Pokemon Emerald Version

"Gamefreak releases another remake... This one provides maximum replayability, though!"

Pokemon Emerald was one of my favorite Pokemon games in terms of gameplay and replayability, there are countless flaws on this game and more glitches than what you'd expect from an RPG. However, if you're into Pokemon games, I'd highly suggest adding this to your wishlist.

Gameplay 8/10
The Pokemon series gameplay is always based on pressing buttons and watching little animations, the battle frontier, berry blender, etc. helped give me a higher score for this game's gameplay, though. Some of the features the battle frontier offered was very interesting and enjoyable. I disagree with playing Pokemon for the gameplay, but this game is definitely an exception!

Story 4/10
Pokemon games stories have been going downhill pretty fast, this one basically repeats the other Pokemon stories with slight changes. You have to collect 8 badges, fill the Pokedex, and stop the evil team(in this case it's two teams: Team Aqua and Team Magma) from controlling or destroying the world. The story is too short to enjoy and it's pretty vague on certain parts, it still does its job for the most part, though.

Graphics 5/10
The graphics are mediocre for a Gameboy Advance game, there has been lots of GBA games that beat Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire in graphical quality. Emerald's slight graphical enhancements from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are too small to make that much of a difference. The backgrounds, however, are pretty decent and should get the point across.

Sound 7/10
The songs are based on opinion, as always. Pokemon Emerald's musical quality is decent, not the best and not the worst. Some tunes are fun to hear and they could even make you dance along with it! Other tunes are a pain to hear and you'll find yourself turning down the volume a bit. You can get by the entire game with the music at medium level, though, so the sound is decent for a GBA game.

Replay value 10/10
Pokemon games are always known for their replay value, you can easily spend more than 150 hours on this game and enjoy the vast majority of the time you spent with this game! After the very short 15 hour story, you could get about 100 hours in the battle frontier, and about 50 more hours for the other features it has. If you were looking for a game with good replay value, you've come across the right one!

Overall 6.8/10
Pokemon Emerald is decent for an RPG, there's many flaws but the game's strengths outweigh its weaknesses for the most part. Unlike the vast majority of RPG's, I believe the fun in this game starts AFTER the story, not before. Anyways, if you want a decent Pokemon game, you should definitely consider getting this one.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/09

Game Release: Pokemon Emerald Version (US, 04/30/05)