5/5 ★ – SlyLink's review of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team.

The best Pokémon spin off game hands down. You play as a human who has woken up in world inhabited entirely by Pokémon, and you yourself have transformed into one. You decide which Pokémon you will be through a series of questions, my only real gripe with the game (which is fixed in the remake) is you cannot just select who you want, you must give specific answers, and it can be trial and error since not all possible questions will appear, so you may struggle to get who you want, even if you use a guide. But once that's over with and you've picked Squirtle the best choice, and your partner as Charmander, your adventure can begin. The story follows you and your partner as you found and build up a rescue team dedicated to help Pokémon in need, and investigate frequent earthquakes, while trying to figure out the mystery of your sudden transformation into a Pokémon. You accept story and side missions from your base, you can head into town to use various shops or the post office for more missions. Each mission takes place in a procedurally generated dungeon, with tile based movement and turn based overworld combat. There is some element of strategy, you have to manage a hunger meter, take enough items with you to help on your journey, and can assign basic tactics to your partner AI. Some missions will have boss battles at the end, others are simple retrieve or rescue missions. Along the way, you can recruit new Pokémon into your team by defeating them. Recruitment is decided via a random chance they ask to join you, as well has having purchased that Pokémon's habitat from a store in town. I'd love to see Pokémon be taken in more directions like this, as it's the most fun I've had with the franchise outside of the main series of games.