So I now finally have a Pokemon game. All thanks to my newly-acquired DS (yes, I never got a GBA, but I don’t need it now. :p). Unless you’ve been living on Mars for the past 10 years, in a cave, with your eyes shut and your fingers in your ears, you probably have heard of Pokemon, the franchise that induced madness in the minds of our youth (as well as Japan’s). It involves Trainers trying to catch as many of those…bizarre creatures as possible, and battling each other in hopes of greater training glory. And perhaps even one day becoming a Master. The series does have a bad reputation as being just for children in this country, and while its primary audience may have been children in appeal factor, it is a gross misconception that the game is only for kids. Just because the game is rated ‘E’ (which means ‘For Everyone’) does not mean it’s a kids-only game, folks.

I chose Pokemon Emerald (for the GBA) as my first game because after some investigating, I discovered it’s basically best to get this, as opposed to either Ruby or Sapphire. The deal with Emerald here is that in some ways, it combines Ruby and Sapphire in story. Remember Team Rocket from the original Pokemon? Well, there are two new teams in these games; Team Aqua, and Team Magma. Their goal is to ‘expand the ocean’ and ‘expand the land’ respectively. Only Team Aqua appeared in Sapphire, and only Team Magma appeared in Ruby. But now, they both appear in Emerald for you to take care of, and you can see how their true agendas clash with each other. This also means that some Pokemon that appeared in only one game each are now all included in Emerald (I’ll give you a hint; look on the covers of Ruby and Sapphire. :p ).

That’s mostly it as far as the story of the game goes; to discover what Aqua and Magma are up to. And of course, engage in Pokemon battles with them. You meet a few recurring characters, such as Scott, who appears once in a while, because he likes watching your progress, and Brendan Birch, your neighbor who engages you in friendly rivalry. Yep, that means Pokemon battles. Unlike in the original Pokemon, where your neighbor Gary Oak was basically your enemy (and he certainly isn’t nice in the anime either…), Brendan is actually your friend. Also, your father is Gym Leader of the Petalberg Gym, and he awaits the day he can finally battle his own child (you can choose what kind of character you want; boy or girl).

I chose Pokemon Emerald (for the GBA) as my first game because after some investigating, I discovered it’s basically best to get this, as opposed to either Ruby or Sapphire. The deal with Emerald here is that in some ways, it combines Ruby and Sapphire in story. Remember Team Rocket from the original Pokemon? Well, there are two new teams in these games; Team Aqua, and Team Magma. Their goal is to ‘expand the ocean’ and ‘expand the land’ respectively. Only Team Aqua appeared in Sapphire, and only Team Magma appeared in Ruby. But now, they both appear in Emerald for you to take care of, and you can see how their true agendas clash with each other. This also means that some Pokemon that appeared in only one game each are now all included in Emerald (I’ll give you a hint; look on the covers of Ruby and Sapphire. :p ).

That’s mostly it as far as the story of the game goes; to discover what Aqua and Magma are up to. And of course, engage in Pokemon battles with them. You meet a few recurring characters, such as Scott, who appears once in a while, because he likes watching your progress, and Brendan Birch, your neighbor who engages you in friendly rivalry. Yep, that means Pokemon battles. Unlike in the original Pokemon, where your neighbor Gary Oak was basically your enemy (and he certainly isn’t nice in the anime either…), Brendan is actually your friend. Also, your father is Gym Leader of the Petalberg Gym, and he awaits the day he can finally battle his own child (you can choose what kind of character you want; boy or girl).

The graphics make me feel nostalgic for the SNES days. They remind me of A Link to the Past, actually, and I love that aspect of it. The Pokemon battles look more like the anime, with clear, crisp images of the creatures. They certainly look like they belong on a Game Boy device, which is not a bad thing at all. It’s a fun, fitting style.

Sounds other than the music are fairly simple, and impressing the audience was clearly not a goal. Each Pokemon does have a different sound it makes, but it’s pretty easy to forget them. Keep in mind that there are also lots of creatures in the game as it is. It’s a sound system that fits the game, but it’s far from complex or wowing.

Otherwise, this game is all about catching and battling Pokemon. Here’s how it works, and begins. Just like in the other games, you start out with just one Pokemon, initially. You have a choice of three different Pokemon, each one of a different type (I’ll get to this shortly); grass, water or fire. The original Pokemon saw Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander as your choices. Gold and Silver gave us 3 new choices; Chikorita, Totodile and Cyndaquil. And we have 3 all-new Pokemon to choose from in this game, as well; Treecko (the one I chose), Mudkip and Torchic. Since you’re just starting out in the game, it probably doesn’t really matter which one you choose. However, Pokemon types definitely make a difference later.

Pokemon each belong to at least one (but can belong to up to 2) of several types; Normal, Grass, Water, Fire, Bug, Flying, Fighting, Psychic, Poison, Ground, Electric, Ghost, Dark, and Steel. Each one will have abilities that pertain to the type it is. For example, a Flying type, well, flies. This is useful if another Pokemon uses a ground-based attack, such as Earthquake; it can’t hurt what’s not on the ground, afterall. Also, some types are strong against other types, and weak against others. Some of them are obvious; Fire is strong against Grass, but weak against Water. Some of them are not so obvious; Psychic is good against almost all types, but especially Fighting, but weak against Dark. As mentioned, Pokemon can have up to two different types. Sableye is Ghost and Dark, and Gyrados is Water and Flying, for example. Because of these varying types, it can be aggravating if you’re facing against another creature and you’re not carrying anything that will work well against it. This can lead to futile battles that you may have to give up on, or just very long battles. Although if you have a very high leveled Pokemon fighting against a lower-leveled Pokemon that is supposed to be defensive against your type, you could actually win, due to your increased power.

As this game is an RPG, this means, yes, leveling. There are good things and bad things about this. The great thing is, it doesn’t take nearly as long to level as it does in other RPGs. The bad thing is, well, if you need to level up several Pokemon (and you will, eventually), that will definitely add significantly to the amount of time you’re sitting there and doing it. Another good thing is there is a leveling trick of sorts; the number of Pokemon that engage in a battle will each get an even number of experience points. So one common trick is, the Pokemon you have sent out first is immediately recalled, and then another one is sent out and can finish the battle. That first one will get half the experience points without even having to fight. This is a very useful trick if you have an extremely low-leveled creature that needs to be leveled.

Pokemon learn new abilities as they level. However, you will eventually have to make choices. One Pokemon can only have 4 techniques learned total. That’s it. So as you level and learn more abilities, you’ll have to decide what to keep and what to discard, and what to simply not learn. If you do not want your Pokemon to learn a new ability, you are given the option of not having it do so. You can also give Pokemon new abilities through the use of HMs and TMs.

Most Pokemon also change into new creatures through evolution. When most Pokemon reach a certain experience level, they will change into a new beast, and one Pokemon ‘character’ can have up to 3 different forms. For example, Treecko will evolve into Grovyle, at a certain point, and then into Sceptyle, when it’s even more leveled. A more well-known example would be Geodude, eventually evolving into Graveler, and then finally into Golem. However, some Pokemon, such as Torkoal for example, have no evolved forms no matter how high you level them. You can also cancel an evolution, if you press A before the evolution is complete (this is but one way you can catch them all. :p ). An evolution does not automatically make a Pokemon into a radically-powered beast though; they’ll continue to level normally if they are the same creature or a new one. It’s just a way to add more variety to the game, I suppose.

So how do you catch Pokemon? You’re probably familiar, by sight, of those red and white Poke Balls, to catch and hold Pokemon. In the game, you run out into the wild and head into tall grass; that’s where Pokemon are. When you encounter one, you engage in a fight, and you can catch it or defeat it and gain experience (you get nothing, except a new monster, if you catch one. :P ). Pokemon really need to be weakened though, if you hope to catch one, so you need to battle them and bring their hit points down. Then, you throw a Poke Ball at it, and hopefully it will stay. If the ball moves 3 times, and then ‘snaps’, then you’ve caught it. You then get to name it. :p The very, very aggravating thing about this is just because you throw a ball does not mean the beast will be caught, even if it’s weakened. Pokemon continuously break free from being encased (which is something you never, ever see in the anime…), and you will sometimes have to throw…several balls before it’s caught. And balls cost money (I’ll get into this game’s economy shortly), so every ball that fails to catch something ends up being a waste. If you have a lot of money though, it’s usually not a problem. But there are also many different kinds of Poke Balls. The game describes them as being different, but I really didn’t notice anything. Most of the time, my chances of catching something seemed to be about the same. The most common, and cheapest type, is just a Poke Ball. They’re mainly good for very weak creatures, and low-leveled ones. A Great Ball, is just supposed to be ‘better’ than a Poke Ball. The Dive Ball is claimed to be good for catching Water and Bug types, and there are a few other ball types. Each ball becomes more and more expensive, but you can also find some free ones during your travels.

So now onto this game’s economy; it’s a little different. You only gain money from battling other trainers; you get no money from fighting wild Pokemon. Although you’ll probably be fighting a lot more wild Pokemon than trainers, this doesn’t mean money will be a problem. Although you’ll need a number of items (such as healing/restoring items) to keep with you, and Poke Balls, and it will all add up, remember this; you can completely heal your Pokemon for free at a Pokemon Center, in each town. So as long as you get yourself to one of those, you won’t need to use so many items (and you can go back to the last Pokemon Center you visited quickly if you have a Pokemon with the Teleport ability); most of those should be reserved for gym leader battles (or special trainer battles, such as Aqua and Magma battles). So keeping this in mind, you can build up good wealth by not buying anything unless you really have to. In other words, money doesn’t have to be a problem, and shouldn’t be unless you make it out to be one.

Nintendo has made a very interesting incentive in this game, to encourage players to play it with others; you cannot catch all Pokemon on your own, in one game. You have to interact with other players, by trading with them and gain more Pokemon. You do this to gain Pokemon available in other games; in this game, you can trade with players of Ruby, Sapphire, Fire Red and Leaf Green. However, another odd catch is that there are a few Pokemon that only evolve into one of its forms (the last evolution, really) when it’s traded. I haven’t done this myself, so I can’t really comment further on it (nor can I comment on any other multiplayer aspects of the game).

So that’s it, enh? That’s all there is to this game; catching and battling Pokemon? For the most part, that’s all, yes. As explained previously, there are some story elements to it, but nothing ‘deep’ or ‘insightful’ at all. But Nintendo, sticking with its credo of simply wanting to make fun games to play, has definitely achieved that in this game. It’s very fun to play. And it’s most addictive. I can easily see how Nintendo have made so much money off these games… If you’re like me, you won’t want to put it down…for very long. You’ll find yourself wanting to catch Pokemon when you don’t even know what the Hell they are, and that you probably don’t need. But you’ll also find that it’s not even important; it’s just a fun game to play. That’s all that should matter. So go out there and catch ‘em all!

Overall Game Score: 8.0

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