Pokemon Emerald Version

"A New Beginning? A Review of Pokemon Emerald"

Whenever a new Pokemon game appears, you find countless user reviews saying "Pokemon is old! It's the same thing over again!" or "The games just keep getting better! Another improvement in the series!" But no one seems to take the time out to review the game as an individual game -- they review the series and summarize why they think game is better or worse than the rest.

What if (as crazy as it sounds) the reader had never played a Pokemon game before? Or at least what if they've never really taken time to get into it? Either way, Pokemon has evolved quite a bit from when it started while keeping the basic game well in-tact. And despite its childish appearance, Pokemon Emerald can make a great companion to anyone's GBA library... for those of us willing to overcome the embarrassment when telling our spouses, coworkers, or classmates that we're playing "that Pokemon game."

So what is Pokemon Emerald?

Pokemon Emerald is a game about the world of Pokemon, which you probably well know by now is a world where monsters called "Pokemon" inhabit the lands. These monsters can be captured in a device called a Pokeball and stored in your pocket - hence "Pocket Monsters." Once captured, you can use the monsters as your companions -- train them, battle them, breed them, enter them in contests, and more. Use them to capture other creatures for a goal of capturing all 386 monsters available in the game.

This game is a turn-based role-playing game, which means you'll be spending most of the game navigating menus to strategically decide what actions should happen. There's no real "action" involved, so you won't have to worry about your coordination, timing, or normal videogame skills to proceed in the game... but sadly, this is what a lot of people would like. So take caution if menu-driven RPGs are not your thing.

The game revolves solely around the strategy aspect and the focus on the creatures. It's hard to review the graphics, sound, story, etc. of Pokemon Emerald, or any Pokemon game, because all the time was put into the endless things you can do with your Pokemon and the strategies you can use to do it. It's honestly not that far from a text adventure with graphics. With little story and pretty bad graphics, trying to review those is difficult, considering the game's nature.

In respect to the series, Pokemon Emerald is the third game in the 3rd generation games, an add-on to Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire. Like each generation in the series, the third game comes after the original pair and adds unique tweaks and features to its predecessors. Currently, Pokemon Emerald makes use of every special feature possible added throughout the series (Unlike Fire Red and Leaf Green, which were missing things such as Secret Base and Pokemon Contest).

...Right. So what is this game about?

In Pokemon Emerald, you take the role of Brendan or May (male or female, with a customizable name to place yourself in the Pokemon world if you desire), the child of a Pokemon Gym Leader who recently moved into Littleroot Town, the small home to a few residents and the Pokemon Professor, Birch. Shortly after arriving, you find Professor Birch attacked by a wild Pokemon just outside your hometown. Grabbing a Pokemon out of his bag, you fight off the wild raccoon and save the day. Awarding you for your bravery, Brich gives you the monster you chose as a partner and asks you to go on a Pokemon Journey for him.

The main reason for your journey is to help him complete the Pokedex: an encyclopedia of all the species of Pokemon in the world. In order to add an entry, you must catch a Pokemon with a Pokeball. This is done by battling the Pokemon and tiring it out, then throwing the ball at it. The beaten creature will try to escape, but if you've done a good job in battling it, you could have yourself a new partner and entry in the Pokedex. It will take 386 total captures (they also can be made by breeding your Pokemon, evolving your Pokemon, or trading with friends) to fill your dex.

To make sure you find many different species, you'll be sent around the world collecting Gym Badges with your team of six battling pets. Most towns have a Pokemon Gym where you can battle a few trainers and finally the Gym Leader. Defeat this powerful foe and you'll have a new badge. Collect eight of these badges and you can fight the toughest trainers in the entire world, the Elite Four. Defeating the Elite Four crowns you as the Pokemon Champion, or the best battler in the land. Champion status gives you access to places you've never seen before, and of course, more monsters to collect.

Along your way, there are many things to do. There are plenty of places to explore: forests, caves, a desert, a rainy plain, and even the bottom of the ocean. Each place is filled with monsters -- rare and common -- ready for collecting and training. You'll meet countless other trainers on your journey, who upon catching sight of you will challenge you in a match of Pokemon. You can battle in one on one matches, making substitutions through the battle, or even have Double Battles with four Pokemon on the field at once. Sometimes an onlooking trainer could see you beginning your match and join the battle with you. Each city you come across will have its own charm, from lotteries, to contests to enter your Pokemon in, to shopping centers to buy dolls and decorations to display in your room or secret base (which you can put in a tree, small cave, or large bush). Reporters could stop you along your way and interview you, which will make you show up on the TVs across the world, and if you link up with a friend, you could show up on their TV, too.

But the life of your character is not just travelling around and meeting friends and catching new partners; you'll get caught up in the meddling of Team Magma and Team Aqua -- crazy gangs set on increasing the world's landmass or water level. You'll entangle stories of your life with fellow trainers: Your neighbor May or Brendan, depending on who you chose in the beginning, the other character becomes your best friend and rival; a sickly boy named Wally whom you help become healthier and learn about Pokemon; a powerful, traveling man, Steven; a strange man on a quest to find tons of trainers; and many more.You'll be send on plenty of sidequests, helping out gym leaders or unraveling mysteries. There are plenty of mysteries that are even rarely hinted at in the game. Without using a guide, you'll find endless hours of exploration and puzzle solving.

The real question: Why should I play it? Or why shouldn't I?

Well, Pokemon Emerald is definitely a fun game. If you like collecting or like the idea of raising teams of monsters, this is obviously a game for you. The game is completely strategy/menu-based, so don't expect a lot of action when you pick it up. The difficulty is set well -- a fan of the series will have no trouble knowing what type of Pokemon to use in what situations, and they'll be able to raise a good team and find difficulty in collecting certain Pokemon, and definitely in the battle tent and battle frontier features. People who are new to the series or haven't really played since the old Gameboy debut will find that they have to keep learning about Pokemon and put some effort into the game, making an enjoyable experience. The game is never too hard where it gets frustrating, and never too easy where it gets boring, even if you call it a "kids' game."

Which is the next reason why you'd probably be skeptical about playing it. With cartoons and trading cards and cute graphics, it's easy to see that this game is targeted at a very young audience. But just like other popular media from Japan, things might not be as childish as they look. Looking past the kiddie graphics and the millions of toddlers running around with stuffed Pikachu dolls, look at the gameplay you'll be faced with. Besides just matching up types, Pokemon strategy can get very involved. Complex mathematical formulas, hidden values, and a lot of thinking awaits you if you plan to play the game to its fullest. The chance of a child of the seemingly-targeted kindergarten age would have the mindset and attention span to spend over fifty hours tallying numbers, reading menus, and devising breeding chains to develop an Ariados with Signal Beam attack, a Sassy nature, and +63 to its Attack stat is really slim. Though I can't deny that Pokemon is a children's game, I can honestly defend that it has advanced strategies that even adults can enjoy.

The bottom line: If you love strategy, challenging friends (or computers) to battles, collection, unlocking, or just like cute animals, this is a game for you. If you want to race, run, jump, and rely on your reaction, timing, coordination, and not sit through menus as a method of playing, you might want to avoid this game. If you're into heavily story-driven RPGs like Final Fantasy, you might not enjoy Pokemon's focus on strategy rather than any type of real story, you might be hesitant to buy this game. All in all, if you've never played a Pokemon game (or haven't since the originals), I recommend you at least try Pokemon Emerald. With all the current features added and tons of new features just for Emerald itself, it is a perfect introduction into the world of Pokemon.

But there are so many! Why Emerald?

Well, why should you play Emerald and not another Pokemon game? Sure you have the choice of playing any current-generation game (Ruby, Sapphire, LeafGreen, FireRed, Emerald), but what's so great about Emerald? Well, Pokemon Emerald is the most complete game to date in the series. Along with having all the new features added along with Ruby and Sapphire (such as Secret Base and Pokemon Contests) and the few added to Leaf Green and Fire Red (like compatibility with the wireless adaptor and the Union Room), it has plenty of new features, too. Aside from just cosmetic updates (this game got a minor makeover, everything looks slightly better and more detailed now, but nothing too extreme), there is hours and hours of added gameplay. The main advertised new feature is the Battle Frontier. Here, tournaments of the best trainers are held with prizes, trophies, and more. There are so many added places to the Battle Frontier that it's almost like an entire second game for pro players after finishing the main game. Battle the ultimate champion trainers or explore a battle pyramid. The time you can spend with Pokemon Emerald is endless. And if you want to just beat the game and quit, without dishing out tons of your life to get through it... you can. You can finish the main game without sidequesting or going on to the battle frontier in around 30 hours (short for an RPG!) Though if you plan to create master-level teams, explore all the secret areas, catch all the Pokemon, and battle in the Battle Tent and Battle Frontier areas, you can see over 100 hours of Pokemon training, battling, and loving in your future.

What's bad about it?

I can't just say that everything about Pokemon Emerald is great. There are a lot of downsides to this game, like any game, and it is really up to you to decide which outweighs the other. The major downside to this game is the price. Now, like many people complain about Nintendo games, you can't get the full experience with the game and console alone. No, you'll need more if you want to capture all 386 monsters in this game. In fact, besides just your Emerald cartridge and your GameBoy Advance, you're going to need Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, Leaf Green, and Fire Red versions, a GameCube with Pokemon Colosseum, a GBA Link Cable, and a GBA-to-GCN Connector Cable, a full estimated retail value of almost $300. Not to mention you're going to have to travel back in time to go to some special Nintendo events (and pay to travel to them) in order to get a few very elusive Pokemon -- and you'll still be missing the mysterious Pokemon Celebi, which has still never been introduced to us English-speaking players. If you're not interested in getting every last Pokemon ever made available, this won't be a problem, but when you find out the cute or powerful monster that you saw your friend playing with isn't it your version, you're out of luck.

Which is the next point: you need friends. Pokemon is a worthy one-player game for a while, but a lot of its excitement is in trading, battling, and competing in contests with your friends or other Pokemon players. Without friends who play this game (and it's hard to convince someone else that "Pokemon is cool"), you're not going to get the multiplayer experience that the games are based upon. There are plenty of trainers to battle you in the game, and a few in-game trades, but a lot of Pokemon's enjoyment comes from bragging rights. "My Pokemon are better than yours."

The graphics in this game are quite lacking. While they are improved on the older versions, Pokemon is always just mediocre sprites that don't move very much. The game doesn't focus on graphics, but sometimes staring at the same things can get old. The most you'll see of your favorite Pokemon is the front and the back, there is very little animation (though the Pokemon move around when they first come out, it is usually 2 or 3 frames mixed with distortion/turning of the image). The Pokemon don't even move when they attack; in fact, you have the option of making the battles not animate at all (proving that the focus is on the strategy and gameplay in battling, not the graphics). But if you're looking for a game that looks pretty with all kinds of graphic enhancements, stay far, far away from Pokemon Emerald.

Conclusion

If you have friends that play Pokemon (which also eliminates the need to buy other versions, because you can trade with them), then there isn't much to say bad about this game. While a lot of people will tell you that this is just another game starring Pikachu that is made to milk money out of kids bullying their parents into buying it, there's no problem with that if you can sit for hours on end enjoying yourself with it every day.

Should you rent this or buy it? Well, it doesn't matter. If you are actually curious about this game, try it out! I doubt you'll be dissatisfied, whether you're an old Pokemon fan wondering whether this yet-another-game is worth yet-another-thirty-five, or if you're an interested bystander still hesitant to play a Pokemon game. Pokemon Emerald could very well become a new favorite in your collection, so give it a try.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/05