Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know!

Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know is an adaptation of the colorful and comedic cartoon Adventure Time, featuring the courageous Finn and his sidekick dog, Jake. Together with a slew of other characters, Finn and Jake must explore the massive Royal Dungeon, urged on by the lovely Princess Bubblegum. With four-player co-op and retro-inspired visuals, this is a top-down action game with plenty of replayability. For fans of classic dungeon-crawling games like Diablo, this Adventure Time title offers familiar gameplay with some fun characters and environments.

Main Game Features

• 4-play co-op
• 8 unique playable characters
• Nostalgic dungeon-crawling gameplay

Story

At the beginning of Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know, Princess Bubblegum is relaxing in her castle. Deep below in the Royal Dungeon, prisoners are escaping, and no one is exactly sure how.

After the adventuring duo Finn and Jake show up to chat, Princess Bubblegum orders them to explore the dungeon and figure out what's wrong. Apart from this short intro, Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon doesn't spend too much time on the story. You'll run into a few characters as you progress through the dungeon's many floors, but there's never a lot of plot development. That said, this game is far more about the gameplay experience than the narrative, as it takes inspiration from other classic top-down titles like The Binding of Isaac.

Gameplay

Although you're only able to play as Jake, Finn, Cinnamon Bun, and Marceline at the start of the game, you'll unlock new characters as you make some progress. In total, the game includes eight unique characters to try, each with their own experience level and special ability. The Royal Dungeon is split into 100 floors with randomly-generated layouts, each one infested with all manner of deadly creature and traps. Don't worry, it's not just 100 floors of damp and dingy dungeon design. You'll fight through ice caves, rooms filled with lava, and much more.

Your main objective on each floor is to find the exit, all while collecting various items and gold along the way. New weapons can be collected by killing enemies, allowing you to expand your arsenal and combat abilities. There aren't a ton of weapons, and some of them are way better than others, but it's still enjoyable to experiment as you discover new stuff. To keep things refreshing, you'll only play 10 floors at a time, usually ending with a challenging boss fight. Then, you're free to explore a small hub area where you can spend your collected gold on character upgrades and ability tokens. Although this can get repetitive after a while, the gameplay loop of dungeon-crawling and upgrading your character is satisfying.

Conclusion

When you combine the game's hack-and-slash combat with the somewhat repetitive level design, Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon winds up as a fun but underwhelming dungeon-crawler. It's much more fun when played with a full party of four players, which speeds up progression and makes enemy encounters easier to deal with.

The cast of eight playable characters is well-rounded, featuring both main and supporting characters. Unlocking and trying out each character is fun and gives you something to work toward, which helps when the game starts to feel grindy.

Pros

• Lots of unlockable characters, weapons, and abilities
• Cool bosses
• Entertaining co-op gameplay

Cons

• Gameplay loop gets repetitive
• Some puzzles are tedious
• Very little storytelling