The traditional Pokémon has the player taking the role of a trainer on a quest to locate and capture the little critters to use in battle. Those games play like a traditional turn-based RPG, with the ability to use differing attacks, defensive moves, and items. The Mystery Dungeon games differ in several ways. First up, the trainers are gone. Instead, the player controls a Pokémon. Which one the player gets to be is determined by a set of questions asked at the beginning of the game. The heart of the game takes place in the many randomized dungeons. It's here where you'll do battle with other Pokémon. Gone are the elaborate fight scenes and fancy attack animations. Instead, all of the fighting takes place on the same exploration screen. Basically, for every step you take, the enemy can take one. Upon meeting, you can initiate an attack, which is very basically animated. Your attack set will depend on your Pokémon. You will have at least one companion with you that is computer controlled who will also be able to attack. You can set attack preferences, but it may not always do what you hope. In essence, the strategies of what attacks to use against what Pokémon are still relevant, but the boring attack scheme and the fact that you have automated allies takes the fun out of the battling.

The basic mechanics of the game will have you looking at a job bulletin board to obtain quests. Once you accept one of these you will explore the dungeon, which is randomly generated. This is good because it means you can replay the same dungeon over and over and not become tired of it, but it's also bad due the often generic ones you're forced to trod through on a regular basis. The dungeons are filled with monsters, money, and items and treasures. You will often have a specific quest to complete before you will want to exit. This can range from finding a specific item to escorting others back out to capturing "bad" Pokémon. One must enter the dungeons prepared, with proper items and food. If you fall in battle you will lose all of your money and even some of the items you were carrying. The game does use a novel S.O.S. system where you can send out an e-mail request to your friends to help you if you've died. If they accept the challenge they will need to make it to your location and revive you, where upon you can continue your quest. This can be done via Wi-Fi Connection or locally as long as both of you have a copy of one of the games.

The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games definitely have an audience. If you liked the last ones in the series or have an affinity to other dungeon-crawling games you will probably find enjoyment here. It takes a certain kind of person to really enjoy these types of games, and unfortunately I'm not one of them. I do love RPGs, some of my favorites are Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Chrono Trigger. The Pokémon games have always been fun and addicting as well, but these two games definitely play differently from the Pokémon we all grew to love. Bottom line for Pokémon fans is: try before you buy. You'll either love it or hate it.