Pokemon Ruby Version

"Pokemon 3: The Pokemon are seeking revenge and are throwing balls at humans in a desperate attempt to capture them! Or rather not, thankfully..."

What a nice surprise. Rather then Lagunathemoron waiting a couple of years for a Pokemon game to be released for his Gameboy Advance, he took the matter in to his own hands. Before the Americans get the game, Lagunathemoron, your favourite reviewer got Pokemon Sapphire... the Japanese version. I first put down the game as another Pokemon Gold/Silver, I didn't like them one bit, however I loved Red and blue. The third true installment of the series, Ruby and Sapphire is on the Gameboy Advance, and is much better then the Gameboy Color edition.

Ash and the Gold/Silver hero is gone and this time we are introduced to a well drawn hero, either male or female. Our character resembles Ash Ketchum on the field screen, however on the battle screen he looks pure badass, with his small cap and giant white hair. The girl on the other hand looks quite chirpy, these is a great improvement for female games since Crystal.

As I do not know any Japanese language to date, I often get lost without a clue on what to do. I know when the main characters name is mentioned thanks to the included English name field. At the start of the game, our hero is in a lorry, he gets out and is greeted by a man who invites him inside his house. Inside the house are two of the same Pokemon, for those who don't now, Pokemon are the monsters in this game which you capture and train. Inside the house, you are told to do something and you go around pressing random buttons at objects until you come across a clock which you set the time, this means no more waiting for early pokemon at horrible times like we did in Pokemon gold, silver and crystal. Then you are allowed to explore town, starting with the infamous Pokemon starting lab and the neighbours.

Pokemon at last has a decent story. Rather then waking up out of bed and visiting the Pokemon professor, the main character starts off in the back of a lorry (as I explained before) and when he finally gets out of time, he spots a scientist being attacked. This is when choosing a Pokemon takes place, equipped with exciting music you can make your choice of a Chameleon type Pokemon, a water type or an owl on one leg(!). Once you make your choice, one grass, one fire and one water you battle the canine Pokemon.

The are many great difference from Ruby and Sapphire compared to the other installments. One notable one is the bad, the schoolbag has many different pockets, for example one will contain items, another Poke balls. The bad is confusing at first, especially for those who have imported the game but it is better and more flexible then ever before. Another feature is when leaving a building, an arrow kindly reminds us where the door is. You can examine everything, just press the ''A'' button in front of something like a computer, television or clock and a message will come up describing it, just like the SNES Zelda game.

Many things are back though, for example six pokemon on a team, fire, water and grass pokemon at the start (Why not lightning, bird and rock or fire, bug and psychic?) as well as your rival. The rival this time is a female if you are controlling a boy, or a male if you decided to play as the girl, and once again your rival chooses the Pokemon which has the advantage over you. Pokemon centres are back but this time the developers have made Nurse Joy look a little bit fatter.

Unfortunalty, the game does have several flaws, though not as many as Gold and Silver had. The character moves far too slow at times, and when you rename a Pokemon you can only use up to five spaces which is annoying when trying to call them by their English names, for example Kimori and Achamo for instance.

The graphics in Pokemon Sapphire are much better then those from Gold and Silver. This time, everything is in colour, just about everything is animated, including the flowers which move in the rain, reflections from water and great Pokemon detail. When the battles start, the main character doesn't just look like Wario disappearing, nope our character in fantastic detail throws the Pokéball on the ground releasing his Pokemon then running off screen. The typical white screens from the original games has also gone, this time, grass flashes on screen and goes as two circle arenas appear with detail on them, each holding a different Pokemon, ready for battle. The animations in the game are indeed fantastic, Never before has Pokemon looked so good.

The sound and music on the other hand hasn't exactly improved, usually it sounds like it does on the 8 bit game, come on Nintendo, this is the 32 bit age, surely you could have provided some tunes. The cries of Pokemon are quite on the poor side as they sound just like they did on the first three games, the music is good but again, not great. This changes once it gets to the battle music though, this is because the battle music is made to be quite exciting.

In my opinion, These two Pokemon games are quite good, but I do not recommend shelling out for a Japanese version like I did, I haven’t seen a Pikachu yet, it is crammed full of new Pokemon. I would wait for the English version if I was you, give Nintendo time to iron out the bugs from the Japanese version, and who knows, maybe within a year, Nintendo will bring out a third version like they did for Yellow and Crystal... Pokemon Jewelry anyone?

Good

- Great graphics
- Wonderful detail
- Major improvement
- Actually a story
- Pokemon is back

Bad

- Slightly confusing
- A bit hard to trade with the Japanese version
- The sound and music hasn't been updated much
- Quite a few flaws
- Pokemon is back (JOKING!)

Summary:

Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 3/10
Music - 4/10
Gameplay - 8/10
Story - 9/10
Challenge - 7/10
Enjoyment - 9/10
Lifespan - 10/10
Overall - 8/10

Alternatives: Whilst not as good as Red, Blue and Yellow, Pokemon Sapphire and Ruby are better then Gold, Silver and Crystal, therefore I recommend one of the first three colour games. If Pokemon does not appeal to you, Monster Rancher, Digimon and one of the many clones will suit your needs. You could always wait a couple of months and wait for news on the third Pokemon game (If there is one) and if you live in Europe, I highly recommend importing instead of waiting a very long time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/24/02, Updated 11/24/02