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Ultimately, compared to its original release, not a lot changed in Rescue Team DX. It's got a new graphic style with a real identity, completes evolution lines updated by Gen IV, and adds a mechanics update to match the series as it is now. But almost everything else is very much the same to the original, when most of the unchanged factors could have used a bit of TLC. Still, that's no reason to give it a bad score. Improvements are improvements, and giving a much loved series its desperately needed revival was easily the right move to make. I gave the original game a 9, so this game gets a bit higher.

To be honest, improving or even matching the quality of the cult classic Explorers games was going to be a tall order. And while Gates to Infinity doesn't fall flat on its face, it doesn't live up to its series' legacy. While its gameplay is still improved from previous entries, its soundtrack incredible, and its characters believable and real, the graphics aren't the same quality, coming with a shift to 3D and an ultimate lack of polish. In addition, the story, while not bad, doesn't hold up as well, and only around a quarter of the Pokémon around at the time are even in the game (plus a severely reduced starter selection), leading an already somewhat repetitive dungeon formula to get more repetitive by facing the same few enemies without a lot of difference throughout the entire campaign. Overall, the game's still got its quality, but it's easily the low point of its series.

There aren't a whole lot of games out there that make me sad that I didn't play them years ago when they first came out, but this game is an easy exception. Explorers of Sky takes the formula established by Rescue Team, mixes it with the improvements Time and Darkness made, adds its OWN improvements, and puts it all together to create a glorious game. With many mechanics retooled to work better, item drops and Pokémon encounters unified, gameplay that feels even better to get into and master, even MORE content than its predecessors offered, in addition to bonus episodes starring other memorable characters and enhancing the world's lore, graphics that are great for their system and that you won't forget, a soundtrack among the best soundtracks in all of gaming, and countless other details that anyone will enjoy. To be honest, there wasn't an awful lot in favor of making a third version of Time and Darkness. But it exists, and it's easily the definitive game of the three. And that's not even mentioning the story. The story that proves games intended for younger audiences can still have themes, gray morality, consequences, characters with real motives, and emotion. Nothing in this universe is perfect. But Explorers of Sky? It comes pretty close.

It isn't exactly known how many spinoff series can give their main counterparts a run for their money. But Pokémon Mystery Dungeon easily reaches into that category. With gameplay mechanics that, while not for everyone, remain solid and memorable, an actual story to go through plus hours upon hours of unique content afterwards, simple yet memorable graphics, and honest mechanics that allow players to recruit them all without anything like the trading and transferring that ran rampant during the rest of Generation III, Red and Blue Rescue Team are firmly one of the decade's sleeper hits, although the fact that they've not aged as well due to missing mechanics the later games would adopt is a shame.

Pokémon Sword (and by extension Shield) make the main series jump from their traditional handhelds to the big screen, though they don't stick the landing as much as many had hoped. There's numerous things to complete in the game for players of all fashions and ages, packaged with a creative new setting in the Galar region, a strong showing of new Pokémon designs, a difficulty that leans towards easy but isn't laughably so, and plenty of features the series desperately needed like autosaving, specific volume controls, better trainer customization and a movable camera. But behind all of the game's good content is an air of infamy, brought forward by a lack of development time, cut features that were well liked, a rolled back story and characters after the better depth of the last three generations of games, lazy programming, graphics and animations the developers essentially lied about, and numerous game design choices that actively undermined the concept of Pokémon itself, enraged even the biggest fans of the series, and were choices that just a few years ago the developers said they'd never even come close to considering. For me personally, nothing was a heavy deal breaker, and I was still excited to play and complete these games. They would have been worthy of an eight, or maybe even a nine had more time been given to develop them. But it's too easy to recognize everything that went wrong, and these games are sure to spawn discussions about them for both the right and wrong reasons for a long time to come.

The Isle of Armor provides players with new, visually distinct areas, opportunities to catch around 140 additional Pokémon to the base game's already impressive roster, fun sidequests that offer activities to multiple kinds of players, and various other pieces of bonus content that, when put together, make it feel like a real expansion and not something that could easily have been in the game originally. And at an acceptable price of just $30 in addition to the content coming in the Crown Tundra later this year, it's easily a good purchase for those who need a bit more Pokémon in their lives- albeit stunted by an air of damage control caused by the base game's notoriety.