Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers will find an absolute gem of a game added to the catalog on Friday: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team. Released stateside for the Game Boy Advance in 2006, the game is one of two titles that launched a new spinoff series where you play as the Pokémon themselves. There was plenty to love, but for me, I’ll remember it because it gave us an official Pokémon personality quiz.
Generally speaking, most Pokémon games released prior to the Mystery Dungeon games focused on collecting and battling monsters. I never really thought all that much about which Pokémon I would be if I could be one. Red Rescue Team changed that. In the game, you play as a human who has mysteriously transformed into a Pokémon. Instead of picking which creature you’ll play as, the game tasks you with completing a little personality quiz to see which of its beloved creatures best matches your preferences in real life.
It’s a short quiz that only takes a couple of minutes to complete. Some are basic yes-or-no questions that touch on how you view yourself, like, “Do you think you are cool? Be honest.” But some questions are a bit quirkier. One asks if you’ve ever made a pitfall trap while another poses a scenario where it asks what you would do if you found a lost wallet. At the end, the game evaluates your answers and assigns you a Pokémon based on how you replied.
So, if your answers were a bit goofy or off-kilter, you might become the jolly water-type Squirtle. If you flip-flopped a bit and the quiz deemed you quirky, the game would assign you Meowth, and if it thought you had a calm demeanor, you would get Mudkip.
The personality quiz could be annoying if you just wanted to play as your favorite Pokémon. (I remember wanting to change my character’s name early on, so I had to restart my save file. I think I retook the test a dozen times so I could play as Cyndaquil again.) Additionally, it asks you if you’re a boy or girl at the end, which is pretty silly since any person can like any kind of Pokémon.
But I still appreciated the flourish of the quiz. I grew up taking personality quizzes in magazines and online via websites like BuzzFeed. I wasn’t much of a Potterhead, so I didn’t go wild about figuring out which house I was through sites like Pottermore. However, I jumped at the chance to figure out what kind of Pokémon I would be.
Now that the game is coming out on the Nintendo Switch on Friday, I’m excited to dive back in after all these years and see which Pokémon I’ll be this time.
