Growing up in the late 90's/early 2000's, Pokemon was everywhere! While the height of the series popularity (In America at least) probably came in 1998/1999 when the original 150 were first introduced and the anime was first airing, but for me the true height of pokemon was in Gen 3 where we got to travel around Hoenn. Call me an old man if you want, but there are way too many pokemon these days, there is no possible way I can remember all the new ones, let alone all their abilities and stats (not that I ever cared much about those anyways) so for this game to have a mere 200 pokemon for you to catch and train, that was plenty for me. While I grew up playing Ruby, I always preferred Sapphire due to it having the best Legendary (Kyogre) and also because I was a total Team Aqua fanboy (even though yeah, they are technically the bad guys here). This generation also had so many of my favorite pokemon to date, I won't bother listing them here as that would take all day but I also loved the layout and design of this region, IGN may have complained about there being too much water but in my opinion that was what made this game so great to me, I guess I've always been a water trainer at heart.
One of the better pokemon experiences ive had. Id say that it has aged beautifully and has great music, creatures, level curve, vibe. not enough water types for variety, but thats not that big of an issue imo. steven stone was a sick champion.
this started the trend of "middle pokemon," which i will always say is best pokemon - gen 3 through 5. play it!
this started the trend of "middle pokemon," which i will always say is best pokemon - gen 3 through 5. play it!
I really like this game. It's been something I've been playing through many, many times ever since I was young. The Hoenn region is probably my favourite region from the Pokémon series, even though I only like it a bit more than Sinnoh from Gen IV. The selection of Pokémon in this region is also incredible, and this is not even mentioning how incredible the music is! Sadly, the music is the biggest highlight. There are few things that this game does better than Pearl, Diamond and Platinum, and I do find the lack of the Physical-Special split to be pretty annoying, because some team choices don't even work correctly as a result of this. But let's talk about something positive instead: the soundtrack! So many amazing songs, with the highlights being the Team Aqua Boss Theme, the Diving theme and the theme of the Regis. This is a really good game that I will probably replay a lot more in the future!
Received this on my birthday and was so excited. Everything about this game is imprinted into my brain. Great soundtrack. Great pixel art and new Pokemon. Memorable locations. Loved swimming around and finding little hidden nooks and caves. Shit was exciting to explore, at least when I was younger. My favorite gen.