"I AM Torchic."

Another year, another Pokemon game spin-off. Like the first version, in the second installment of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, you play as a human who became a Pokemon through some kind of twisted chain of events. In the beginning of the game, you are washed up semi-conscious on an island with absolutely no recollection of your past. You are discovered by a regular on the Pokemon inhabited area, who will eventually become your partner when you become a member of Wigglytuff's Guild. Like most video game sidekicks, your partner is a timid and not-so-powerful child who is afraid of criminal Pokemon. But through the friendship, company and encouragement of the hero Pokemon (you), your partner begins to open up, grow a pair and become useful.

Game play: 4/10. The game play in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Explorers Of Time/Darkness is damningly slow. Walking around in the dungeons takes way too much time than necessary (call me impatient), and it's even worse if the weather changes to a damaging afflicting status such as Hail or Sandstorms. Every few steps will cause every member of your team to lose HP, and it can take a bothersome amount of time for the message that indicates what's going on to finish.

The mission bulletin boards in the guild are very disorganized. If you're lucky, you can find multiple jobs for one dungeon, so you won't have to go through the discomfort of completing one mission, going back to the guild for a bland cut-scene and going back to the dungeon to complete another miserable mission. At the start of the game, you will only be able to do low rank missions. But while you progress, the difficulty will increase, along with the points you earn completing them. And once in a while, you'll find a mission that rewards you with a Pokemon egg.

The battle system is pretty badly shaped, as well. When you get into a fight with multiple enemies, you could be in for a long battle if you don't take them out quickly. And status afflicting moves don't make your life any easier. Once a foe uses a move like Hypnosis or Double Team, it will seem like an hour has passed before you finally defeat the assailant. The random Monster Houses in dungeon will seem like Pokemon Hell while you try to take out nearly ten or more enemies before they kill you. And there's really no depth in the battle system other than hitting the enemy with the strongest attack in your artillery and hoping that you take them down in one hit. Of course, your team mates will be there to reinforce your power (provided they themselves were not killed, warped to another area in the dungeon or ran off somewhere).

You can edit the specific tactics each individual member of your team will take, such as staying where they are, roaming the dungeon on their own or attacking incoming threats. Each Pokemon also belongs in it's own IQ group ranging from A to J, depending on the species. These IQ skills can give a Pokemon certain traits such as the ability to recover PP when entering another floor in a dungeon or the ability to avoid incoming Monster Houses.

The items system is also badly composed. Your bag can get full quickly in a dungeon, anjd you need to bring survival items like food (apples, berries) and medicine (potions, revival seeds) to boot. And if you fail to bring the necessary items, you will be crippled and eventually knocked out. For what it's worth, only the team leader needs to eat the food items to prevent fainting. Giving apples to team members is only wasting the items. Some items, however, make the game broken. Foe-Hold Orbs can completely freeze enemies in the dungeon until they attacked, bringing no challenge. Pure Seeds can launch you from the beginning of the dungeon floor to the exit of the floor. And if that's not enough to frustrate you, some items are needed if you want to seek certain Pokemon.

Music And Sound: 6/10. While Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2's sound track does have it's moments, most of the music sounds like something you would expect from a child's daytime cartoon. Some of the dungeons have catchy themes, while some just sound like an annoying mix of beats and distractions. The sound effects are low in quality, too. When using an attack like Flamethrower, you'd expect to hear something that sounds like fire. But instead, you get something that sounds like a damaged shot gun.

Story line: 6/10. The story seems... odd, to put it shortly. It's almost as if the story was a blended version of The Mummy and The Terminator, due to Pokemon sent back through time to attack others or obtain rare artifacts. But these sinister little Pokemon who have little information as to why they are bent on causing mayhem. Only a child (or hard-core fan) could truly appreciate the story for this game.

Wi-Fi: 6/10. The online playability of this game is bland, to say the least. With the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, you can send, receive and download Wondermail, a type of mission accessible only with a certain password. You can also check the SOS messages on the server to see if anyone around the world needs some rescuing, although most of the causes of the SOS requests are due to difficult Monster Houses in long dungeons. And of course, there's Nintendo's signature Friend Rosters.

Sorry, Pokemon fandom, but just because a game has the name "Pokemon in the title does not make it a good game. There is no replay value in this game because starting over would mean having to go through everything all over again. I would really only recommend this game to a very hard-core Pokemon fan looking for something other than the regular games.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/25/08

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