Dungeon Explorer[a] is an action role-playing video game developed by Atlus for the TurboGrafx-16 and originally published by Hudson Soft in Japan on March 4, 1989, and later in North America by NEC on November 15 of the same year.

Dungeon Explorer garnered positive reception from critics during its initial release and is considered a pioneer title in the action role-playing game genre due to its co-operative multiplayer gameplay for up to five players, but has been met with a more mixed response from reviewers in recent years.

[1][2][3] Each character belongs to a class (fighter, thief, warlock, witch, bishop, elf, bard, or gnome) and their abilities vary primarily in their black and white magic as well as statistics.

Dungeon Explorer was created by most of the same team that would work on several projects such as later entries in the Megami Tensei series, with Kazutoshi "Boo" Ueda and Yōsuke "HotRice" Niino acting as directors.

[4] Takashi "Hieimon" Hasegawa and Uni "oooo" Arato served as programmers, while artists Hideyuki "Tonny" Yokoyama, Hiroshi "BLADOE" Tsuji and Yoshiaki "Sting" Kitamura were responsible for the pixel art.

[7][17][18] Public reception was also positive; readers of PC Engine Fan voted to give the game a 23.66 out of 30 score, ranking at the number 60 spot in a poll, indicating a popular following.

[19] ACE and Computer and Video Games' Julian Rignall praised the visual presentation for its small but detailed animated sprites, atmospheric imaginative backdrops, stereo soundtrack, challenging but addictive gameplay, as well as the multiplayer mode.

They noted its combination of arcade-style action with role-playing game elements due to character-specific abilities and magic, as well as the freedom to search regions without requiring previous dungeon victories.

[13] Electronic Gaming Monthly's four reviewers referred Dungeon Explorer as a "better-than-average action/adventure title" similar to Gauntlet and felt that its mixture of text and adventure elements were fitting.

[6] Hobby Consolas' Sonia Herranz praised its small but sharp visuals, music, sound effects, addictive gameplay, ability to play with five players and choose between eight characters with their own attributes.

"[22] GameSpot's Greg Mueller commended its large and diverse dungeons, colorful graphics and catchy music but criticized the gameplay for being shallow, punishing difficulty and clunky password system.