Partly Cloudy: Pokemon Review 3. R/S/E.

Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald.

Favourite game. Although Emerald is different and I haven’t played it yet. I’m going to buy it when I can find it. It’s hard to get atm. I loved the berries and the music is my favourite of the series and also, I really liked the new Pokemon. Even though gamers everywhere seem eager to diss this one, I liked it a lot. I actually clocked it!

http://au.gba.gamespy.com/gameboy-advance/pokemon-ruby-version/498107p1.html

This review above tells it all, in a good way.

Gameplay/Strategy:

I liked the extras best, of course. I enjoyed the layout of the map and all of the towns. If I remember correctly, there was one other thing that I liked, it was how you could go to certain houses and buildings and gather information about Gym Leaders and people on your list, like the Professor. It was like a treasure hunt, and you guessed it, I liked doing that too.

And everyone disses the Super contests, but I LOVED THEM! I spent so long on this game, because there was so much to do. I love it even now. I bought the Japanese version of Ruby and I’m going to get the English version of Emerald I think.

I even enjoyed making Pokeblocks.

Oh one thing, I never did get the hang of catching the roaming Pokemon legendaries. This game was no exception. Can’t ever be bothered with them.

Battles: The battles were great too, because of the 2 on 2 feature that they introduced. I liked that, it was a little more interesting. I’m glad they kept that on. I loved all the other features like Trainer’s Eyes, and the ability to match-call other trainers to have another battle. I was able to build a better team than in the previous games, for some reason.

And the re-battling feature enabled me to avoid as much tedious level grinding as before.

Graphics: Better than the other games preceding it but of course you expect improvement. I will admit after playing Black and then going back to Ruby, I was shocked at the difference (duh…). But what really bugged me was the colour drag/bleed whenever you moved around. I think I can get used to it but it is a bit annoying. I think the colours were a bit garish but still a vast improvement over Crystal. It isn’t fair to compare a past game with a future game, so I will keep my comparisons to G/S/C and not refer to FireRed etc.

Sound: The sound was good, that is, I liked it. I admit there it could have had a better sound quality, but I enjoyed it very much. I especially liked how in certain places, you could hear the cries of wild Pokemon. I suppose I consider Ruby as the turnaround stage for Pokemon as a game, in terms of sound and graphics.

Music: Loved it so much. Ruby music and the original music are the two game soundtracks which will always be on my mind. I wish I could buy just the music for my mp3 player. I would love to be able to play the music of Pallet Town or Mount Moon as I walk around or I’m on the bus to art school. I also enjoyed all of the music for R/S, especially the music of travelling between towns, and also I loved the music of Route 113. Even the opening music was amazing, although of course it was cheesey like all the Pokemon intros are. But it was still very cool.

Overall rating: ***** out of 5. I loved it and I will always love it,it is like the game was made for me. I just get such a good feeling from it, good memories from the times in the past when I was playing it, and of the actual game itself.

Fave R/S/E Pokemon:

For looks: I loved Zigzagoon and Linoone… I always seem to fall for the ferrety types. I also loved how they and Meowth and Sentret had the Pick Up ability. Although I might be wrong about Sentret… I don’t remember when they introduced abilities. For battling: Flygon. I just loved its strength and its design.

Pokemon I didn’t like much…: Hmmm....I guess Mawile, Meditite and Medicham. As for why... design and also they were annoyingly strong...

Fave In-Game Trade/s: Well, thinking about it, there weren't that many I can remember, and I don't think I felt any of them were good enough to do. So yeah, not sure... (^_^); Btw sorry about the diff font here, can't seem to fix it.

Ok, looking over the list on Serebii.net, I realize why I loved Ruby so much. I actually enjoyed all of the Pokemon’s designs. I loved the graphics of this game. http://www.serebii.net/pokemon_advance/numbers.shtml

My Team:

Blaziken

Mightyena

Flygon

Ninetales

Groudon (sometimes but not really)

Golduck

Raichu

I switched in Altaria and Manectric as well sometimes. Man, I miss these guys. I have to buy that game.

Here is an Emerald review. Maybe I will stick to Ruby after all…

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/r_pokemonemerald_gba

Ah, I remember. Apparently the most awesome thing about Emerald is Rayquaza. Well, I can't tell you if it is amazing from first-hand knowledge since I never played Emerald and never had a Rayquaza. But I heard it has the highest stats EVER. Out of all of the Pokemon in existence. This may be entirely rumor. Look it up on the serebii.net's Dex and see. I know Rayquaza looks amazing, and also I think it levitates too. I'm a sucker for levitating Pokemon.