"Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon" was announced during a Nintendo press conference last May 21, as reported by Nintendo Everything, but fans of the spin-off franchise now have an official release date for the new dungeon explorer game — at least, for gamers in Japan.
According to a report from IGN, "Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon" has officially been slated for a Sept. 17 release in Japan. U.S. gamers will get their hands on a translated version sometime this winter but players in Europe will have to wait until spring 2016.
The upcoming 3DS game retains the basic premise of the previous "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon" titles where the player takes on the role of a human that is transformed into a Pokémon. They have to explore different dungeons, rescue or recruit other Pokémon, and defeat the game's antagonist to return to their original human form and go home.
"Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon" allows the player to initially choose from 20 different Pokémon creatures, all of which are taken from the starter Pokémon from all six generations of the main "Pokémon" games such as Charmander, Chespi, Totodile, and Mudkip, with the addition of Riolu and Pikachu.
The game will feature all 720 Pokémon, which is the current total of creatures from the main series excluding the currently unreleased legendary Pokémon Volcanion. This list includes all of the other legendaries, even event-only Pokémon such as Celebii and Mew.
"Gates to Infinity," the most recent entry in the "Mystery Dungeon" franchise, did not score well with fans and critics alike. According to the official review from IGN, the game scored no higher than 4.5 out of 10 and was criticized for its slow gameplay and inconsistent difficulty.
Perhaps "Super Mystery Dungeon" for the 3DS might introduce the proper tweaks and innovations to revive what was once one of the most popular spin-offs of the main games.
