Here it is, the third editorial in this series all about the different generations of Pokemon. For this edition, it is all about the Hoenn region and the games Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald while briefly touching on their remakes Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Without further ado, time to dive right into to the water soaked region known as Hoenn.
You have to catch ’em all!
Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire launched in late November of 2002, just about 2 years after the launch of Pokemon Crystal. They were the first two main entry Pokemon games on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, launching Pokemon into an insane frenzy of being even more convenient to carry around with the player, thus furthering their descent into Poke-based chaos. Really, the Hoenn region was gigantic for the time on such a portable gaming device. Hours upon hours of gameplay was right there in the player’s hands, and they just had even more time to catch ’em all.
An entire new frontier to battle in…a Battle Frontier! Awesome naming skills, Game Freak.
Now, coming from the Johto region, Hoenn added a lot of changes when it came to battling and transportation. A smart change to battling would be the abilities for flying Pokemon to now become immune to ground-type attacks, something that was not the standard in previous games. This was also paired with the inclusion of Double Battles to add some energy into the mix, thus creating new strategies as to how to use specific Pokemon moves and a new layer of depth. Now, arguably the most important new feature in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire is Pokemon Contests. That is correct, Pokemon Contests, where the player shows off their Pokemon’s beauty, intellect, cuteness, or other physical traits, might just have revolutionized the gaming industry. The player can now decorate their Pokemon and then have it compete like a pageant girl! Albeit, without the weird usage of vicariously living through their Pokemon or the new development of anorexia.
Look at how far Pokemon has come, all within the span of a little more than a decade.
Now, the culminating edition of the Hoenn region, Pokemon Emerald launched just about two years after Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire in September of 2004. The greatest addition found in this new game was undoubtedly the Battle Frontier, an area with a series of different Pokemon based challenges that gives the player even more reason to keep coming back to Pokemon Emerald. A fan favorite activity in the Battle Frontier is undoubtedly the Battle Factory, which supplies the player with random Pokemon that have preset values and moves that can be completely different from the Pokemon the trainer might have spent hours training by themselves. Meanwhile, the remakes Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire unfortunately do not have this area, but do include a ridiculous amount of new features when compared to the base games. One of the biggest changes is obviously bringing these originally 2D games into 3D graphics on the Nintendo 3DS, fleshing them out in ways unseen before and breathing new air into aged locations.
So, that really is it when it comes to the Hoenn region. What do you think of the originals? Do they maintain their classic appeal or do their remakes reign supreme? Make sure to leave a comment below to let us know what you think.
