Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red & Blue Rescue Team (GBA/DS)

Titles	Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team · Blue Rescue Team ポケモン不思議のダンジョン 赤の救助隊 · 青の救助隊 (Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon: Aka no Kyūjotai · Ao no Kyūjotai)
Platforms	Red: Game Boy Advance · Blue: Nintendo DS
Developer	Chunsoft
Publishers	The Pokémon Company (Japan) · Nintendo (elsewhere)
Director	Seiichiro Nagahata
Music	Arata Iiyoshi · Atsuhiro Ishizuna
Players	Single player (two for Friend Rescue and the link features)
Genre	Roguelike dungeon crawler
Pokémon	All 386 from Generations I–III can be recruited across the pair
Released	17 November 2005 (Japan) · 18 September 2006 (North America) · 28 September 2006 (Australia) · 10 November 2006 (Europe) · 30 August 2007 (South Korea, Blue only)
Re-releases	Wii U Virtual Console, both versions (2016) · Red on Game Boy Advance – Nintendo Classics, 9 August 2024
Rating	ESRB E · PEGI 3 · CERO A · OFLC G
Successor	Explorers of Time & Darkness (2007)
Remake	Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (Nintendo Switch, 2020)
Sales	5.23 million combined (Nintendo, March 2007): Blue 3.03m, Red 2.20m

Overview · Quick Answers · Story · Pokémon · Gameplay · Pokémon Square · Connectivity · Regional Variations · Glitches · Videos · Trivia · Legacy · Sales & Reviews · Media

Overview

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red & Blue Rescue Team are the first two paired games in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, with Red being released on the Game Boy Advance while Blue was released on the Nintendo DS. Both were then re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2016, and Red joined Nintendo Switch Online’s Game Boy Advance library in 2024.

The games adopt the roguelike video game style of the Mystery Dungeon game series developed by Chunsoft, while fusing it with the Pokémon world, creating rather unique and fun games in which the player turns into a Pokémon and tags along with different Pokémon to explore and complete dungeons as they progress through the story.

Between them, the pair feature all the Pokémon up to the third generation, which can be encountered in the game and also recruited as friends by the player, to accompany them on their long adventure. Paired sequels were released for the games: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness.

Quick Answers

The questions people ask about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red & Blue Rescue Team, answered first and explained further down the page.

Which Pokémon will the personality quiz turn me into?

The quiz gives you one of 16 natures, and your nature plus your gender decides your hero. A Hardy boy becomes Charmander, for example, while a Hardy girl becomes Pikachu. Meowth, Machop and Cyndaquil are boys only; Chikorita, Skitty and Eevee are girls only. You then pick a partner from Pikachu or the nine starters, which can’t share your type. More →

What is the difference between Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team?

The story, dungeons and Pokémon are the same. Red runs on the Game Boy Advance and links by Game Link Cable. Blue runs on the Nintendo DS, shows the map and team stats on the top screen, rearranges the music and adds wireless extras. Each version has its own exclusives, such as Plusle in Red and Minun in Blue. More →

Is Red Rescue Team on Nintendo Switch Online?

Yes. Red Rescue Team joined the Game Boy Advance – Nintendo Classics library on 9 August 2024, so Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members can play it. Blue Rescue Team isn’t on the service. The Wii U Virtual Console releases of both versions stopped being sold in March 2023, and Rescue Team DX is a full Switch remake. More →

Why won’t a Pokémon I defeated join my team?

A wild Pokémon can only join if you own the Friend Area where its species lives. Wigglytuff sells many of them at the Wigglytuff Club in Pokémon Square, and some come from jobs or story events. Even then, each species has its own recruitment chance, and a Friend Bow makes a defeated Pokémon more likely to join. More →

How do you evolve Pokémon in Red and Blue Rescue Team?

Not until the main story is over. After the credits, Whiscash Pond opens the way to Luminous Cave, and that is the only place Pokémon can evolve. A team member who meets its usual condition, such as a level, can evolve there. Some evolutions also need a special item, so stock up on evolution items before the trip. More →

Can you get the other version’s exclusive Pokémon?

Yes. Some Wonder Mail codes open jobs that make the other version’s exclusives available. That covers Feebas, Mantine, Plusle, Porygon and Roselia in Blue, and Aipom, Lapras, Magikarp and Minun in Red. Wild Porygon2 appear only in Blue, but you can find an Upgrade in either version and evolve Porygon into Porygon2. More →

Story

A world in chaos

The game starts out as the player wakes up in the form of a Pokémon, in a Pokémon world tormented by recent natural disasters, with no memories of themselves as a human. The player befriends the first Pokémon they meet in the Pokémon world, with whom they venture into Tiny Woods and rescue Caterpie. The player and their friend decide to form a rescue team, and then head to Thunderwave Cave, where they rescue two Magnemite. One of the Magnemite decides to tag along and join the player’s party, as the three Pokémon go to Shiftry’s rescue at Mt. Thunder. There, they confront the Legendary lightning bird, Zapdos, and rescue Shiftry, whom it has kidnapped.

Throughout their early adventures, the party meets Team Meanies, formed by Gengar, Medicham and Ekans, who seek to control the other Pokémon through lies and mischievous deeds, under the cover of a rescue team. The player’s team also meets the top and most famous rescue team, called Team A.C.T. and consisting of Alakazam, Charizard and Tyranitar, who are all very powerful Pokémon.

Confused and wanting to know the reason behind their transformation, the player and their team visit Xatu, the fortune teller, at the Great Canyon. There, they learn the story of a human who once angered a Ninetales by grasping one of her tails. Furious, the Ninetales tried to lay a curse on the human, but his Gardevoir took the curse instead, saving her master. To the Ninetales’ surprise, the Gardevoir’s noble act goes in vain, as the selfish human leaves her behind, despite her sacrifice. The furious Ninetales then reveals a prophecy: that the unworthy human shall be reborn as a Pokémon, and once that happens, chaos shall spread as the world loses its natural balance.

Discovering that the player was once a human too, Xatu tells them that there must be a link between their presence in the Pokémon world and the disasters currently happening. Gengar from Team Meanies eavesdrops on the player, hearing their whole conversation with Xatu and discovering their secret, which the Meanies decide to use to their advantage. Gengar returns to town and convinces the rest of the Pokémon that the player is the human from the Ninetales legend, and that the natural disasters are all the player’s fault.

On the run

Upon their return to the town, the player’s team is confronted by Team A.C.T.’s Alakazam, who informs the player that they have one night to leave, and that they will later be chased and killed for the harm they’ve caused, along with any Pokémon that sides with them.

The party leaves the town as wanted Pokémon and heads north-east, in an effort to evade the rest of the rescue teams that are hunting them down. They delve into Lapis Cave, battle Moltres at Mt. Blaze and fight Articuno at the Frosty Forest. The fight is soon stopped, as an Absol interferes and joins the player’s party. The player and their party reach the top of Mt. Freeze, where they get attacked by Team A.C.T., only to be saved by the Ninetales from the legend.

The Ninetales then reveals that the player isn’t the human that she cursed, and that the disasters have awakened Groudon. Team A.C.T. decides to waste no time and heads towards Groudon to defeat it, while the player’s team heads back to prove the player’s innocence. In the town, Gengar’s lie gets discovered and the player is deemed innocent.

The party resumes its work, and they manage to defeat a Mankey gang in Uproar Forest, while managing to convince the gang to help the player upgrade their team’s base. Days pass without Team A.C.T. returning, with the townsfolk starting to worry and deciding to send another strong rescue team to help them, consisting of Blastoise, Octillery and Golem. This newly formed team also gets defeated, leaving no choice but to let the player’s party handle the case.

The player and their friends head to the Magma Cavern, only to find Alakazam from Team A.C.T. still fighting, as the two others have been defeated. Alakazam also gets defeated, and the player’s party engages in a fight with Groudon, from which they emerge victorious and return to the town as glorious saviours.

The falling star

Before they even finish celebrating, Xatu appears and announces that a gigantic meteor is travelling towards the planet and is the real reason for the natural imbalance. The player then sees in their dream the Gardevoir from the legend, who tells them that the reason they were transformed into a Pokémon is that they are destined to save the Pokémon and the world.

After getting the information needed, the party heads to the Sky Tower, to visit the sky guardian Rayquaza, who can destroy the meteor. They engage in a fight with it in order to convince it, and upon losing, Rayquaza uses Hyper Beam on the meteor, causing it to explode. The player was within the explosion’s radius and gets thrown into the netherworld, but is surprisingly saved by Gengar.

Now that the Pokémon world is safe, the player must return to the human world, saying goodbye to their beloved friends and leaving as the credits roll.

After the credits

After the credits end, the player returns to their team’s base, deciding to stay in the Pokémon world. The player and their party resume their adventure, visiting Luminous Cave and then the Stormy Sea, where they defeat Kyogre. After exploring the Buried Relic, the team heads to the Southern Cavern, Wyvern Hill and Howling Forest.

Upon returning to town, they meet Spinda, who tells the party about the mythical mirage Pokémon and gives the player the Clear Wing. To gain more information about the mirage Pokémon, they visit Xatu, who reveals that they need to defeat the three Legendary beasts before they can meet it. The group defeats Entei in the Fiery Field, transforming the Clear Wing into the Red Wing. They also manage to defeat Raikou in the Lightning Field, turning the Red Wing into the Sunset Wing. Finally, they defeat the last Legendary beast, Suicune, at the Northwind Field, which turns the Sunset Wing into the Rainbow Wing.

With the three beasts defeated, the player’s team heads towards the newly unlocked Mt. Faraway and faces the mirage Pokémon Ho-Oh. As the game progresses, the Kecleon Wares’ TMs get stolen by a Latios, whom the player follows to the Northern Range and defeats. The desperate Latios explains that Latias was lost in the Pitfall Valley and he needed the TMs to save her.

The player and their team decide to help him out and use the Teleport Gem to save Latias from the Pitfall Valley. Later on, Ekans and Medicham from Team Meanies hear about a wish-granting stone and try to get hold of it by venturing into the Wish Cave, where the stone lies. They both get defeated, and Ekans escapes, while Medicham gets stuck in the cave.

The player’s team goes to her rescue and earns the Wish Stone, with which they summon a Jirachi. The team then hears from both Ekans and Medicham that Gengar was determined to reach the summit of Mt. Freeze. Gengar asks for the player’s help to reach the summit, where they both meet Ninetales. There, Gengar reveals he’s the selfish human from the legend and is determined to correct his mistakes. They learn where his Gardevoir is and go to rescue her together.

When Gardevoir is finally free, she forgets everything about her past and her previous owner and decides to join the player’s team. After the player recruits Ho-Oh, they are shown a cutscene in which Charizard and Blastoise suffer a devastating loss at the hands of a uniquely powerful Pokémon in a dungeon. The player and their friends visit the dungeon and discover that the Pokémon is Mewtwo, whom they now have to defeat.

After recruiting Zapdos, Articuno and Moltres, the player will unlock the Silver Trench, where they will face Lugia. Once Lugia is recruited, Xatu will await the player’s team outside their base and tell them that he saw a strange Pokémon in the Meteor Cave. The player and their comrades head there to face their final challenge, Deoxys.

Pokémon

All the Pokémon up to the third generation are present in the game and can be recruited to the player’s rescue team. The player’s Pokémon character will be determined by the quiz they take when starting the game and by their gender. Throughout the game, the player will face many Pokémon as dungeon bosses, while many others act as townsfolk or even give missions to the player. As in all paired Pokémon games, a few Pokémon are exclusive to each version.

Playable Pokémon

These are the playable Pokémon and the quiz attitude and gender answers needed to get them as characters:

• CharmanderHardy ♂ · Brave ♀
• SquirtleJolly ♂ · Relaxed ♀
• BulbasaurDocile ♂ · Calm ♀
• PikachuImpish ♂ · Hardy ♀
• TotodileNaive ♂ · Jolly ♀
• TorchicHasty ♂ · Sassy ♀
• MudkipCalm ♂ · Timid ♀
• TreeckoSassy ♂ · Quirky ♀
• CuboneLonely ♂ · Impish ♀
• PsyduckRelaxed ♂ · Lonely ♀
• MeowthQuirky ♂ · – ♀
• MachopBrave ♂ · – ♀
• CyndaquilTimid ♂ · – ♀
• Chikorita– ♂ · Docile ♀
• Skitty– ♂ · Hasty ♀
• Eevee– ♂ · Naive ♀

Pokémon joining the team through the story

• MagnemiteThunderwave Cave
• AbsolFrosty Forest
• Smeargle#235
• Latiosafter the credits
• Latiasafter the credits
• CelebiPurity Forest, B99F

Story-related Pokémon

These are the Pokémon the player has to talk to or visit so that the story progresses:

• Gardevoir#282
• Xatu#178
• Ninetales#038
• Mankey#056
• Butterfree#012
• Spinda#327
• Wynaut#360
• Wobbuffet#202

Rescue teams and their members

Pokémon the player faces as bosses

Skarmory, Team Meanies, the three Mankey, Regirock, Registeel, Regice, Entei, Suicune, Raikou, Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Latios, Jirachi, Zapdos, Moltres, Articuno, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Mewtwo and Deoxys.

Exclusive Pokémon

Pokémon exclusive to the Red Rescue Team version:

• Feebas#349
• Mantine#226
• Plusle#311
• Porygon#137
• Roselia#315

Pokémon exclusive to the Blue Rescue Team version:

• Aipom#190
• Lapras#131
• Magikarp#129
• Minun#312
• Porygon2wild in Blue only

Porygon2 is only found in the wild in Blue, but Red players can still evolve their Porygon with an Upgrade. Every exclusive can also be unlocked in the other version through Wonder Mail.

Notable Pokémon

• Pikachu – Hero for an Impish boy or a Hardy girl, and the only non-starter that can be picked as partner.
• Cubone – One of six heroes that can never be the partner, with Meowth, Psyduck, Machop, Eevee and Skitty.
• Skitty – Female-only hero option, given to a Hasty girl.
• Gengar – Leader of Team Meanies and secretly the selfish human from the Ninetales legend.
• Gardevoir – Took the curse meant for her trainer and guides the hero in dreams.
• Absol – Joins in Frosty Forest after stopping Articuno’s attack on the fugitives.
• Celebi – Waits on the 99th floor of Purity Forest and joins automatically, without a battle.
• Rayquaza – Final story boss at Sky Tower, which destroys the meteor.
• Deoxys – Last post-game encounter in Meteor Cave. Gulpin won’t reteach it forgotten moves.
• Munchlax – A Generation IV Pokémon living in Pokémon Square months before Diamond and Pearl, and the giver of the Munch Belt.

Gameplay and Features

Gameplay

Throughout the game the player, turned into a Pokémon, has to complete many missions and jobs with their partner, with the missions revolving around delivering items, escorting other Pokémon to certain locations or rescuing Pokémon. These missions are triggered as the story progresses, arrive in the team’s mailbox or are found on the bulletin board. Most of the jobs take place in dungeons, where the player may encounter wild Pokémon they can fight in turn-based battles. During these battles, the Pokémon can use up to four moves, picked from the moves menu or a shortcut, while the A button makes a plain attack. They can also throw rocks and items at their enemies.

When the player and their team enter a dungeon, they either have to finish the job and complete the mission there or go through all the dungeon’s floors and find the exit. If the player or their partner falls, they will lose, while if only a secondary ally falls, the player may continue exploring the dungeon, with the ally returning later to its Friend Area. The player also gets hungry during their exploration, which will result in them losing HP as they walk. This can be solved by eating food found in the dungeon or food already brought by the player.

Features

Friend Areas: Each kind of Pokémon lives in a Friend Area, a habitat the player buys from Wigglytuff or earns through jobs, and a wild Pokémon the team defeats can only join if the team owns its Friend Area. The areas lie west of the player’s team base, where recruited Pokémon can always be found. There, the player may select which Pokémon they want to visit and can check their stats, give them items or ask them to join the team to explore dungeons.

The Team Base: It is where the player’s Pokémon lives. After the player manages to defeat the three Mankey and gives them the berries, they will rebuild the player’s base and make it look like the Pokémon they’re playing as.

Rescue Team Ranks: The player’s rescue team rank will progress each time they gain points, which depend on the category of the mission the player finished. Reaching the top rank, Lucario Rank, puts a Lucario figure in the team base.

In depth: the fine print

Friend Areas and recruitingA defeated wild Pokémon may ask to join, but only if the team owns the Friend Area its species lives in. The hero and partner start with access to their own two areas. Other areas come from the Wigglytuff Club, from certain jobs, or from recruiting particular Pokémon, usually Legendaries. Together the areas have room for 413 Pokémon, one of every species plus each Unown form. They surround Pokémon Square and are reached by the path west of the team base.

Jobs, rescue points and ranksEach job has a difficulty from E up to a star rating, and finishing it earns rescue points as well as the client’s reward. An E job is worth 5 points. Values rise through D, C, B and A to as much as 500 for S, and up to 2,000 for the hardest star jobs. The team climbs from Normal Rank through Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond to Lucario Rank at 15,000 points, which puts a Lucario figure in the team base.

Wonder MailWonder Mail is a password that unlocks a ready-made job. Codes are shared between players, and they are the only way into four dungeons: Oddity Cave, Remains Island, Marvelous Sea and Fantasy Strait. Some codes also make version exclusives available in the other game. Through them, Red players can find Blue’s Aipom, Lapras, Magikarp and Minun, and Blue players can find Red’s Feebas, Mantine, Plusle, Porygon and Roselia.

Makuhita Dojo mazesThe Dojo holds 21 three-floor mazes: 17 for individual types and four team mazes. Each maze ends with a boss on its third floor. The type mazes unlock in stages through the story, and the Ghost maze and the team mazes unlock after the credits. Nothing in the Dojo can be recruited except the team-maze bosses, which take a level 90 leader and a Friend Bow. Clearing each type maze once earns a Bonsly statue and a Ginseng.

Pokémon Square: the rescue teams’ home town

Pokémon Square is the main town, where several facilities can be found along with many township Pokémon. The facilities include:

• The Team Base: Here the player can check their mail and sometimes receive Pokémon that want to join their rescue team.
• Kecleon Shop and Kecleon Wares: This is where the player can buy items that might come in handy, and TMs to teach to their Pokémon and its friends – the green Kecleon sells food, seeds and throwing items, while his purple brother sells TMs and Wonder Orbs.
• The Pelipper Post Office: Players may send each other mail through this office.
• The Makuhita Dojo: Lets the player’s rescue team train and level up.
• The Gulpin Link Shop: The Gulpin running this facility links the Pokémon’s moves, so that they are used one after the other in a single turn. It also unlinks moves and helps Pokémon remember old ones.
• Felicity Bank: This is where the player can store their money and withdraw it, with Persian in charge.
• Kangaskhan Storage: The item storage, where the player can deposit their valuable items.
• Whiscash Pond: Whiscash tells stories here, and after the credits it opens the way to Luminous Cave.
• The Friend Circle (Wigglytuff Club): Wigglytuff sells new Friend Areas here, so that more kinds of Pokémon can join the team.

Connectivity

Blue Rescue Team can be linked to Pokémon Trozei!, which earns prize coins in Trozei and an item in Blue, while both games can link to another copy of the same version, letting players receive reward items. Red and Blue can’t link to each other directly, but passwords work across the two versions, and Blue can copy a team from a Red Game Pak in the DS’s second slot.

Connecting to a player’s game with the same game version, or using passwords with the Blue or Red counterpart, enables a few fun and very useful features. In fact, if a player faints within a dungeon, they can ask another player to rescue them through an SOS Mail that is sent using the Game Link Cable (Red), DS wireless (Blue) or a password. Upon receiving the SOS Mail, the other player can go to their rescue by talking to Pelipper at the Pelipper Post Office. Once the rescue is complete, the fainted player will receive an A-OK Mail, enabling them to resume the dungeon exploration at the same spot where they fainted, without losing any items.

Now that they’re rescued, they can send a Thank-You Mail to their rescuer, along with a reward or gift from the items they have. Communicating with other players also allows Blue Rescue Team owners to use the Unknown Dungeon feature. After selecting the option on the main screen, both players will have to close their DS and wait while their teams go and complete a random dungeon, which may reward them with a rare item.

Friend RescueFriend Rescue opens once the team reaches Mt. Steel. A player who faints can send an SOS Mail by Game Link Cable (Red), DS Wireless (Blue) or a password, which works across both versions. The rescuer goes to the floor where the team fell and sends back an A-OK Mail. Sent by cable or wireless, that mail can also lend a helper Pokémon for the rest of the dungeon. Each side can attach an item, the rescuer to the A-OK Mail and the rescued player to a Thank-You Mail.

Blue Rescue Team’s link extrasBlue has three extras that Red lacks. The Unknown Dungeon pairs two nearby Blue players over wireless. While the systems are closed, their leaders explore together off-screen and come back with an item, sometimes one found nowhere else. A wireless link with Pokémon Trozei! gives Trozei prize coins and gives Blue an item. With Red in the DS’s Game Boy Advance slot, Receive Team copies Red’s team into the Dojo’s Rescue Team Maze as a boss. That team can be recruited once Mew, Mewtwo and Ho-Oh have been met.

Regional Variations

Japan had the games ten months before the West, and a few things changed on the way:

• Japan puts Blue first, calling the pair Ao no Kyūjotai and Aka no Kyūjotai (Blue and Red Rescue Team). The English order was swapped, probably to echo Pokémon Red and Blue.
• The first Japanese print of Blue Rescue Team could erase the save of any Game Boy Advance game other than Red Rescue Team left in the DS’s second slot. A revised Japanese card, product code NTR-APHJ-JPN-1, fixed the fault, and every international release shipped fixed.
• SOS, A-OK and Thank-You Mail passwords are made of 17-character rows: two rows in Japanese and three everywhere else, so passwords can’t be swapped between Japanese and international copies.
• Korea only got Blue Rescue Team, in 2007, under the title 포켓몬 불가사의 던전: 파랑 구조대. Western copies can still rescue a Korean player, but the Korean name comes out garbled because the fonts don’t match.
• Several names changed in translation. Team A.C.T. is Team F.L.B. in Japanese, from Foodin, Lizardon and Bangiras, and Team Meanies is Ijiwarus. Felicity Bank is Persian Bank, and the Wigglytuff Club is Pukurin’s Friend Circle.
• The English script was among the first to write Pokémon names in normal capitals rather than all capitals. It also capitalised only the first word of multi-word moves and items, giving forms such as “Solarbeam”.
• Red Rescue Team was never translated into Korean. It reached South Korea and Hong Kong only through Nintendo Classics in August 2024.

Left in the data

• The code holds a hidden debug room and a debug menu that replaces Delete Save Data on the main menu when one byte is patched. Most of its options freeze the retail game.
• Twelve dungeons are present in the data but never used, along with an unused “??????????” Pokémon entry that has its own dungeon dialogue.
• Unused items include Alert Specs, TMs for Excavate and Spin Slash (moves no Pokémon can learn), and Observer, Possess, Reviver, Toss and Beatup Orbs.
• Two music tracks go unheard in Red Rescue Team, EVENT_ZUKKOKE and SYS_TRAINING, probably meant for a comic cutscene and a training menu.
• Descriptions exist for two tactics, “All for one” and “Group safety”, that were never put into the game.

Glitches, exploits and oddities

A save-wiping first print, a Kecleon that can join the team and a few other oddities:

Slot 2 save wipe (Japanese Blue Rescue Team)

The most serious fault in the pair was in the first Japanese print of Blue Rescue Team. Starting the game with a Game Boy Advance cartridge other than Red Rescue Team in the DS’s second slot could erase that cartridge’s save data. Nintendo announced the problem in November 2005 and offered fixed replacement cards from December. A corrected card has the manual code NTR-APHJ-JPN-1. The replacement programme ran until March 2018, and no international copy was affected.

Kecleon joins the team

Kecleon normally turns on the team only if someone steals from his shop. If an enemy Pokémon hurts a shopkeeper Kecleon, for instance with Explosion or Roar or by bouncing an attack off a Pass Scarf, the game can wrongly count Kecleon as a team member. He then fights alongside the hero against nearby enemies. A related quirk: hitting Kecleon before stealing anything turns him hostile, and walking out afterwards still sets off the full thief alarm.

Boss keeps its HP after recruiting

Bosses get a big HP boost for their battle, and a boss that joins the team normally has its HP reset to the usual level for its species. There is a loophole. Leave a Reviver Seed on the floor, let the boss pick it up and come back from fainting with it, then recruit it. It keeps its huge boss HP total, so players have used the trick to recruit unusually tough Legendaries.

Moves lost to evolution at the Link Shop

Gulpin can reteach a Pokémon its forgotten moves, but the shop only checks the moves the current species learns. A fully evolved Pokémon can therefore lose for good any move that only its middle stage learns, if it evolved before reaching that move’s level. Lotad’s line is the standard example: only Lombre learns Hydro Pump by levelling up, at level 49, so a Ludicolo that evolved before then can never get it.

Videos & media

Check out these Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red & Blue Rescue Team videos, including the intros of both versions, unused music and the Wii U trailer.

The opening/intro for Red Rescue Team on GBA.

The opening/intro for Blue Rescue Team on DS.

The trailer for the Wii U Virtual Console re-releases.

Unused music from within the game files of Red & Blue Rescue Team.

Trivia & facts

• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team was the last Pokémon game to be released on the Game Boy Advance.
• The two games are the only pair to be released on different consoles.
• The games are also the first Pokémon titles in which the player can understand what the Pokémon are saying.

• 

  Although the game covers only the Pokémon up to the third generation, it still showcases a few Pokémon from the upcoming generations, which hadn’t been released yet. In fact, Munchlax was used as an NPC, while Lucario, Bonsly, Weavile and Mime Jr. had statues featuring them in the games.

• The artwork on both games’ boxes is interlinked, as each of them features the respective game’s rescue team looking at the other one through a hole.
• The pair let a Pokémon know the same move twice at once, without a glitch – a rather unique feature that wasn’t present in the other Pokémon games, and one that Gulpin’s move linking makes useful.

Further trivia

• Reaching Lucario Rank, the top rescue rank at 15,000 points, places a Lucario figure in the team base. Clearing each Makuhita Dojo type maze earns a Bonsly statue.
• The two box arts fit together around a hole in the ground. Mudkip drops a stone into the hole, which matches the DS card slot sitting above the Game Boy Advance slot on the original DS and DS Lite.
• The shadowy, red-eyed Pokémon lurking on the two covers are Team A.C.T. and Team Meanies, with their members split between the Red and Blue boxes.
• These were the first Pokémon spin-offs to get a full remake, Rescue Team DX on Nintendo Switch in 2020.
• Celebi waits at the bottom of Purity Forest, a 99-floor dungeon where the lone explorer drops to level 1 and loses everything carried in.
• Alakazam, leader of the famous Team A.C.T., names Lucario as his role model. Lucario had debuted only months earlier in the film Lucario and the Mystery of Mew and couldn’t be caught until Diamond and Pearl.

Legacy

What came after

• Red Rescue Team (Game Boy Advance) and Blue Rescue Team (Nintendo DS) launch in Japan – 17 November 2005. Both versions launched on the same day, with Blue listed first in Japan.
• Replacement programme for faulty Japanese Blue Rescue Team cards – 8 December 2005. Fixed cards replaced copies that could wipe Game Boy Advance saves. The programme ran until March 2018.
• North American launch of both versions – 18 September 2006. Australia followed on 2006-09-28 and Europe on 2006-11-10. Red Rescue Team became the last Pokémon game released for any Game Boy system.
• Blue Rescue Team released in South Korea – 30 August 2007. Korea’s first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game. Red was never released there on cartridge.
• Sequels Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness launch in Japan – 13 September 2007. Both on Nintendo DS, reaching North America on 2008-04-20.
• Both versions re-released on Wii U Virtual Console in Europe – 11 February 2016. Red came as a Game Boy Advance title and Blue as a DS title. Australia got them on 2016-02-12, Japan on 2016-03-23 and North America on 2016-06-23.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX released on Nintendo Switch – 6 March 2020. A full remake with a painterly new look and mechanics borrowed from later games. These were the first spin-off Pokémon games to be remade.
• Wii U eShop closes to purchases – 27 March 2023. The Virtual Console versions of both games can no longer be bought.
• Red Rescue Team added to Game Boy Advance – Nintendo Classics – 9 August 2024. Part of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. It was the game’s first release in South Korea and Hong Kong. Blue Rescue Team was not included.

Where to play it today

The easiest way is Red Rescue Team on Game Boy Advance – Nintendo Classics, part of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, playable on Switch and Switch 2. Blue Rescue Team can’t be bought anywhere now, so you need an original DS card or a Wii U copy downloaded before the eShop closed. For a modern take on the same story, Rescue Team DX is still sold on Switch.

How it was made

Chunsoft developed the pair, bringing in the Mystery Dungeon formula it had used since Torneko no Daibōken in 1993. Seiichiro Nagahata directed, Chunsoft founder Koichi Nakamura was among the producers, and Arata Iiyoshi and Atsuhiro Ishizuna wrote the music. The games were revealed in August 2005. A Japanese release date followed in September, with The Pokémon Company publishing in Japan and Nintendo everywhere else. Within days of launch, a fault was found in Japanese Blue cards, and fixed replacements followed in December. Nintendo confirmed English versions at E3 2006. A former Chunsoft programmer later recalled that the studio’s finances were poor and staff were leaving at the time, and that he doubted the project would sell. Its success is widely credited with keeping Chunsoft afloat.

Red & Blue Rescue Team elsewhere

Sales & reviews

Sales figures

Within the first week of their release in Japan, the games sold around 236 thousand copies between them, and by the end of 2006 they had sold about 1.48 million copies in Japan. Worldwide, Nintendo reported 5.23 million copies combined by the end of March 2007: 3.03 million for Blue Rescue Team and 2.20 million for Red Rescue Team.

Blue passed 3.08 million worldwide by July 2007, and both versions were million-sellers in their own right – a success credited with rescuing Chunsoft’s finances and turning Pokémon Mystery Dungeon into a lasting series.

• 5.23mcombined (March 2007)
• 3.03mBlue Rescue Team
• 2.20mRed Rescue Team
• 1.48mJapan, 2006

Review scores

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red and Blue Rescue Team received a lukewarm reception, earning average scores on major review websites. Let’s take a look at these reviews:

• Craig Harris from IGN liked the game mechanics and gameplay, although he thought it could get repetitive at certain times, rating it 6.5/10, the equivalent of ‘Okay’ on the IGN scale of the time.
• Frank Provo of GameSpot, on the other hand, was quite disappointed with the game, stating “it’s nowhere near as diverse, slick, or fun as the canonical Pokémon role-playing games produced by Game Freak.” and rated Red Rescue Team 5.4/10, which equates to ‘Mediocre’ on the GameSpot scale.
• On Metacritic, Blue Rescue Team earned a score of 62 from 34 critics (Red Rescue Team scored 67 from 17), a rather good score but not exceptional for Pokémon games.
• For Pokémon Dungeon, James Burton reviewed PMD Red Rescue Team and scored it 4 out of 5 stars, and Track Star 52 was also impressed with the games, scoring them 4.5 out of 5 stars on our scale.
• Overall, although the games featured many fun mechanics and unique concepts, they might still disappoint many Pokémon fans, as the gameplay has been said to become repetitive and boring to a certain extent.

Reviews were sharply split. Japan’s Famitsu was the most generous at 35 out of 40, and in the West the GBA version averaged a few points higher than the DS one on aggregate sites. Fans of dungeon crawlers found the loop of jobs, recruits and gradual growth hard to put down. Nintendo Power called it more solid than many expected, and 1UP admitted it was oddly addictive despite its flaws. Harsher critics, GameSpot and IGN among them, found the randomly built floors monotonous and the battles shallow next to the main Pokémon RPGs. The DS version was also faulted for looking like a GBA game and for leaving out wireless co-operative play. Players were kinder than critics, and the games went on to sell heavily and launch a long-running series.

Awards and honours:

Media & artwork

• Official artwork gallery from PMD: Red & Blue Rescue Team – a large gallery featuring many prominent Pokémon
• Box art from PMD: Red Rescue Team (Game Boy Advance), including regional variations
• Box art from PMD: Blue Rescue Team (Nintendo DS), including regional variations
• Screenshots from PMD: Red Rescue Team
• Screenshots from PMD: Blue Rescue Team

Further reading

More Mystery Dungeon and Game Boy Advance links on the site: