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

The game's title sums up the whole thing: it doesn't know how to be a good game.

### Genre

Action-adventure
Dungeon Crawler

### Platforms

PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
Microsoft Windows
Nintendo 3DS
Wii U

### Release Date

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
EU: November 15, 2013
NA: November 19, 2013
AU: November 21, 2013
Microsoft Windows
WW: November 19, 2013
Nintendo 3DS, Wii U
NA: November 19, 2013
AU: December 12, 2013
EU: December 13, 2013

### Publisher

WW: D3 Publisher
PAL: Namco Bandai Games

### Predeccesor

Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!!

### Successor

Adventure Time: Battle Party

Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know! is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by WayForward Technologies and published by D3 Publisher. Based on the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time.

In December 2016, Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know! was removed from digital stores, likely due to the license expiring.

## Why It Doesn't Know That It Sucks

1. The most fundamental problem is that there is nothing interesting to be found in the dungeon. Nothing whatsoever. There are no cool enemies, no hidden routes or secret passageways, there are no stranded characters or mini-stories or sub-quests to find, and most bafflingly there is no good loot. Basically, all you ever find is money. When you lose a boss battle, you have to pay half of it to try again.
2. Aesthetically, it goes for 16-bit retro, depicting its characters as colorful sprites and opening with a chiptune rendition of the awesome theme tune, but the execution messes up even this simple set of ideas.
3. Outdated hardware: Much like Arthur! Ready to Race and the 2002 Bratz video game, this game was released for the PS3, Windows, Wii U, 3DS, and Xbox 360 in November 19, 2013, which should be noted that this game came out 4 days after the PS4 and the Xbox Ones launch, so why not release it for them?
4. Some characters can float over pits and others can't, which makes staying together difficult, and results in everyone wandering in disparate directions rather than working together as a team. It doesn't matter much, as working together is pointless when characters don't have complementary moves or skills.
5. The enemies, meanwhile, are stunningly generic. With a cartoon universe as madcap as Adventure Time to draw upon you would hope that you'd encounter more than skeletons, blobs, and bats, but most of the time that's what you'll be smashing.
6. The game freezes a lot, even when it was patched, which is sad since this game was developed by WayForward Technologies, the same developer for the Shantae series, and most of their games are much more stable and fine-tuned. It feels like that the game wasn't properly checked for errors/crashes in the code.
7. The game title is extremely weird. It looks like as if the creators copied a piece of the script from a budget movie in the middle of the night, or so it seems, even if it tries to be funny like the show itself.
8. In the 3DS port, there is no multiplayer, making the game more tedious than usual. Granted, the 3DS doesn't support split-screen, but there was potential for device-to-device multiplayer as well.
9. You can only save your progress every 5 levels and losing means you have to start from the first of those 5 levels again.

## Redeeming Qualities

1. At least it stays somewhat true to the tv show.
2. Decent spritework and soundtrack.
3. The characters have different and unique abilities, resulting in more varied gameplay.

## Reception

Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know! received negative reviews. On Metacritic, the PS3 version has a 40/100 rating, 47/100 for Xbox 360, 40/100 for Wii U, and 33/100 for 3DS, while on GameRankings, the game has a 37.80% rating for PS3, 50.71% for Xbox 360, 46.33% for Wii U and 32.25% for 3DS.

## Trivia

Despite getting a negative reception by critics, however, the show's creator, Pen Ward, declared this video game as the only semi-canonical Adventure Time-related media that connects to the show, as something related to Princess Bubblegum's origins.