Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity

The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series has always been a bit of an oddball.

The idea of mixing a vaguely roguelike setting with the Pokemon universe seems destined to succeed based on the concept alone, yet developer Chunsoft never manages to get it quite right.

With Gates to Infinity, the Mystery Dungeon goes off in a slightly different direction, aiming its sights at the younger generation who may well have found the franchise difficult to get into previously.

Goes on and on and on

Once again you find yourself in the position of a human who has been turned into a Pokemon and launched into the Pokemon world.

After teaming up with another Pokecritter, you venture into randomly generated dungeons to battle other Pokemon, complete quests, and build up your home, all while trying to solve the mystery of why you're here in the first place.

Gates to Infinity is a dungeon-crawler aimed at kids. It forgoes a lot of depth and strategy, and instead pumps the franchise full of sweet, sweet simplicity.

For the generation that it's aiming at, it does a great job. The interface is well-designed, the story is cutesy nonsense of the kind that children enjoy, and there's not a huge amount of sifting through menus to get what you need - in most cases you can just stand on the spot to get your health back.

This is a roguelike for kids, and it's wonderful on those terms.

Gateweeper

Unfortunately, with its sights set firmly on the little ones, Gates to Infinity turns it back on its established fans.

The game is far easier than previous games, and it barely has any depth whatsoever. You rarely need to touch your inventory, and dungeons feel empty and dull.

The story is the worst part. It takes an age to get going, and you can't skip through text or cutscenes at all, meaning that you're forced to read through everything at the slowest pace possible.

And, as you'd expect, all of the Pokemon world's problems are solved using love and friendship. The storyline in the main Pokemon series can be pretty lame at times, but Gates to Infinity makes Black/White look like a Terence Malick film.

By now you should know whether you're the intended audience. If you're buying Gates to Infinity for a child, then by all means go right ahead.

If it's for you, and you're older than 12, there's not a lot here that will interest you.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity is a great dungeon-crawler for kids, but the older generations will find it too watered down
Score
Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.