Interest

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity Heads to N. America

Nintendo announced on Thursday that it is releasing Pokémon: Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, the first Pokémon: Mystery Dungeon game for the Nintendo 3DS system, in North America on March 24, 2013. The game debuted in Japan on November 23 under the name Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon: Magnagate to Mugendai Meikyū (Pokémon: Mystery Dungeon: Magnagates and the Infinite Labyrinth).

In the game, the player transforms into one of five Pokémon – Pikachu, Snivy, Oshawott, Tepig or Axew. The player can then "journey through infinite dungeons, battle and befriend other Pokémon, collect treasures and explore the game's vast, beautiful world – all in amazing 3D." The "infinite" dungeons change every time the player visits them, so there are different Pokémon, items, and treasures on each visit.

The game uses augmented reality technology to allow players scan circular objects in the real world. The objects will then become "magnagates," opening up new dungeons to explore within the game.

The game inspired three promotional anime shorts from OLM, the studio behind the Pokémon anime franchise. Voice actress Rie Kugimiya gives Pikachu a speaking voice in these shorts; Ikue Ohtani, not Kugimiya, has been uttering "Pi-ka-chu" for the character in the main Pokémon anime since the beginning in 1997.

[Via Siliconera]