Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity Demo Review: A Disaster

More story than action, the demo for Nintendo’s upcoming “Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity” is a joke. With lackluster controls, lethargic gameplay and a linear story, this is easily one of the weakest additions to the series.

While there will be several moments that induce a chuckle, the story feels like it was written for a five-year-old. Devoid of any real charm, Nintendo has stripped the personality off the game completely. While the story behind the Pokemon games was never the main selling point, the latest iteration of Mystery Dungeon is simply inane.

It doesn’t help the game either that the controls are beyond frustrating. Navigating through the bland environments feels more like a chore than anything else. The fighting system is a mess as well. Although your Pokemon has four moves, battling, the heart of any Pokemon game, becomes a repetitive and tedious experience within minutes. It’s sad that Pokemon Rumble Blast, which looks similar to this game, featured better control and a fresher combat engine, in spite of every Pokemon in that title having only two moves.

Somewhere in development, this game went terribly wrong. Even in demo form, it’s essentially at the point of no return. Hardcore Pokemon fans, clamoring for anything related to the series before X and Y will be disappointed. Even new players who haven’t experienced the games before will find this a good-looking but drab attempt to make a quick buck on an insanely popular license.

More than anything, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity feels like the episode of “Family Guy” where Peter Griffin and his family go to see Anton Chekov’s “Uncle Vanya.” Upset with the lack of action, Peter finally gets up and throws a tantrum. “Someone throw a pie already,” the plump Quahogian bellows.

Indeed Nintendo. Someone throw a freaking pie already.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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