oh well, at least there's plenty of motivation to pick the game back up again on a plane trip or long car ride.

There are no EVs or such in the Mystery Dungeon games, so you're free to just go and train on whatever you like, which is most certainly an improvement from having to spend hours on end perfectly breeding and training your Adamant Scyther with 31 Attack and Speed IVs. However, by not having the option to do so, you do lose a lot of play time, and while some would rather spend their time perfecting a competitive team, I'm all but overjoyed to see that my time can actually go to playing the game, instead of preparing to.

One of the better aspects of Mystery Dungeon is that, when you've reached your limit and been KOed in a dungeon, you've the option to send out what is called an SOS code. There's multiple ways that you can send and receive these SOS codes, through a password that you can, say, post here on GameFAQs for other users to see, through your Friend Roster on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, or through close range DS to DS Wireless Communication, but the rescuer will always have to go through the dungeon and reach the floor and location that the rescuee was KOed at. Once the rescuer gets there, the rescuee can be revived with all of the money and items he had when he was KOed (you normally lose all items and money when you die). Of course, even Pokemon aren't friendly enough to go save people out of the sheer kindness of their hearts, the rescuer will receive points that go onto their Rank and possibly a reward for their rescue expedition. Even in a game so many people would call “childish,” money influences everything. Welcome to the real world, kids.

While it may not be the absolute greatest game for the DS, you'll definitely want to pick up either the Time or Darkness version of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon; they're literally the same game anyway. Just get whichever version's box art you like better; Darkness has Bidoof while Time has Piplup. It truly is a hard life, being a gamer; decision after decision after decision, whatever will we do?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/08, Updated 05/05/08

Game Release: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (US, 04/20/08)