Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity

Whilst having not achieved perfection, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity still provides much room for carefree enjoyment. Repetitive and slow-paced, yet oozing charm away from such issues, it’s enough to tide eager fans over until the arrival of Pokémon X and Y, at least.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity sits firmly in mediocrity: it's not poorly made and designed, but it fails to deliver much excitement or fun. It's also not clear just who this game's target audience is: the controls and mechanics are a bit too complex and confusing for younger players, but they're far too stripped and simplistic for older genre fans. What results is a game that ultimately isn't quite right for anyone.

From the graphical issues, gameplay decisions, to the frequent reminder “You’ve had a great adventure today, why don’t you rest”, these are all things that I could have definitely gone without. At the end of the day ‘Pokéholics’ will enjoy this game, and that is the audience that counts here, but even though I consider myself one, I can’t help but think that this game could have been even more.

Gates to Infinity fails as both a Pokémon and a Mystery Dungeon game, and reaching its meatiest content requires playing through hours and hours of tedium. Its deep supplementary features can't overcome the fact that its moment-to-moment play feels so watered down as to be completely pointless.

Perhaps that's a self-imposed restriction derived from trying to marry two game styles that enjoy limited compatibility, or maybe of trying to serve an audience that's too broad and divided to do so with coherent success. Regardless, few will stick around to the end in order to hear what little the Pokémon have to say about it all.

La serie Mystery Dungeon aterriza en Nintendo 3DS estrenando gráficos tridimensionales, pero sin aportar grandes cambios a la fórmula original. El añadido de una ciudad a construir, el multijugador cooperativo de cuatro usuarios y el uso de la cámara para abrir nuevas mazmorras suponen interesantísimas propuestas, pero nunca acompañadas de un diseño sólido en la aventura principal, que envejece mal al no aportar las suficientes novedades a la fórmula.