Forget Mario. Forget Link. Forget Samus. Love it or hate it, if
you want to talk about Nintendo’s biggest success of the past
several years, you have to talk about Pokemon. Pikachu and company
have easily become the biggest mainstream smash for Nintendo since
the days of the Nintendo Cereal System, as hordes of
hyperventilating ten-year-olds will attest. What has always set
Pokemon apart, however, is that it has always been a video game
first and a marketing machine second. Despite all the hype and all
the hysteria, the Pokemon games have always been solid RPGs, even if
they are skewed toward the younger set. Beneath the almost sickly
sweet exterior hides a surprisingly deep system filled with strategy
and depth, not to mention dozens upon dozens of hours of gameplay.
Enter
Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. The series’ long awaited arrival on the
Game Boy Advance promised over a hundred new Pokemon, improved
graphics and sound, new types of battles, and a Pokemon experience
that would make a generation of Pokemaniacs forget that Pokemon even
existed on another system. While they do deliver on most of these
promises, and do provide an extremely deep and fulfilling gaming
experience for a bargain price, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire also feel
like more of the same. Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad
thing; obviously, Nintendo realized that Pokemon wasn’t broke, so
they decided not to fix it. The result could have easily been a
garish approximation of Pokemon, with Mode 7 graphics up the wazoo
and stereophonic renditions of the Pokemon TV show theme playing in
the background constantly, but it’s not. Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire
play exactly as one would expect having played an earlier
incarnation, with enough variety to keep the series moving forward.
That
said, the story should be quite familiar for anyone familiar with
the series. Once again, you are a young Pokemon trainer who wants
to become the champion of the Pokemon League. Once again, you must
travel all over the land (Hoenn this time, as opposed to Johto or
Kanto) to collect the eight Gym Badges that you need to enter the
Pokemon League. Once again, you must challenge eight successively
more difficult Gym Leaders in order to win said badges from them.
(It should be said, however, that these Gym Leaders are much tougher
than those found in the earlier Pokemon games. If you don't have
the right group of Pokemon ready when you go to take them on, expect
to spend a lot of time training before you can progress onward.)
Once again, there is a group of evil-doers who you must bring down
in the process who come back to pester you time and again throughout
your journey. And, once again, your ultimate goal is to catch ‘em
all.
Of
course, there are differences that do set Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire
apart from theirs predecessors. First of all, Hoenn is a completely
separate continent from the previous lands of Johto and Kanto;
simply put, you can’t get there from here. Team Rocket is no more,
having been replaced by the warring factions of Team Magma and Team
Aqua. Team Magma is your arch-nemesis in Pokemon Ruby, and you are
actually helped by Team Aqua; the reverse is true in Pokemon
Sapphire. Finally, you’re not just some shmoe who walked off the
street and decided to become a Pokemon Master. Nope, you’re the son
or daughter (yes, you can choose your gender this time around) of
Norman, Gym Leader of the Petalburg Gym, who you will eventually
have to face in an emotional duel. OK, it’s only slightly
emotional, but it’s a nice touch.
The
starkest difference that sets Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire apart,
however, is the Pokemon mix. In order to make room in the roster
for all the new Pokemon that appear in this installment, some
Pokemon had to be left behind. In fact, a lot of Pokemon had to be
left behind, so many so that most of the Pokemon that are left are
new. Just about every Pokemon that was popular in earlier games
(except Pikachu, of course, who is still a royal pain to find) is
gone. It does force you to start fresh with new Pokemon, but some
of the new entries are a bit disappointing. Take, for example,
Corphish, which is essentially just a new drawing of Krabby, or
Taillow, the new Pidgey. I understand and appreciate the need to
create new Pokemon, and some of the new ones, like Numel or Sableye,
are excellent additions, but some of these allegedly “new” Pokemon
seem like they’re made from 90% recycled material. In all honesty,
I’d rather have the genuine article than a slightly altered version
of an existing Pokemon being passed off as a new Pokemon.
That
aside, though, this installment is pure Pokemon fun. Everything one
would expect from a good Pokemon game is here. While the games
still have the tendency to be a bit too subtle in pointing you
toward your next destination, the sheer variety of locales and
challenges that await you throughout your journey make even being
hopelessly lost an entertaining experience. Obviously there’s the
perennial aspect of catching wild Pokemon to add to one’s collection
and battling cocksure Pokemon trainers, but Pokemon Ruby and
Sapphire add some new aspects to the tried and true system. The
most immediately obvious is the inclusion of two-on-two Pokemon
battles. While they are somewhat few and far between, and not
strictly required in order to progress in the game (save one
particularly significant one), they do add an interesting twist to
the same old battling system. The Pokemon can complement each other
and not necessarily have to be jacks of all trades all the time. On
the same token, a move that is more or less useless in a regular
battle could be invaluable in a two-on-two battle. Unfortunately,
since there are so few two-on-two battles, the system really can’t
be exploited to its full potential, because it hardly seems
worthwhile to waste a perfectly good move slot on something that
really is only useful in 2% of duels. What’s nice, however, is that
there is a multiplayer option for two-on-two battling, and up to
four players can participate.
There
are a slew of other activities to entertain you when you need a
break from the main quest. The game center and Safari Zone return,
as does the Pokemon Day Care center for Pokemon breeding. New to
Ruby is the concept of Pokemon contests. In order to participate,
you must create different Pokeblocks (which are essentially Pokemon
food) from Berries you collect and grow throughout Hoenn. These
Pokeblocks increase various stats that have no real effect on
battling but can affect your Pokemon’s performance in the contests.
It’s an interesting system, but if collecting berries and grooming
your Pokemon doesn’t particularly appeal to you (as it didn’t to
me), that whole part of the game is completely optional.
One
other nice addition to the list of optional activities is that some
trainers want to challenge you for a rematch; you can find out which
trainers are gunning for you on the “Trainer’s Eyes” option on the
start menu. This alone is a huge improvement, as there are often
times when you’re stuck at a big battle with no money and no real
way to beef up your Pokemon significantly, and the ability to go out
and earn more money is just a huge plus.
Graphically, while the game stays true the original style of the
Pokemon games, there are definitely some marked improvements to the
visuals in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. The character drawings are
much more cartoony and smooth than previous incarnations, and move
animations are much more elaborate than the simple animations of the
previous games. While there are no Golden Sun-style Mode 7
extravaganzas for the moves, as that would be a bit too over the top
for Pokemon, the simple moves are jazzy enough that you don’t forget
that you’re playing on a GBA instead of GBC. There are some subtle
uses of the GBA’s graphical capabilities, like the mosaic effect
that pops up when you walk around with a poisoned Pokemon, but they
never really spoil the simple atmosphere of the game.
Sound
is less improved for the Game Boy Advance, but still tolerable, if
not pleasant. Generic background music plays, but the tunes are
neither particularly memorable nor overly offensive; they’re just
sort of there. The stock themes, like in-battle music, for example,
are improved upon a bit, but not so much that you’d really notice
any differences unless you were listening for them. My only
complaint, and perhaps it’s not entirely fair, is that the designers
didn’t take advantage of voice synthesis to give the Pokemon real
voices that match those in the cartoon. It didn’t really make or
break the experience for me, but it was a disappointment, knowing
what the GBA is capable of from games like Super Mario Advance, for
example.
Overall, while there is a lot of new additions to the Pokemon genre
with Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, the fundamentals still rule this
game. Thus, if you’ve tried Pokemon in the past and didn’t like it,
this installment won’t do much to change your mind. If, however,
you’ve never tried Pokemon and you’re comfortable enough with
yourself that you don’t mind playing a “kid’s game,” Pokemon Ruby
and Sapphire are well worth the $35 price tag. You’ll get at least
30 hours of play time out of the main quest, and that’s assuming you
don’t stop to smell any of the roses along the way. All said,
though, speaking as a veteran player, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire feel
more like an evolution of the series than anything else. And I
wouldn’t have it any other way.
