Nintendo and The Pokemon Firm have, let’s say, odd relationships with historic preservation. In spite of everything, if any main writer is imbued with nostalgia and legacy, it is Nintendo, proper? And but lack of backwards compatibility and a ferocious gatekeeping of its property signifies that many classics are tough (if not unattainable) to acquire. No less than, not with out an emulator, or till Nintendo decides that it will probably promote them again to you for the second or third time.
If you have not been hoarding decade-old consoles (as many understandably haven’t) there isn’t any authorized means to play fan-favorite creations like Pokemon Coronary heart Gold and Soul Silver, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Nintendogs, Punch-Out! for the Wii… and Pokemon Thriller Dungeon: Explorers of Sky.
Fast historical past lesson: again within the day, there was an RPG dungeon-crawler roguelike sequence referred to as Thriller Dungeon that was pretty large in Japan, however struggled to get a powerful footing in Western markets. Then the developer, Chunsoft, minimize a deal to make Pokemon-themed variations of the sport, imaginatively titled “Pokemon Thriller Dungeon”. The primary of those have been for the Recreation Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, however they endure even right now (a remake of these first video games appeared on Nintendo Swap in 2020 to depressingly little fanfare).
A few of these video games have been nice, like that first era! Others, like Gates to Infinity, have been… doing their finest, I suppose. However then there was Pokemon Thriller Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, which is – with no hyperbole on my behalf – in all probability the perfect Pokemon recreation ever made. Yeah, you heard me. And having dug out my outdated 3DS a few weeks again, it is nonetheless holding that title almost 20 years later.
The place the not-so wild issues are
Although we will not credit score it for its originality. Explorers of Sky’s premise is identical because the Thriller Dungeon video games earlier than it: you are a human mysteriously remodeled right into a Pokemon and dropped right into a world occupied solely by the lil’ critters, with no folks or Poke Balls showing in the entire recreation. There’s inevitably some type of disaster constructing within the background (right here it is sections of the world changing into frozen in time), so it’s a must to work out the trigger whereas additionally going by means of the non-public journey demanded by your Kafkaesque metamorphosis. Or in layman’s phrases: why is the world ending, and why did I’ve to be was a cartoon duck to cope with it?
The tip result’s tonally someplace between Winnie the Pooh and Earthbound: all tranquil treehouse villages of earnest Pokemon, determinedly getting down to assist when others fall into peril. And regardless of a sedate begin, the sluggish escalation from “save little Marill from a neighborhood rip-off artist” to “the timeline is collapsing until any person sacrifices themselves to cease the rampage of the primordial gods” by some means manages to really feel pure and constant, partly attributable to a narrative that is comfy taking its time to get us invested on this planet and forged. Pokemon video games lately have lacked true coronary heart (no less than in my eyes), however the sturdy character focus of the Thriller Dungeon franchise signifies that their famously emotional endings are capable of make sturdy males weep.
Explorers of Sky was additionally a type of in-betweeny Pokemon video games that the sequence as a complete would not produce anymore, a hybrid of Explorers of Time/Darkness that was superior to each. It was bolstered with new Pokemon, gameplay options, high quality of life tweaks, and even optionally available episodes primarily based on beloved facet characters, like nation boy Bidoof studying self-confidence. It is all very charming…
The Relic Treasure
… However none of this actually issues, does it? In spite of everything, you may’t play Explorers of Sky. No less than, not with out an emulator. The final console that might run it stopped being made half a decade in the past, and the sport itself was born from a restricted run from the identical yr as the primary Hangover film. Consequently, the few surviving copies are literally considerably dearer now than after they have been made – that is the Nintendo second-hand marketplace for you.
Explorers of Sky is not good – there’s undoubtedly flaws and repetitive components baked into the gameplay – however frankly I do not know a Pokemon recreation that is not responsible of that. In the meantime, the strengths of visible design, memorable music, and fable-like storytelling that at occasions remind me of Studio Ghibli elevate the entire thing to one thing that’s quintessentially charming, and to which I discover myself investing in much more than a few of my favorite RPGs lately, like Baldur’s Gate 3. Positive, the early Thriller Dungeon video games have been all very comparable, however they have been all working from the identical very good basis, and Explorers of Sky took it additional than some other.
So contemplate this each a public service announcement, in addition to a plea to the boardroom overlords at Nintendo and The Pokemon Firm steepling their ring-covered fingers: Pokemon Thriller Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is the perfect Pokemon recreation ever made, and it deserves to be accessible to the world at massive. It deserves to be preserved and remembered and acknowledged on some actual degree. It deserves a legacy.
Our record of the finest Pokemon video games would not embody video games from the branching sequence, however you may ensure that Explorers of Sky would’ve been on it in any other case!