Pokémon Ruby Version
A review by iN008.

Poke-things.
Pokémon has been around for quite some time, over 15 years now. Pokémon was first conceived in 1996 by Satoshi Tajiri and was later brought internationally in 1998 with the release of the original games, these games became a huge-hit and spawned a multimedia franchise, from manga to anime, of-course it didn't leave it's video-game origin in the dust as many new incarnations soon followed the success of the original games, from Red and Blue to Yellow, to Gold, Silver and Crystal, and the first of the 3rd generation, Sapphire and Ruby. Each game brought something to the table and continued to add to the massing amount of species they are of Pokémon.

3rd Gen.
With Ruby and Sapphire came the first of the third generation, these two games were either loved or disliked by the original fans as a few of them decided they disliked the future installments of the franchise. However a large majority of the fan-base continued to enjoy the games and many more children and adults a like joined in and had as much fun as the rest of them. The games were the first to bring Pokémon into the world of full color, but that was all it brought, 2 on 2 battling along side other features such as Pokémon Contests and berry changes. These features, excluding contests being replaced in the HG and SS, became a common sight within the future Pokémon games.

Graphics and Design : 8/10
Beginning off you, like in generation 2, can be either a boy or girl, this time using characters that would appear in the anime, unlike the previous games, just ignore the fact Brendan only appeared once in the anime and made cameos in three movies... These characters look pretty good, they look a lot more like their anime and manga counter-parts and overall their designs were pretty solid, the animations of the over-world sprites looked good and overall the quality was very nice. The previous 251 Pokémon in addition to the new 135 Pokémon were now in full color and looked remarkable, there shinies could now be seen clearly and they finally looked more like their anime counterparts. This was a great step forward for the Pokémon designs as the previous handhelds restricted their designs heavily. Each attack had a decent animation much better than those in the original 6 games and had been given a lot more detail and looked great, however I myself usually disable fight animations as I like to speed through the game. As for other sprites within the game, supporting character or trainer alike, these looked pretty good and had quite a nice look overall.

As the over-world is concerned, this is probably the biggest draw-back of the game. You see the over-world tiles looked quite bad, however this was their first attempt on the Game Boy Advance and they later improved the graphics with Fire-Red and Leaf-Green. These however never really caused to much withdrawal from the game and it still looked quite good. It must be the nostalgic feel of being one of my most played generation, but I really like how shabby the over-world actually is, it adds to the charm and I really enjoy it. Be it underwater or in a cave the graphics looked okay to me and perhaps I'm just nostalgia blind, but I love the feel of revisiting the places with unique graphics such as diving. As for cut-scenes they are fairly limited and the only real cut-scenes don't appear until Emerald. However you do get the HM cut-scenes, these are fairly normal and don't interfere with the game-play much. Overall the graphics may be shabby but I love them non-the-less and there really isn't any reason not to as most of the game, sprite wise is very good and of a high quality.

Sound : 8/10
The music within the game is very nice and great, the advancements in handheld technology allowed for a much more inspiring experience as it allowed more advanced tracks to be played, many of the tracks played within Ruby and Sapphire and calming and charming, many of them fit into their location, adding to the atmosphere, battle music is intense and enjoyable and getting that random encounter music has never been as thrilling, the music kept an amazing standard high for later games to come. For example Sootopolis City's music is one of the better town music and has a great sound to it, this with one of the most iconic rival themes in my opinion, which is yet to be beat for me, made the game fantastic music wise! As per the attack sounds, these are all great and many of them are quite satisfying to here multiple times, be it getting your opponent down to the lack spec of life and taking him down with that move you so dearly love or even the simply effect you get from shocking an enemy, whatever you do it's such a great experience and quite memorable. Heck even the most basic action of cutting grass away using HM one is quite satisfying with the swooshing noise. My favorite theme from this game has to be the rival battle theme, this is by far one of my favorite tracks in Pokémon, and my favorite rival battle theme to date.

Addictiveness and Replay-ability : 10/10
Oh god this game is addictive! Not only does it have one of the largest replay-ability aspects of any franchise but it also offers a great experience each time you play. The game can be played for a long length of time, fighting the elite four as many times as you wish and maxing your team, or you can start again with a whole new team set up and experience so much more, through-out replaying you can find new things each time and it really is some of the most satisfying things about the replay-ability. As I said, each time you can start with a whole new team set up and try out new Pokémon and eventually you'll find your team. But not only does the game have a great replay-ability factor, it is also very addictive from maxing out and perfecting your team's EV points to mastering tactics the game offers so much, even if your not so into the battling aspect you can enjoy yourself through contests, breeding and even to some extent exploring, the game offers such a vast area to explore, from the mountainous regions to the wide and deep ocean and beneath the waves you've always got somewhere to go. Another great part is that you can do what you want most of the time, sure you can continue with the story but you can still do a lot.

Depth : 10/10
The game is full of depth, from length to the choices within the game it's just so great. Starting off the game is of a decent length, whether you go to max your team out or not, you've still got a bumpy road to the elite four, the game offers quite a decent experience with length as the length is ultimately decided upon how much you intend to do. For example, you can add a great amount of time to your play-through by doing contests and completing your PokeDex. This adds quite the significant amount to the games length as the length is all up to what challenges you go for. As for choice the game is littered with it, be it picking a Pokémon to training it, whether you casually train or invest time into EV training everything is up to you and you alone. If you want to breed, it's up to you, if you want to max your team, it's up to you, if you want to invest time into pokeblocks and contests.... you get the picture, there is a lot on offer and you get to pick how much of that offer you want. Be it a more complete experience or not. As for experience the game offers a unique experience when considering the fact unlike before the game features two Pokémon teams instead of the usual one, this added a new experiences as it allowed the player to see new things within the game story wise. Each play-through gave unique experiences and it was overall fantastic to revisit and play for this review. I managed to beat the game in a day using speed ups and a minimalistic team.

Story 8/10
You start off in a moving van, after moving from another region, most likely Johto, you move to Little-root, this is quite a refreshing change as previously you started off living in the town not moving into it. After setting up your clock you meet the neighbors, specifically your rival and their dad whom you save and receive your first Pokémon from, instead of being given one you fight with one first. After this you go through to Petalburg meet your dad and help a local kid catch his first Pokémon, this kid being Wally your SECOND rival so yeah Black and White wasn't the first to do so. Then you begin your travels, saving a Devon corp employee in Petalburg Woods from a member of a suspicious re-occurring team Magma, this team has a rival team called Team Aqua that seems to aid you in your fights against Magma. This is the polar opposite of how they act in Pokémon Sapphire. With this you continue through the game, stopping Groudon and Beating the elite four. So yeah sure the story's basic formula has been done before but it throws a lot more in such as two teams and two rivals, and having to stop a team from using a rampant Pokémon is something that wasn't used all that much yet in the franchise. Overall the story is pretty good as it does add quite a few bits and bobs into the original formula and does so effectively.

Difficulty N/A
This game, is pretty much as difficulty as you make it, if your trying to make it difficult for yourself use an under-leveled team, if your struggling level up your team. This really what I said in depth, as you see your choices are all up to you, if you got for a specific team set up the game may or may not be easier so really it's a varying factor. For example if your really want a challenge don't use type advantages and use an under-leveled team, this would mean items would come into use, what I mean by this for example, in Platinum I used a single under-leveled Pokémon to beat the elite four and champion, it was a level 40 Snorlax with max def and half evs in attack and hp, this with the item I picked made it possible. As you can see, you are the limit to this game. As for game-play itself, standard game-play can be easy and you can easily beat the game using the right Pokémon, the mechanics haven't changed much from the original games besides the obvious EV and double battle systems. Heck the most important mechanic change is that of how EVs and IVs word as with this generation the system was changed and items were introduced to speed up EV training as you could no longer max out all your pokemon's stats. The design of gyms were challenging at times as many of them were puzzles and offered something unique each time, for example Mossdeep Gym (Tate and Liza) was a challenging gym to get your head around at first but after a while you got a hang of it. Many of the gym fights and the elite four + champion were the hardest fights in the game as many of these used items more effectively than the fights outside, however they weren't that hard overall, but as I said using under-leveled Pokémon will make the difficulty increase if you wish it to. Finally the controls are solid, the menu is easy to navigate and the even the battle interface is perfect, your even able to re-organize your moves within battle using select.

Overall : 8.8/10
This game is a fantastic game, whether you play this or sapphire it's worth your time, emerald adds more to the mix such as a better story line and a whole new challenging battle frontier, however if you want a more basic experience then this is the game for you. Not only does it foof such a fun experience it offers multiple experiences and multiple ways to play. With that in mind I think I will recommend you to play this as I myself have the game IRL and I've almost completed it right (as in pokedex, contests and elite four) with only a few Pokémon missing. So do I think it's worth it? Heck yeah, and even if you disliked the game at first I urge you to give it a chance, perhaps you just dislike it since you grew up. As for me, Pokémon will always be my gateway to childhood.