Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (Nintendo Switch)

Titles	Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX ポケモン不思議のダンジョン 救助隊DX (Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon: Kyūjotai DX)
Platform	Nintendo Switch (game card and Nintendo eShop download; Nintendo Switch 2 compatible)
Developer	Spike Chunsoft
Publishers	The Pokémon Company (Japan) · Nintendo (elsewhere)
Directors	Shin-ichiro Tomie · Hironori Ishigami
Producers	Seiichiro Nagahata · Kunimi Kawamura · Takato Utsunomiya · Kazunori Sugiura · Hitoshi Yamagami
Music	Keisuke Ito (arrangement and new music) · original music by Arata Iiyoshi and Atsuhiro Ishizuna
Players	1 (online rescue requests through Nintendo Switch Online)
Genre	Roguelike dungeon crawler
Pokémon	More than 400 to meet and recruit
Heroes	16 species, picked by the personality quiz or directly; the partner must be a different type
Released	6 March 2020 (Japan, North America, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan) · free demo 9 January 2020
Rating	ESRB E · PEGI 7 · CERO A · ACB G
Remake of	Red Rescue Team & Blue Rescue Team (Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, 2005)
Predecessor	Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon (Nintendo 3DS, 2015)
Sales	1.99 million by 31 December 2022 (CESA) · 1.26 million by 31 March 2020 (Nintendo)

Overview · Quick Answers · Story · What DX changes · Gameplay · Characters · Bosses · Pokémon · Demo & updates · Regional Variations · Videos · Trivia · Legacy · Sales & Reviews · Media

Overview

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is a Nintendo Switch remake of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, the 2005 Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS pair that started the Mystery Dungeon series. Instead of two versions, DX folds both into a single game, keeping the original story and dungeons while rebuilding almost everything around them. It was developed by Spike Chunsoft, the studio formed when the originals’ developer Chunsoft merged with Spike, and published by The Pokémon Company in Japan and by Nintendo everywhere else.

Revealed in a Pokémon Direct on 9 January 2020, with a free demo on the Nintendo eShop the same day, it launched worldwide on 6 March 2020. You play a human who wakes up as a Pokémon with no idea how it happened, matched to one of 16 species by a personality quiz or simply picked, and you set up a rescue team with a partner. Jobs from the bulletin board and the Pelipper Post Office send the team into dungeons that are laid out afresh on every visit, where each step, attack and item counts as a turn, hunger has to be kept at bay and fainting can cost everything you carry. More than 400 Pokémon can be recruited along the way.

DX layers plenty of new ideas over that 15-year-old core: an auto-move mode, Mega Evolution through the Empowerment Seed, team-wide rare qualities in place of IQ skills, Mystery Houses, rescue team camps, an autosave and crown-marked strong foes that can turn up Shiny. The whole game is redrawn in a soft, hand-painted style inspired by watercolours, with sketchy outlines and textured backgrounds.

It was the first remake of any Pokémon game outside the core series, and the first new Mystery Dungeon game since Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon in 2015. Critics were split, admiring the art and the quality-of-life changes but finding the dungeon design underneath repetitive, yet players turned up in force: Nintendo reported 1.26 million copies sold by the end of March 2020, and the total had reached 1.99 million by the end of 2022, more than the lifetime sales of Gates to Infinity.

Quick Answers

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

Is Rescue Team DX a remake?

Yes. It remakes Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (Game Boy Advance) and Blue Rescue Team (Nintendo DS) from 2005, folding the two versions into a single Switch game with the same story and dungeons. Everything is redrawn in a watercolour-style 3D look, and new systems such as auto mode, Mega Evolution and rare qualities are added. It was the first remake of a Pokémon spin-off. More →

How many Pokémon are in Rescue Team DX?

More than 400 can be met and recruited. As in the originals, the roster is built on Generations I to III, now joined by later evolutions and pre-evolutions of those Pokémon and extras such as Riolu and Lucario. Nothing from Generation VIII appears, even though the game was released in the Sword and Shield era. More →

Can I choose my Pokémon without the personality quiz?

Yes. The personality quiz is still there and suggests one of 16 species from your answers and gender, but you can turn its suggestion down and pick any of the 16 yourself. Your partner comes from the same 16 Pokémon, as long as it does not share a type with your hero. More →

How do you Mega Evolve in Rescue Team DX?

Feed a Pokémon an Empowerment Seed inside a dungeon. It becomes Awakened, so its moves never miss, and any Pokémon with a Mega form Mega Evolves on the spot. Groudon and Kyogre undergo Primal Reversion instead, and Rayquaza has to know Dragon Ascent. The boost lasts until a status condition strikes or the team leaves the dungeon. More →

How do you get Riolu and Lucario?

Only through Mystery Houses, the locked buildings that appear in post-game dungeons and open with an Invitation. Riolu and Lucario can be among the Pokémon waiting inside small Mystery Houses, alongside Bonsly, Mime Jr. and Weavile, but neither can be found roaming an ordinary dungeon floor. More →

Does Rescue Team DX connect to Pokémon HOME or Sword and Shield?

No. Rescue Team DX has no link to Pokémon HOME, Pokémon Sword and Shield or any other Pokémon game, and recruited Pokémon cannot be moved anywhere else. Its only connected feature is online rescue requests, which need a Nintendo Switch Online membership, and an offline password system covers rescues and Wonder Mail rewards. More →

Can you still buy and play it in 2026?

Yes. It is a standard Nintendo Switch release, sold on game cards and listed on Nintendo’s eShop along with its free demo, and Nintendo marks it as compatible with Nintendo Switch 2. Online rescues need Nintendo Switch Online, but everything else, password rescues included, works offline. More →

Is there a demo, and does progress carry over?

Yes. A free demo arrived on the Nintendo eShop on 9 January 2020, the day the game was revealed in a Pokémon Direct. It covers the start of the adventure, and its save data carries straight over to the full game, so nothing has to be replayed. More →

Story

A rescue team is born

The hero wakes up in Tiny Woods as a Pokémon, remembering nothing except that they were once human. The first Pokémon they meet becomes their partner: after the two of them rescue Caterpie from the woods, the partner talks the hero into starting a rescue team. It is a busy time to go into the rescue business, as natural disasters are striking more and more often and there is no shortage of Pokémon in need of help.

The team’s reputation grows job by job. It climbs Mt. Steel on Diglett’s behalf to take on Skarmory, clashes with Gengar’s spiteful Team Meanies in Sinister Woods and faces the legendary Zapdos at the top of Mt. Thunder, always in the shadow of Alakazam’s Team A.C.T., the most celebrated rescue team in the land. Then, at the Hill of the Ancients, the seer Xatu senses that something is badly wrong with the world.

On the run

Then Gengar strikes. Back in Pokémon Square, he tells the town that the hero is the human from an old legend, who touched Ninetales’ tails, left Gardevoir to bear the curse that followed and is now blamed for knocking the world out of balance. Soon the whole of Pokémon Square has turned against the hero and anyone who stands with them.

The hero and partner flee north, pushing through Lapis Cave, Mt. Blaze, Snow Path and Frosty Forest, battling Moltres and Articuno on the way and gaining an unexpected ally in Absol. Team A.C.T. finally corners the fugitives at the top of Mt. Freeze, but Ninetales steps in, confirms that the hero is not the human from the legend and warns that the disasters have woken Groudon.

The falling star

Cleared of blame, the team heads into Magma Cavern, defeats Groudon and rescues Team A.C.T., who had gone in first and lost. The celebrations are short-lived: Xatu reveals the real cause of the disasters, a meteor on course to strike the world. Only Rayquaza can stop it, so the team climbs Sky Tower, beats Rayquaza in battle to get its attention and persuades it to shatter the meteor.

With the world saved, the hero has to return to the human world and says goodbye as the credits roll. Afterwards, their wish to stay is granted: they reappear at the team base, ready for a long post-game of legendary dungeons.

What DX changes from the GBA and DS originals

Rescue Team DX tells the same story through the same dungeons as Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, and the turn-based rules underneath are recognisably those of 2005. Almost everything layered on top has changed, though. Spike Chunsoft rebuilt the presentation from scratch, borrowed ideas from later Mystery Dungeon games and the core series, and sanded down many of the rough edges that made the originals such a grind. These are the biggest changes, followed by a side-by-side comparison.

A painterly new lookThe originals were built from 2D pixel sprites on tiled maps. DX switches to 3D models finished in a soft, hand-painted style that Nintendo describes as watercolour-inspired, with sketchy outlines and textured backgrounds. Even the box art plays along, redrawing the Pokémon and setting of both original covers in the new style.

A quiz that only suggestsThe personality quiz still reads a nature from your answers and gender and matches it to one of 16 species, but the result is now only a recommendation: you can accept it or choose any of the 16 yourself, and the old gender locks are gone. Partners are no longer limited to Pikachu and the first partner Pokémon either; any of the 16 will do, as long as its type differs from the hero’s.

Mega EvolutionMega Evolution was still eight years away when the originals came out. DX adds it through the Empowerment Seed, which awakens any Pokémon that eats it and Mega Evolves those that can, while Groudon and Kyogre undergo Primal Reversion instead. The boost lasts until a status condition lands or the team leaves the dungeon.

Rare qualities instead of IQIn the originals, Gummis raised a Pokémon’s IQ, most of all when they matched its type, and a higher IQ unlocked IQ skills. DX drops IQ altogether: each Pokémon can instead hold one rare quality, a passive perk that helps the whole team. Gummis now raise a random stat, and the new Rainbow and DX Gummis can grant, or guarantee, a fresh rare quality.

Mystery HousesKey-locked rooms make way for Mystery Houses in post-game dungeons, opened with Invitations rather than Keys. Inside are treasure boxes, healing items and Pokémon that often bring a rare quality with them, and they are the only way to recruit Riolu and Lucario. The top rescue rank, once called Lucario Rank, is now Grand Master.

Rescue team campsFriend Areas give way to rescue team camps, bought at Wigglytuff’s Camp Corner. Where each Friend Area had a fixed amount of space, camps grow as the team’s Rescue Rank rises, and the camp screen doubles as a management menu for feeding Gummis, using vitamins and drinks, and renaming or releasing Pokémon.

Auto modeThe biggest change to moment-to-moment play: a press of L sets the team moving on its own, either sweeping the floor or making for the stairs, until an enemy or something important comes close. Reviewers disagreed over whether it trims the grind or strips out the exploration.

Strong foes and Shiny PokémonOnce cleared for the first time, 27 dungeons can spawn crown-marked strong foes far above the local level. They always drop a Deluxe Box, and the Shiny ones can be recruited with a Friend Bow. A Shiny Celebi also waits in Western Cave’s Mystery Houses once Purity Forest has been cleared.

Quality-of-life changesDX autosaves every turn, offers to restart a failed dungeon and lets you swap leaders with the + button after Tiny Woods. It adds online rescues through Nintendo Switch Online and the Fairy type, opens the four dungeons the originals kept behind Wonder Mail codes through normal play and changes the length of some dungeons, as the table below shows.

Side by side

How the remake compares with the 2005 originals, feature by feature:

Gameplay

Rescue Team DX is a roguelike: every dungeon is laid out anew on each visit, nothing moves until you do, and a bad run can cost you your supplies. Between expeditions, the team lives in Pokémon Square, the town at the heart of the game, where it picks up jobs, shops, trains and looks after its recruits.

• 400+Pokémon to meet and recruit
• 8Pokémon in a dungeon party, at most
• 27dungeons with strong foes after a first clear
• 18Makuhita Dojo mazes, one per type

On the job

Rescue jobs and Rescue RankWork comes in from the Job Bulletin Board, the Pelipper Post Office, the team’s mail and the story itself. Jobs range from rescuing fainted or lost Pokémon to delivering items and escorting clients to a set floor, and they pay out in items, Poké and rescue points. Points raise the team’s Rescue Rank, whose top tier is now Grand Master, and each new rank enlarges the Toolbox, lets the team take on more jobs at once and makes room in the camps. Every day one dungeon sparkles on the map, promising extra Poké and a better chance of Treasure Boxes.

Dungeon crawlingEverything in a mystery dungeon runs on turns, with enemies moving in step every time you walk, attack, throw something or use an item. Pokémon fight with up to four moves, which Gulpin’s Link Shop now links free of charge, backed up by thrown spikes and stones, orbs, seeds and berries. Apples keep hunger at bay, and many floors hide traps, Monster Houses and Kecleon Shops. Fainting without a rescue costs everything in the Toolbox and all the Poké you are carrying, but DX autosaves every turn and offers to restart a failed dungeon.

Auto mode and controlsPress L and the team walks on its own, stopping when an enemy comes within two tiles or a fainted Pokémon or job target is nearby. A focus setting picks the route: Exploring sweeps the floor and picks up every item before heading for the stairs, while Finding the Stairs makes straight for the exit. Holding R and A skips turns, the right stick looks around a room, and until the post-game the map shows items and enemies by default. Teammates now step on Wonder Tiles and Training Switches by themselves and suggest when to use healing berries and seeds.

Building the team

Recruitment and campsA defeated Pokémon may ask to join if it falls within two tiles of the leader. Fully evolved Pokémon can now be recruited straight from the wild, and most legendary Pokémon join after their first or second defeat. New recruits tag along for the rest of the expedition, so a party can swell to as many as eight inside a dungeon. Back home they live in rescue team camps bought from Wigglytuff’s Camp Corner, where they can eat Gummis, take vitamins and drinks to raise their stats or move power, and be renamed, marked as favourites or released.

Rare qualitiesEach Pokémon can carry one rare quality, and its effect covers every ally on the floor: Bargain makes dungeon shops cheaper, Friendly raises the odds of recruiting, XP Boost increases the experience from defeated enemies and Narrow Focus stops moves missing in corridors. Two copies of the same quality do not stack. Recruits sometimes arrive with one, a Rare Quality Orb improves those odds, a Rainbow Gummi sometimes grants a new quality and a DX Gummi always does, with the choice of which to keep left to you.

Mega Evolution and awakeningAn Empowerment Seed puts a Pokémon into an Awakened state in which its moves never miss and its linked moves always land critical hits. Pokémon with a Mega form Mega Evolve at the same time; official material showed off Venusaur, Charizard, Gengar, Sableye, Altaria and Gardevoir. Groudon and Kyogre undergo Primal Reversion, and Rayquaza has to know Dragon Ascent first. There is no time limit: the state lasts until a status condition strikes or the team leaves the dungeon. Seeds cost 350 Poké from Kecleon and also turn up as job rewards, and after the main story, enemies that knock out an ally can awaken too.

Pokémon Square

Pokémon Square is the town the rescue teams call home, and almost every service a team needs is a short walk from its centre. Several shopkeepers do more than they did in 2005, and the Dojo has been rethought from the ground up.

Shops and servicesThe Square gathers the Kecleon Shop, Kangaskhan Storage, Felicity Bank, where Persian now hands out a daily reward after a transaction, Gulpin’s Link Shop, Makuhita’s Dojo, Whiscash Pond and Wigglytuff’s Camp Corner. Once Sky Tower has been cleared, Gulpin also teaches tutor moves for a fee.

The team baseSmeargle will paint the team’s flag in any of 15 preset designs or a custom one, and once Thunderwave Cave has been cleared, Diglett digs a shortcut from the base to the Pelipper Post Office.

Makuhita DojoMakuhita’s Dojo opens on the first visit to Pokémon Square and now trains one Pokémon at a time in a single-floor maze with no stairs. Each of its 18 mazes matches one type and is stocked with Pokémon weak to it, and dual-type Pokémon can pick either of their types. Bronze, Silver and Gold Dojo Tickets set increasingly long and increasingly rewarding runs that multiply the experience and move experience earned. Moves use no PP, a trainee who faints is revived without needing a Reviver Seed, and the first super-effective hit on a foe earns bonus experience.

Rescues and connectivity

Rescues and passwordsA team that faints can wait for help instead of losing everything. Rescue requests go out to other players online, which needs a Nintendo Switch Online membership, or through an offline password system, and you can even mount a rescue of your own fallen team. The rescued team carries on from the floor where it fell, while rescuers earn items, Poké and rescue points. Wonder Mail passwords no longer pass jobs between players: they unlock fixed item bundles, TM sets and special missions, such as a job for Clefairy on Mt. Blaze whose clients join the team afterwards.

There is no link to Pokémon HOME, Pokémon Sword and Shield or any other Pokémon game, so recruits stay in Rescue Team DX for good.

Mystery Houses and the post-game

Mystery HousesPost-game dungeons can hold Mystery Houses, opened by dropping an Invitation into the slot in the door. Small houses fill a single room with a waiting Pokémon, treasure and healing supplies; large ones turn a whole floor into one great room with more Pokémon and better items. Riolu, Lucario, Bonsly, Mime Jr. and Weavile are among the Pokémon that can be found inside, and Riolu and Lucario cannot be recruited anywhere else.

The post-gameBeating Rayquaza opens a long post-game built around legendary encounters, listed under Bosses below, from Kyogre in Stormy Sea to Mewtwo at the bottom of Western Cave. Oddity Cave, Remains Island, Fantasy Strait and Marvelous Sea, the four dungeons the originals kept behind Wonder Mail codes, unlock through normal play, and the Illusory Grotto can briefly appear after a failed expedition.

Characters

Rescue Team DX keeps the cast of the 2005 games. The hero and partner can be any of 16 species, so the story is built around them rather than a fixed pair of faces:

• The hero: A human who wakes up in Tiny Woods as a Pokémon, with no memory of their old life. Troubled by dreams of a mysterious voice, they become the scapegoat of the Ninetales legend and, in the end, have to decide whether to stay in the Pokémon world.
• The partner: The first Pokémon the hero meets, who talks them into forming a rescue team after the pair save Caterpie. Always a different type from the hero, the partner stays loyal throughout the escape from Pokémon Square and is the emotional anchor of the ending.

Around them, these Pokémon drive the plot:

• AlakazamTeam A.C.T.
• CharizardTeam A.C.T.
• TyranitarTeam A.C.T.
• GengarTeam Meanies
• MedichamTeam Meanies
• EkansTeam Meanies
• XatuHill of the Ancients
• NinetalesMt. Freeze
• AbsolAlly on the run
• GardevoirThe legend
• RayquazaSky Tower

• Alakazam: Leader of Team A.C.T., the most respected rescue team in the land, with Charizard and Tyranitar. The trio are the heroes’ role models, then their pursuers once Pokémon Square turns on the hero, and finally the team that has to be rescued from Groudon in Magma Cavern.
• Gengar: The scheming leader of Team Meanies, with Ekans and Medicham, a team that treats rescue work as a way to make a profit. Gengar fights the heroes in Sinister Woods and later spreads the Ninetales legend to brand the hero a menace. In DX he is also one of the Pokémon able to Mega Evolve.
• Xatu: A seer at the Hill of the Ancients, beyond Great Canyon, who can see into the future. Xatu senses that the world’s balance is failing and, once Groudon is dealt with, reveals the real threat: a meteor heading for the planet that only Rayquaza can destroy.
• Ninetales: Lives at the top of Mt. Freeze and sits at the heart of the legend Gengar uses against the hero. When Team A.C.T. corners the fugitives, Ninetales steps in, confirms that the hero is not the human from the story and warns that the disasters have woken Groudon.
• Absol: Joins the hero and partner while they are on the run, travelling with them through the most dangerous stretch of the story as they push through snow and ice towards Mt. Freeze.
• Gardevoir: Said to have taken Ninetales’ curse in place of the human who touched its tails. Gardevoir is tied to the voice in the hero’s dreams and, after the main story, can be recruited once the player has helped Gengar.
• Rayquaza: The legendary Pokémon at the summit of Sky Tower. The team has to battle it to get its attention, then persuade it to smash the meteor threatening the world.

Bosses

Most bosses wait at the end of a dungeon, and the legendary ones can usually be recruited after their first or second defeat. The story bosses are listed below in the order the team meets them, followed by the legendary Pokémon of the post-game.

Story bosses

Post-game legendaries

After the credits, the legendary encounters come thick and fast. These are the bosses of the post-game, with the dungeon and the level each is fought at:

• KyogreStormy Sea · Lv. 40
• RegirockBuried Relic · Lv. 35
• RegiceBuried Relic · Lv. 35
• RegisteelBuried Relic · Lv. 35
• LatiosNorthern Range · Lv. 35
• JirachiWish Cave · Lv. 35
• EnteiFiery Field · Lv. 50
• RaikouLightning Field · Lv. 50
• SuicuneNorthwind Field · Lv. 50
• DeoxysMeteor Cave · Lv. 55
• Ho-OhMt. Faraway · Lv. 60
• LugiaSilver Trench · Lv. 65
• MewtwoWestern Cave · Lv. 70

Spinda in Pokémon Square sends the team after Ho-Oh at the top of the 60-floor Mt. Faraway. Lugia, at level 65, waits in the depths of Silver Trench beneath the sea, and Mewtwo, at level 70 the highest-level boss in the game, sits at the end of Western Cave. Two post-game dungeons also gain notable strong foes after their first clear: a Ditto in Buried Relic and a Ninetales in Northern Range.

Pokémon

More than 400 Pokémon can be met and recruited in Rescue Team DX. The core of the roster is every species from Generations I to III, as in 2005, now joined by later evolutions and pre-evolutions of those Pokémon and by the Fairy type, which did not exist when the originals were made. Nothing from Generation VIII appears, even though the remake arrived in the Pokémon Sword and Shield era.

Playable Pokémon

The hero and partner come from the same 16 species. The personality quiz suggests one for the hero from your answers and gender, but its pick can be turned down, and the partner can be any of the others as long as it does not share a type with the hero:

• BulbasaurGrass/Poison
• CharmanderFire
• SquirtleWater
• PikachuElectric
• MeowthNormal
• PsyduckWater
• MachopFighting
• CuboneGround
• EeveeNormal
• ChikoritaGrass
• CyndaquilFire
• TotodileWater
• TreeckoGrass
• TorchicFire
• MudkipWater
• SkittyNormal

In the originals, Meowth, Machop and Cyndaquil could only be male heroes and Eevee, Chikorita and Skitty only female ones, while partners were limited to Pikachu and the nine first partner Pokémon. DX drops all of those restrictions.

Later-generation newcomers

Among the later relatives of older Pokémon now in the roster are these, along with Riolu and Lucario, who can only be recruited from Mystery Houses:

• Ambipom#424
• Lickilicky#463
• Weavile#461
• Bonsly#438
• Mime Jr.#439
• Chingling#433
• Mantyke#458
• RioluMystery Houses only
• LucarioMystery Houses only

Notable Pokémon

• Pikachu: One of the 16 hero and partner choices, and front and centre in the game’s art and trailers.
• Ninetales: The Pokémon at the heart of the legend that drives the escape from Pokémon Square; a strong-foe Ninetales also roams Northern Range.
• Gengar: Leader of Team Meanies, and one of the Mega Evolutions showcased in official material for DX.
• Celebi: A Shiny Celebi can be recruited from Western Cave’s Mystery Houses once Purity Forest has been cleared for the first time.
• Groudon and Kyogre: The story boss of Magma Cavern and the post-game boss of Stormy Sea; an Empowerment Seed triggers Primal Reversion in both.
• Rayquaza: The final boss at Sky Tower, which can Mega Evolve only if it knows Dragon Ascent.
• Munchlax: Makes a cameo appearance, and giving it an Apple earns unusual held items or Gummis.

Demo & updates

Rescue Team DX was announced in a Pokémon Direct on 9 January 2020, and a free demo went up on the Nintendo eShop the same day. It covers the start of the adventure, and its save data carries straight over to the full game, so nothing has to be replayed. Since launch, the game has had a single patch.

Regional Variations

Rescue Team DX launched on the same day around the world, so the differences between regions are small:

• The Pokémon Company publishes the game in Japan, and Nintendo in North America, Europe and Australia.
• It came out on 6 March 2020 in Japan, North America, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan alike.
• There is no South Korean release, even though Blue Rescue Team was sold there.
• The text can be set to Japanese, English, French, German, Italian or Spanish; there is no Korean or Chinese option.
• The North American logo uses the same ‘Mystery Dungeon’ lettering as the European logos of earlier games, rather than a separate American design.
• European releases have localised titles: Pokémon Donjon Mystère : Équipe de Secours DX (French), Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Retterteam DX (German), Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Squadra di Soccorso DX (Italian) and Pokémon Mundo misterioso: equipo de rescate DX (Spanish).

Left in the data

• A debug menu survives in the files, complete with battery-level indicators and a cutscene viewer.
• The project’s internal name was ‘pegasus’. A leftover revision file records build 1500, dated 6 December 2019, and other debug text carries dates from 2018 and 2019.
• Leftover data for many Pokémon from Gates to Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon is still in the files, often with incomplete models, along with partial code for Generation IV to VI species that only mods can use.
• Unused text mentions Kyurem’s forms, Meloetta’s Aria Forme and Furfrou, none of which appear in the game.
• A data file from Spike Chunsoft’s Shiren the Wanderer series, also found in Super Mystery Dungeon, sits unused, as do demo leftovers such as a separate demo title logo.

Videos & media

Trailers and promotional videos for Rescue Team DX, from the reveal in January 2020 to the launch in March.

The announcement trailer from the Pokémon Direct of 9 January 2020.

An introduction to the adventure from The Pokémon Company.

A gameplay trailer for the Switch release, from Nintendo UK.

The five-minute Japanese overview video from 21 February 2020.

Nintendo UK’s trailer for the 6 March 2020 launch.

Trivia & facts

• Rescue Team DX was the first remake of a Pokémon game from outside the core series.
• Although it came out during Generation VIII, the game contains nothing that generation introduced, not even a new move or Ability.

• 

  The box art merges the covers of Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, with the same Pokémon and setting repainted in the new style.

• Famitsu gave the 2005 originals and the 2020 remake exactly the same score: 35 out of 40.
• The originals named their highest rescue rank after Lucario, a Pokémon that could not be recruited at the time. DX renames the rank Grand Master and lets Lucario join the team, but only from a Mystery House.
• Western Cave, Mewtwo’s home, shrinks from 99 floors to 20, while Ho-Oh’s Mt. Faraway grows from 40 floors to 60.
• The legendary birds Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres are gigantic Pokémon in DX, each taking up a three-by-three block of tiles.

  

• Shiny Pokémon only appear as strong foes, and a Friend Bow is needed to recruit one. The exception is a Shiny Celebi found in Western Cave’s Mystery Houses.
• The TMs were brought up to date to match Pokémon Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
• The game’s files contain a debug menu whose default names are Max for the hero, Peyton for the partner and simply Pokémon for the team.

Legacy

What came after

• Worldwide launch – 6 March 2020. Released on Nintendo Switch in Japan, North America, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and No. 1 on the Japanese chart in its first week.
• 1.26 million sold – 31 March 2020. Nintendo’s results for the year to March 2020 counted about 360,000 copies in Japan and 890,000 overseas, making it a million-seller in under four weeks.
• 1.99 million sold – 31 December 2022. The lifetime figure in CESA’s 2023 Games White Paper, ahead of the lifetime sales of Gates to Infinity.
• Red Rescue Team on Nintendo Switch Online – 9 August 2024. The Game Boy Advance original joined the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack library, so both the 2005 game and its remake can now be played on Switch.
• Nintendo Switch 2 compatibility – From June 2025. Nintendo lists Rescue Team DX as compatible with Nintendo Switch 2, which launched on 5 June 2025.

Where to play it today

Rescue Team DX is still on sale as a standard Nintendo Switch game in October 2026, on game cards and as a download from the Nintendo eShop, where the free demo is offered too, and Nintendo lists it as compatible with Nintendo Switch 2. The game has only ever had one patch, version 1.0.2, and nothing in it relies on servers apart from online rescue requests, which need Nintendo Switch Online; password rescues still work offline. The 2005 Red Rescue Team can also be played on Switch through Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.

How it was made

Rescue Team DX was made by Spike Chunsoft, formed in 2012 when Chunsoft, the studio behind the Mystery Dungeon format and the original Rescue Team games, merged with Spike. Shin-ichiro Tomie and Hironori Ishigami directed, with Tomie also writing the scenario. Akihiro Kaneko led the game planning and Takuya Kanai the programming, while Hiroko Takano and Keisuke Sakurai shared the art direction. Keisuke Ito arranged the score and composed new music around Arata Iiyoshi and Atsuhiro Ishizuna’s original themes. Hitoshi Yamagami, Takato Utsunomiya and Kazunori Sugiura were among the producers, with Tsunekazu Ishihara, Shuntaro Furukawa and Mitsutoshi Sakurai as executive producers.

The remake was built in the Unity engine under the internal project name ‘pegasus’, and debug text left in its files carries dates from 2018 and 2019. It was announced in a Pokémon Direct on 9 January 2020, the same day the free demo arrived, and a five-minute Japanese overview video and two TV commercials followed on 21 February, a fortnight before launch.

The Rescue Team story elsewhere

Japanese TV commercialsJapan’s launch campaign included two TV commercials starring Pikachu and Eevee. The Pokémon Company, Nintendo and Spike Chunsoft released them on 21 February 2020, alongside a five-minute overview video that walked viewers through the premise and the main systems.

Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate!The story DX retells was first adapted for the screen in 2006 as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate!, an animated special based on Red and Blue Rescue Team. It follows a human boy who wakes up as a Pokémon and forms a rescue team of his own.

Ginji’s Rescue Team mangaPokémon Mystery Dungeon: Ginji’s Rescue Team is a manga based on the original Rescue Team games, later published in English by VIZ Media. It follows Ginji, a boy who becomes a Torchic and joins a rescue team, giving the premise that DX remakes a story of its own.

Sales & reviews

Sales figures

Rescue Team DX sold quickly. It went straight to No. 1 in Japan, where Famitsu counted 138,548 physical copies in its launch week (Media Create’s count was 130,510), and by 31 March 2020, less than four weeks after release, Nintendo had sold 1.26 million copies worldwide: about 360,000 in Japan and 890,000 overseas. The weekly Japanese retail charts had it at 281,908 copies by 3 January 2021. CESA’s 2023 Games White Paper put lifetime sales at 1.99 million by the end of 2022, ahead of Gates to Infinity’s lifetime total, though still well short of the 5.23 million copies that Red and Blue Rescue Team sold between them.

• 1.99msold by the end of 2022 (CESA)
• 1.26msold by 31 March 2020 (Nintendo)
• 138,548Japan launch week, at No. 1 (Famitsu)
• 69Metacritic, from 78 critics

Review scores

Rescue Team DX divided critics. Almost everyone admired the way it looks, but opinions split over whether the remake had done enough to modernise a 15-year-old design. Three verdicts from the English-language reviews:

• GameSpot’s Cian Maher was one of its warmest critics, writing that “Mystery Dungeon on Switch improves upon the originals with some valuable quality-of-life tweaks” and scoring it 8/10.
• Nintendo World Report’s Daan Koopman gave it 7/10: “The improvements are more or less throwaways, but the core adventure is still a solid one.”
• Nintendo Life’s Chris Scullion settled on 6/10, concluding: “It’s still fun in bursts, it just gets samey after a while.”

Aggregate scores settled at 69 on both Metacritic and OpenCritic, where only 39 per cent of critics recommended the game. The new art style was praised almost everywhere, as were the soundtrack, the warmth of the story and conveniences such as recruiting inside dungeons and buying camps freely. The common complaint was that the 2005 design underneath had barely moved on: critics found the dungeons repetitive over long sessions, the deepest ones most of all, missed visible enemy health bars in boss fights and felt the new features did little to modernise the formula. Auto mode split opinion, with Nintendo Life arguing that it undercuts the exploration the game is built on. Famitsu’s panel was far kinder, awarding 35 out of 40.

Media & artwork

• Box art from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

Further reading

More Mystery Dungeon and Nintendo Switch links on the site: