4/5 ★ – Manic_Zucc's review of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team.

I was honestly afraid to play this game again. It was a favorite of mine as a kid and I was afraid the nostalgia goggles were going to come off on a replay. Happy to report that was not the case and this game holds up incredibly well. Gotta give huge props to the presentation here. This was the very last game Nintendo released for the GBA and it shows, the sprite art and music is incredible. The game design itself is also good and makes for an effective dungeon crawler. The randomly generated nature of levels means that sometimes you just get an unlucky run, but on the inverse you may easily breeze through what’s meant to be a challenging dungeon. I found this balanced out well and helped me not get discouraged if I wiped out on an attempt. The story is also shockingly good. It isn’t one of the greatest stories ever told or anything but there are some effective twists and turns that kept me engaged. I will say the pacing was a little all over the place. The fugitive section feels like it should have happened later in the game as after that you do a few inconsequential missions only for the final section to hit you out of nowhere. I also know some will take issue with being randomly assigned who you play as, though I can’t personally complain because I got Psyduck which felt very fitting. Despite those small issues revisiting Red Rescue Team was a jam. I know there’s an absolute ton of post game content that I plan to eventually dive into, however at the moment I’m content with my experience.