Pokemon Emerald is the perfect game for an advanced trainer, as well as someone completely new to the series!

User Rating: 9 | Pocket Monsters Emerald GBA
By Aquatrez | Review Date:
When Pokemon first came out as Red and Blue versions on the GameBoy, I thought they were perfect games. You have a completely explorable world with well over a hundred different creatures to catch and raise. It took the whole world by storm and became its own world. As the series continued, however, features were only added. When the next generation arrived, fans were blown away with the additions. A clock with day and night cycle, the ability to hold items, the PokeGear, a whole new continent, and most importantly the breeding system. A few years later, Ruby and Sapphire arrived with even more additions like the natures, abilities, another whole new continent, running, double battles, and of course the Effort Value system. With Fire Red and Leaf Green coming out shortly after and adding only a few new features (ability to battle almost any trainer multiple times, an upgraded Elite Four, new islands), many fans felt that the classic third edition to the R/S generation couldn't add anything else worthwhile. Boy were they wrong.

Emerald took everything good about all that current generation games, put it all together, and added even more. Emerald may share a lot of features with other Pokemon games, and may have a "plot" very similar to Ruby and Sapphire, but the additions more than make Emerald a must-own game to any Pokemon fan, no matter what other games they have.

The gameplay is arguably the best in the series. We've got all the great features from every other game, doubled. Many areas (especially the gyms) were re-worked from R/S to add more trainers and tons of double battles. Even better, the double battles are you against two completely different trainers. That means all your double battles won't be against two of the same or two related Pokemon (like Plusle and Minun). There's even a chance to fight with an AI opponent in a double battle (meaning you team up with another character to face two opponents). They've also added to/changed the Gym Leaders' rosters, added a new gym leader, and changed the Champion of the Pokemon League.

Another issue has been dealt with. G/S/C introduced the ability to have an infinite number of rematches with a limited number of particular trainers. While still enjoyable, it was only a very small handful, and they rarely wanted a rematch. In R/S, there was a much bigger group of trainers to rematch and they wanted to battle more often. FR/LG probably had it best with the Versus Seeker, allowing to battle almost any trainer a second time. No game, however, has allowed you to have a rematch with a Gym Leader. You beat them once, and you'll never fight them again. Well, let me introduce you to Pokemon Emerald. THE ONLY POKEMON GAME AS OF NOW THAT ALLOWS YOU TO HAVE AS MANY REMATCHES WITH ANY GYM LEADER AS YOU WANT! That's right, you can battle any gym leader an infinite number of times after you defeat the Elite Four. Even better, their rosters grow and change, and their teams all level up to a point. Even better, you can still battle with all the trainers from R/S again! This is all thanks to the return of the "cell phone" from G/S/C, known as the Match Call in Emerald, a feature of the PokeNav.

Perhaps the most exciting gameplay addition to Emerald is the Battle Frontier. It's a whole Pokemon theme park filled with countless battles to participate in. There are seven different "areas" that each have a different battling style. There's also prizes you can buy using points won in the Battle Frontier, as well as move tutors who can teach your Pokemon a particular move (and will do so over and over as long as you pay them battle points). Similarly, most of the contests around Hoenn have been replaced with Battle Tents. Each one has a different battle style related to ones found at the Battle Frontier. And contests are still around. They've just been moved all to Lilycove City.

There's also tons of little additions made as well. Some Pokemon's abilities have new effects (such as reducing the time needed to hatch an egg, or decreasing the frequency of wild Pokemon), some berries can reduce a Pokemon's Effort Points in one stat, making it possible to fix any EV training mistakes, and many more new features that makes Pokemon training and breeding easier and more convenient than ever.

Graphically, Emerald has been updated as well. Besides the player's trainer getting a new green-themed look (as well as a more mature looking art), Pokemon are animated in battle similar to Crystal version, the gyms have been redone to involve more battles and a harder challenge, and even the general graphics have been updated. The font has also been updated to that in FR/LG. The graphical updates aren't anything incredible, but there's a noticeable difference if you play Emerald and R/S side-by-side.

The sound of Pokemon has never been incredible. Pokemon's "cries" are just beeps of different tone. The music has always been a nice listen though, and Emerald follows suit. I only wish that they'd remixed some of the R/S tunes to add more flavor. There are a few new songs, but nothing too incredible. I still love the all the battle music though!

Overall, Pokemon Emerald is by far the most in-depth entry of the series. It has a full Pokemon training quest like all the other games, but so much to do afterwards. It is very user-friendly, featuring all the nice features in FR/LG (such as moving items on Pokemon right in the PC) but still includes all the fun features of R/S (secret bases, berry growing, contests, etc.), and not to mention all its new additions. If you haven't gotten into the current Pokemon generation yet, Emerald is the perfect entry. And if you're already into it, Emerald is still a worthy game to add to your collection, even if you already own R/S or FR/LG.

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