The first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games released in Japan in 2005.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team were the series’ first entries. Red Rescue Team was made for Game Boy Advance, while Blue Rescue Team was made for Nintendo DS. The pair reached worldwide markets in 2006.
These games differ from the main Pokémon role-playing games because the player becomes a Pokémon rather than a human Trainer. A personality test helps determine the player character, and the story follows a human transformed into a Pokémon. Players explore randomly generated dungeons, fight using turn-based moves, collect items, and recruit other Pokémon.
The series belongs to the wider Mystery Dungeon tradition, a roguelike role-playing format associated with randomly changing dungeon layouts. Later Pokémon Mystery Dungeon releases included Explorers of Time, Explorers of Darkness, Explorers of Sky, Gates to Infinity, and Super Mystery Dungeon. Rescue Team DX later remade the original pair for Nintendo Switch.