Pokemon Sapphire Version

"Loses the magic of the older games.... *sorta spoilers*"

Well... not that I hate this game its just that, R/B/Y had the original magic, G/S/C improved gameplay and expanded the monsters that could be caught, doubled the badges, 2 new types and new moves, but what does R/S/E have? You will see...

Graphics 7/10
Improving on G/S/C with more colour and weather affects adding to the realism of Pokemon, It's those little things that take the score higher than G/S/C, with the sprites looking better than ever and the pictures of the Pokes you catch, the realism makes the Graphics just feel nice in general but nothing to spectacular but remember, graphics are'nt the key part of any game. Next, the story.

Story N/A
C'mon it's Pokemon, it dosen't have a story, but here, the usual, you pick your starter, crush your rival throughout the game (who is dropdead easy compared to Gary, and he was easy) and encounter the evil Team Aqua ( Magma for Ruby, both for Emerald, personally, I think the idea of opposing teams was cool, but Team Rocket just seems more evil than both of them) then you go and crush the elite 4, well, lets just say they are still easier than R/B/Y but harder than G/S/C but thats not saying much, at least Lance in G/S/C gave me a BIT of trouble, the hardest member of the Elite 4 In My Opinion was Drake, followed by Phoebe, but still... will the originals remain the only ones with a challenging E4?

Gameplay 8/10
Remains the highpoint of the Pokemon series, which is highly entertaining, and a challenge to collect and raise the ones you want, however, when you've done it once, you might not want to start a new game again, just to do the same thing again, you see what I mean? You might come back to it sooner or later, and I don't blame you, it's good to experience the joys of finding Feebas first time or getting your first shiney, but just not right away.

Lifespan 10/10
Trade,Battle,Collect, theres a hell of a lot to do, it all depends on how far you can push yourself to do these things as it soon wires thin and collecting and catching rare monsters gets repetitive and dull, so I'll leave you to decide on that one

Which Version?
In My Opinion, get Sapphire, chances are everyone else has Ruby, and you will have a clear advantage over them when you get pokes that they can't, plus, a few exclusives just make Sapphire more in my favour, but thats my opinion. Not fact

Conclusion, Don't get me wrong, R/S/E are great games, just overshadowed by their older counterparts, and exactly what the topic title says, remember having Pikachu and all the starters in Yellow or getting Suicune early in Crystal? R/S/E is limited on those magic memories
that made the others great.

Thank you all for reading my review, I hop it helped, thanks also to Gamefaqs for letting this review on, I hope you enjoyed it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/06