Platform: Nintendo Wii U/Nintendo 3DS (also on PS3/Xbox 360/PC)

Developer: WayForward Technologies

Publisher: D3Publisher of America

# of Players: 1-4

ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)

Official Site

Score: B (80%)

You don’t need to be a big Adventure Time fan at all to enjoy Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW!, but it may help out considerably if you’re a fan of ancient dungeon crawlers, intentional use of 8-bit visuals and a certain classic four-player arcade dungeon crawler. Insanely busy developer WayForward Technologies has managed to capture all of those elements in this game, and while it’s a pretty straightforward experience, as a long time fan of anything dungeon related (er, don’t get any “whip-smart” thoughts in your noggins, people!), this one’s a fine bit of nostalgia that’s even more fun with a few friends along for the long haul. Going in solo is also enjoyable if you’re that old school (raises hand high!), but if you want to rack up more loot and enough money for gear and skill upgrades, you’ll need to pick your hero or heroine wisely. Survival can be pretty tough in the later maps when you’re alone and not able to get to those out of reach goodies…

There’s a plot here, but it’s pretty much just an excuse for Princess Bubblegum to send Finn and company spelunking down into 100 levels (five differently themed maps of 20 floors each) of increasingly tough monsters and often cheap bosses as you literally (or is it figuratively) try to get to the bottom of things and find out why and how prisoners keep escaping from that multi-level sewer system below the castle. Initially, you can choose to play as Finn, Jake the Dog, or Marceline the Vampire Queen, but you’ll eventually unlock a few other familiar (and very cool to use) playable characters as the game progresses. If you’re playing with friends, feel free to fight it out over who plays whom all night if you like (that’s actually a LOT less fun than actually playing the game, mind you). However, for solo play, I’d highly recommend Marceline or Jake because they can travel over pits to reach out of the way treasure. I went with Marceline for another reason (no, not because she’s “cute”, silly!) – her ability to absorb enemy shots to charge up her own special attacks is a lifesaver.

Each character has their own standard and strong attacks plus that aforementioned special attack that can be activated when you fill up an energy bar. Most characters can dodge or block and you can pick up and use an assortment of wacky weapons that range from useless (a bamboo pole that’s really weak, but knocks enemies down) to overpowered (a few special swords and oddball guns). In addition to an optional weapon, depending on the character, two to three tokens can be equipped that boost stats or add specific effects like faster running speed, an extra Thump (heart) immunity from certain attacks and more. As the dungeon layouts are completely randomized and get larger and more complex as you get deeper into the prison, calling up the map with the select button becomes a key survival tip. Granted, the map only shows your general location (as a square, probably in a nod to Adventure on the Atari 2600?) and the exit if you’ve come across it, but save for one area where darkness is used in a clever fashion, it’s virtually impossible to get lost if you’re paying attention.

The nods to Gauntlet come in the form of monster generators that need to be destroyed, the use of keys to open some gates and exits and Death making an appearance if you stay too long on some maps past a certain level. Clad all in white and yelling “I see you!” every few seconds, he’ll try to zap you with a tractor beam from across the screen and literally give you the kiss of death if you’re reeled in. This adds tension to the larger maps where if you get too greedy or too lost, you’ll be seeing him pop up to give you grief. Running out of keys can be a pain in the neck on maps where there are many gates and treasures tucked away, but there’s a fun workaround in maps with locked exits. If you’re key-less and walk over an exit door, a little key-carrying dude pops up and runs around until you grab the key he’s got atop his head. If you’re on a map with a locked exit and a few gates, you can grab a key and run back to the gate to unlock it and snatch up the goodies before getting a new key by heading back to the exit. Rinse and repeat, avoid Death if he appears and move on to the next set of maps.

Treasure you’ve earned from exploring can (and should) be used to upgrade each character in town from the different trainers. The cool thing is all your earn as one character goes into a pool so you can explore with anyone and buy upgrades for everyone. This is great because you can beef up all the playable characters while playing solo and when a friend or three pop in for a visit, you can go co-op and not have to worry about someone being a weak link. Sure, it’s cheap, but as the game doesn’t have a “level up” system and relies on a Legend of Zelda-like hearts system, it’s better to dive in with all the advantages you can. As you can’t bank gold at all (there’s a “tax” system in the game), you need to spend everything you can when you’re in town before heading back into the dungeon. Once you beat the first boss in the game, Choose Goose’s shop is unlocked, allowing you to pick up a few cool (and always changing) new items.

As the game only allows you to play ten levels at a time before automatically booting you back upstairs, a key to upgrading characters quickly is to replay missions from level 21 and onward where gold and drops come in larger amounts. As noted, using Jake or Marceline to bypass pits and grab all you can in solo play makes this bit of grinding more efficient and even better, you’ll be able to upgrade everyone’s special attacks to their maximum levels, which will come in very handy against mobs and some bosses. Speaking of, some bosses can be pretty cheap and tricky when first encountered (especially on the hardest difficulty), but all can be taken down with careful observation, dodging and generous application of whacks from a weapon.

Resolution aside, the game looks the same on both the Wii U and 3DS (and most likely every other platform it’s on). WayForward went with a retro 8-bit style to the sprites and cut scenes while making the environments top down 3D layouts. Yes, compared to faster paced platformers and other games, the characters move slowly. However, once you unlock a few items that increase their movement speed and have them constantly stocked, things improve dramatically. All the voice actors from the series pop in as your favorite characters and quip away randomly, but it’s the cut scenes where the game kills as the story plays out and that trademark Adventure Time humor comes forth. the music is decent and smile worthy stuff and overall, you get the feeling that a lot of fun was had making this project come to life.

The major difference with the Wii U version over the other console versions isn’t only that you can play on the Gamepad, it’s that when you play on your TV, BMO appears on that Gamepad and doles out some amusing hints and quips as you play. As I stuck to GamePad play most of the time, I didn’t find I missed this “feature” much when I switched from TV play. Your own mileage may vary, naturally. Sure, there’s no online play here, but “so what?” I say. This is the sort of game that ABSOLUTELY works best with friends around you, not with everyone sitting at home in their underwear (or less, eww!) yelling into a microphone. That and if you’re in an a area with a crap connection, you won’t be playing this online anyway. Hooray for low tech solutions in the too social age, I say!

Anyway, at the end of the day, Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! is a pretty cool sleeper that will probably appeal to fans of the show as well as gamers who love dungeon divers with a more deliberate pace than some of today’s lightning fast action hits. There’s enough here to keep you busy (including a bonus dungeon that will challenge the skilled and patient types) for a while and perhaps even hopping back in after you’ve completed the main quest. I’m not sure what plans are for future installments, but if there’s going to be another game coming, I’ll definitely be checking it out especially if WayForward is at the wheel…