Between Explorers of Sky and Gates to Infinity, the Mystery Dungeon series made a little-known detour: three small downloadable games on WiiWare, released on 4 August 2009 in Japan only. They are the only Mystery Dungeon games never distributed outside Japan. Here is their fact sheet.
| Japanese title | Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon : Bōkendan (series) |
|---|---|
| Translation | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Adventure Squad |
| Platform | Wii (WiiWare) |
| Japan release | 4 August 2009 |
| Europe release | None |
| Price | 1,200 Wii Points each |
| Developer | Chunsoft |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Genre | Role-playing game, dungeon crawler |
| Players | 1, with four save files |
| Generation | Fourth |
Three games
| Japanese title | Translation | Village |
|---|---|---|
| Susume! Honō no Bōkendan | Forward! The Blazing Adventure Squad | Pokémon Village |
| Ikuzo! Arashi no Bōkendan | Let’s Go! The Stormy Adventure Squad | Pokémon Beach |
| Mezase! Hikari no Bōkendan | Aim High! The Shining Adventure Squad | Pokémon Garden |
The French titles are translations from Poképédia: no official French title exists. Each game has its own starter Pokémon, its own village and its own fifteen dungeons. See The three versions.
What sets them apart
- No human: for the first and only time in the series, the player controls a Pokémon without playing a human turned into a Pokémon. The word “human” never appears.
- The My Pokémon Ranch style: the Pokémon reuse the 3D models from that WiiWare game.
- The Pokémon Tower, which stacks Pokémon on top of one another. See Mechanics.
- Evolution in dungeons, even after being knocked out by an enemy.
- The Nintendo DS as a controller, and four save files.
- Online services: rescue over the Internet and special missions via WiiConnect24.
Availability
These games were never sold outside Japan. The Wii Shop Channel stopped selling points in March 2018 and closed on 30 January 2019, so they are no longer available. WiiConnect24 and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which were used for distributions and rescues, shut down in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
