Although I've never been a friend of game hacks, I wanted to check them out in order to seek for new heights. At first, every hack I saw was as I expected: breaking the game's feel. This means that the purpose of the game, although not changed, was completely altered, by changing a few things here and there that are completely out of place. This game isn't like it. This game follows the same, unaltered (almost) gameplay of the game it's inspired on, Pokemon Emerald, plus adding a few more tweaks to make the game last longer and better. Here's my review.

Graphics: The graphics all mix things from Generations III, IV and V. The maps, characters and battles have the design of the Game Boy Advance where Generation III games were played, while some characters' appearance, the buildings and the Pokemon sprites were all taken from the future generations, even though Generation V was not yet released when the game was made (hence the japanese weird names). All in all, I agree that the looks of the cities are far way better in here than in Emerald, but the new character's appearance, taken from the Nintendo DS, makes them look mysterious in the Game Boy Advance. The Pokemon sprites, well, some of them also appear slightly bad, with eyes that resemble everything but eyes, making them a little bit scary. Some players, including myself, would agree to select the best sprite from the available generations, but well, nothing can be perfect. Graphics earn a 9.

Sound: I've never been a friend, and maybe never will be, of playing with the game's music on. However, I agree that a good song is a good song, doesn't matter the style, and this game has a wide variety of songs, from slow and smooth to more carnival-like, with the peak of epicness, in my opinion, being outside Victory Road. The in-battle sounds are good to, but here's the bad thing about them. Why changing the Pokemon's cry? One reason I've found is because those Pokemon were occupying the place of a Pokemon that did appear in Emerald, but even then I can see some flaws, like Gible and Gabite having the cry of Seedot and Nuzleaf, respectively, but Garchomp not having Shiftry's, which is kinda weird. But the weirdest thing comes from the fact that a Pokemon that did appear in Emerald had its cry changed. I'm not saying I'm disappointed by this, but an explanation would be nice. Anyway, sound also gets a 9.

Story: The story, as I have said earlier, hasn't changed much from Emerald's. You still have to stop both Aqua and Magma Teams from awakening the Legendaries all the while you climb up to the top of the Pokemon League. The main change occurs when you find Shaymin, a shiny Shaymin to be exact, right before being teleported to where the next Gym is, and that's at the half of the game, more or less. It really helps out, since there aren't many good grass type Pokemon out there, except selecting Turtwig as starter. Once the Elite Four has been beaten, that is, you accomplish the game's main goal, becoming the Champion, more Legendaries are available, and some other good features like the Quests and Missions, needed to find even more Legendaries and some rare wild Pokemon like the Johto starters. I think that expanding the story this way was a very good idea, for if Emerald wasn't long enough to complete. For all this, a much justified 10 for story.

Addictiveness/Depth: I always say that addictiveness and depth are pretty much related to one another, because the deeper the game is, the more it has to offer and the more addictive it becomes. The main story is already enough of a challenge, but that's not even half of the things you can do. To fully stop the evil Teams plans, you still have way more things to do, and once done, the Elite Four waits for another challenge. Then, after retaining your title as Champion, will you be able to explore the whole map and catching all Pokemon, Legendaries or not. And I mean all, because one of the things I like the most of this game is that you can complete the Poked ex without having to trade (except in-game trades, and all of them aren't even needed). We are talking about an online game, so trades in here aren't the same as in real life, they are even more difficult to achieve. Being able to fully complete the game all by yourself means that you will always have something to do, this being the game's plot, completing the Pokedex or beating the Battle Frontier. In my opinion, this game has no more to offer. Both depth and addictiveness earn another much justified 10.

Difficulty: The difficulty in this game can be separated into two main parts. The first part is the game itself, aiming to be the best trainer while beating the crap out Teams Magma and Aqua. This part is rather challenging. I've always faced the Gym Leaders with a similar levelled Pokemon, and that resulted to be a nuisance, because the Elite Four is faaar way more levelled and skilled, plus with the difficulty of winning those five matches in a row with no more healing that what can you carry on with you. Plus, when facing the Elite Four again, their levels increase by 20, meanwhile you've had little to no chances to gain that much levels with all the Pokemon that will partake in the challenge. That means more grinding for levels or even time to catch new Pokemon to enter the challenge. All in all, this part of the game can be really painful and difficult, so 5 points to it. The second part would be the Pokedex completion, for which you have to catch all 22 Legendaries (the 23rd is just a form change for Shaymin). Some Pokemon that evolved by trading don't evolve that way anymore, instead they evolve by level up. Others were given new evolutions, such as Cacnea, and the day-night time events also lead to evolution changes to happen during that part of the day, implying you must play this game at any time in order to get all evolutions (some can be found in the wild, so one less problem). Also, the fact that you can get the three starters, not only the game's, which are from Generation IV, but also those from Generations II and III, the first as wild and the second as hidden one chance. It confuses at first to find evolved Pokemon in the wild, while you can't find their pre-evolutions anywhere, but that's because at the time of this game's launch, those pre-evolutions were unknown to us. Lastly, the Pokedex had to be rearranged to include the newly added Pokemon in exchange of the ones that were removed, which resulted in many strange things, as a three evolution family being separated like 100 laces away from each other, or an evolution being the first entrance, immediately followed by its pre-evolution, contrary to what logic says. This part also takes 5 points, so difficulty gets a total of 10.

Overall: A very great game, with lots of fun included and an even greater bunch of challenges. As a hack, it can't avoid having some glitches here and there, but the great majority can be solved by closing the game and opening it again. Some others can be really painful, to the point of freezing the game or not letting you get to some places, which can't be undone in some cases. But those cases are rather rare. Another thing is the variation of the map, which the Pokenav hasn't noticed, because it still locates trainers in places they're not, or messes up with places like the Day Care. As I said above, nothing can be perfect, but all in all, this game can be one of the closest things to perfection. Although other hacks have greater number of plays, I doubt they will be better than this one, offering better things this game can. Maybe I'm wrong, hope I'm wrong, and I can find another pretty good hack. It would be bad I had to start over this game just because there aren't any other good games out there, although the next time I play this game from the beginning I'll be more prepared to what's about to fall upon me. Also, wouldn't it be much demanding that we could get an update for this game with the Generation V names in English, at least? Many times I get confused over what Pokemon my opponent will select next, but well, for sure I'm not the only one.

Good work on this review! It has a good breakdown of the categories, and it has plenty of detail. Good job on this one.