The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series first launched in Japan in 2005.
Its first release consisted of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team for Game Boy Advance and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team for Nintendo DS. The two versions shared the same broad adventure but were designed for different Nintendo handhelds, making them an unusual paired debut.
Unlike the main Pokémon role-playing games, Mystery Dungeon puts the player in control of a Pokémon rather than a human Trainer. The player explores randomly generated dungeons, battles other Pokémon, collects items, recruits teammates, and advances through turn-based floors.
The games were released worldwide in 2006, which is why 2006 is sometimes mistakenly given as the series’ starting year. Later entries included Explorers of Time, Explorers of Darkness, Explorers of Sky, Gates to Infinity, and Super Mystery Dungeon. The original games were eventually remade together as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX for Nintendo Switch.