Whilst many skeptics claimed that the franchise had hit its prime and was in rapid decline, Nintendo decided to prove them wrong with the release of Ruby and Sapphire. Touting 2 vs 2 battles as the innovative feature in this generation of Pokemon, the games were released in Japan late 2002 and have since gone on to sell over two million copies each in their homeland. Was it hype that sold the games, or are they genuinely good? Read on to find out...
Same Old, Same Old...
Following the established formula of every other Gameboy Pokemon game, you start off in a small town and get to choose one of three starting Pokemon - in this case Treecko (Grass Lizard), Torchic (Fire Bird) or Mudkip (Water Lizard). After you've picked your favourite, your adventure begins.
Your aim is to make your Pokemon battle others to give it experience. Once it breaks certain experience thresholds, it gains levels, learns new battle moves, and evolves into more powerful creatures.
To start a battle, you can either talk to other Pokemon trainers throughout your travels and challenge them, or find them in the wild. If you do happen to encounter a wild Pokemon, you can choose to either battle it, or try to capture it, thus starting the cycle again. It's a proven gameplay formula, and it's still very entertaining.
Adding to the complexity of the battles are the various alignments that your creatures belong to. Using a fire move against an ice aligned Pokemon will prove to be super effective, whilst using the same fire move against a water Pokemon isn't exactly the smartest thing to do. This added element of strategy is what makes the battles exciting, as you'll never know what sort of Pokemon will be standing in your way next.
The new addition to the franchise are the 2 vs 2 battles, in which four creatures battle onscreen at the same time. Whilst they're fun and a refreshing change from the usual 1 vs 1 battles, they occur very infrequently, which is slightly disappointing. The inclusion of a second Pokemon on your team alters the strategy significantly depending on alignment, and the battles can become incredibly deep and complex.
Prepare For Trouble!
The Pokemon franchise isn't known for its compelling storylines, and these games are no exception. Depending on the version you decide to buy, the bad guys will be either Team Aqua or Team Magma, each with their own grand visions of creating a utopia for their favourite types of Pokemon. Throughout your journey in the land of Hoenn, you'll periodically encounter and have to thwart the 'bad' team's plans.
As always your main objective is to become the Pokemon Master by defeating the Elite Four trainers, but the accompanying parallel 'team' storylines have enough substance to keep the lengthy game from getting boring.
Ruby and Sapphire are filled with many fun distractions for times when you want to give the main quest a break. You've got the casino with Slot Machines and Roulette tables, you can run errands for certain characters, you can make a Secret Base and decorate it with a huge variety of furniture and dolls, and perhaps the biggest feature - the Contest mode - which encompasses Berry Growing, Pokeblock Making, and showing off your Pokemon's skills in one of five areas - Cool, Beauty, Tough, Smart, and Cute. Each move that a Pokemon learns is sorted into one of the aforementioned categories, so if a creature knows a lot of Cute moves, it should accordingly be entered into a Cute contest.
To boost their chances of pulling off moves successfully, you should feed your Pokemon 'Pokeblocks' which are made from Berries in the 'Berry Blender' - a simplistic minigame where you must tap the A button when a spinning arrow hits your position. Different types of berries boost different attributes of a creature, so when making Pokeblocks you should take that into consideration. A nice little Harvest Moon style touch is the ability to grow Berries by planting them in soil patches beside the main routes. If you take care of them by periodically watering them with a pail, then you'll be rewarded with many berries. These plants can take several days to grow, so you'll have to be committed to them if you want to reap the benefits.
What's The Catch?
Don't be fooled by the flashy intro - the graphics in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are surprisingly simplistic, bordering on GBC quality. The games are certainly more colourful and there's plenty of little effects that will put a smile on your face, but they certainly don't push the capabilities of the GBA hardware at all. The battle scenes haven't been improved much either, as the static creature images are warped and manipulated to show the effects of an attack. Fortunately, the games feature a very clean and intuitive interface, which is great considering you'll be wading through an onslaught of menus throughout your journey. While the graphics aren't revolutionary, they adequately get the job done.
Pokemon Piano Sonata
Where the graphics fail, the audio succeeds admirably. Each town you travel to has it's own distinct theme song, and it's generally of a very high standard. Since the Pokemon games have traditionally been aimed at children, most of the songs are upbeat, catchy, with addictive repeating melodies that get stuck in your head days after you've put the games down. The majority of the sound effects are standard GBA fare, with 'bleeps and bloops' comprising most of the sound library, and it works very well - they're never intrusive and never get on your nerves. The only major letdown in this department is the lack of Pokemon voices. Each creature has a synthesized screech or growl, but it would have been nice to include the voices from the TV show and movies to give them more personality. Considering the limited size of the GBA cartridges and the amount of Pokemon in the game, it's understandable that they weren't included.
Keeps On Keeping On...
Let me be straightforward - this game will last you as long as you want it to last. If you decide to keep raising your Pokemon after you've finished the main quest, you can do so, indefinately lengthening the games. That can work to your advantage with the impending release of Pokemon Colloseum - the GCN version of the Pokemon Stadium games. You could easily clock up 60+ hours if you dedicated time to completing your Pokedex, trading, and battling Pokemon with friends. If you're looking for a time waster, look no further.
- That was lame.
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