My name is Frank, and I am an addict.
I was surprised to see that the original Pokémon games most of us are aware of, Red and Blue weren't on the 1001 list. Even Pokémon Yellow, where the iconic Pikachu follows your every move, isn't down as a must-play title, despite the millions of copies sold across the world.
Only two (or four) games from the series make the list, the first of which are Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire. We're already into the third generation of Pokémon and are now on the Game Boy Advance, after the Color entries of the past. Why is this our jumping on point to the series?
Fun Times
As much as I'd like to have played Ruby, mostly for reasons of colour, I only have Sapphire at the moment. While there are differences between the two, they're subtle, and the two games are designed to be played together and connected to one another via the power of friendship. You can have your solo adventure through the world of Pokémon, but if you want to catch them all, you'll have to buddy up and dip into the other game from time to time.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. You don't even know what a Pocket Monster is, do you? Let's begin.
Pokémon is an RPG where you're a kid with a pocket full of monsters that do your bidding - mostly fight each other for money and honour, but also cut stuff and moves rocks and other menial tasks. In fact, in this world, these little (and not so little) critters are used by humans for all kinds of jobs. Here are some four-armed Machamp moving boxes into my house. Helpful.
You've just moved into the Hoenn region and ought to introduce yourself to the neighbours. There's a kid your age called May (at least in my version of the game - I assume it swaps depending on version and who you pick as a character) who seems to be the focus, but it's her father we need to find, as he's the Pokémon Professor.
In a twist to the formula (not that you'd know if this is your first Pokémon title), you get to choose your first monster from the Professors bag. He's being chased by an angry dog-looking Pokémon, a Poochyena, and you respond and help him with...
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| You have potential... |
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| A chicken? |
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| Winner. |
And that was Pokémon in a nutshell. Pick a monster, pick an attack, watch it unfold, the last man standing wins.
Of course, that's not all there is to Pokémon. Designed after the creators' hobby of bug collecting, this is actually a game of exploring the world and capturing these creatures in an attempt to learn more about them. After being gifted the Mudkip from Professor Birch, he tells me to catch up with his daughter, whom he has left in the field to catalogue some new Pokémon.
Pokémon are always learning (through direct experience), and as they level up they'll have access to up to four moves, from simple attacks like Tackle to defensive buffs like Harden and then all kinds of themed attacks based on Water, or Fire, or Rock and so on. Each attack will have a different amount of success based not only on your Pokémons stats but also those of your opponents.
A fight is, therefore, a case of managing what to do and when, and making sure your opponents' health bar runs out before yours does, by whatever means you have available. Doing so will result in more experience points, levelling up, and even monetary rewards.
Well, that sounds a little concerning. Moving on, though, we've been given some Pokéballs to catch our very own Pokémon. This is the whole point of the game: collecting and levelling up your monsters so that they learn newer, stronger moves, and evolve - literally - into battle-hardened beasts.
Now, despite the 'Gotta catch 'em all' gimmick the series is famous for, I'm more selective about my Pokémon. If it looks stupid, it's not getting caught. First, we've gotta find them.
These Wurmple here are stupid. They're getting mud thrown in their faces.
This Zigzagoon looks like a scruffy little doggo, and thus it's getting caught. Simply select the ball from your bag and throw it at your wild target. It helps if they're weakened from your attacks, but I didn't feel the need to jab or hold the B button for a better chance of success like all the (hopefully) urban legends tell you to do.
The Hoenn region, like the environments of probably all Pokémon games, is designed for easy navigation. You're pointed in one direction over another, and temporarily impassable obstacles will funnel you towards doing the right things at the correct times. It's lovely to just run through a game without much of a care in the world about where I'm going. I'm just enjoying it all.
I soon find my father, who happens to be a Gym Leader. These guys and girls are master Pokémon trainers who know how to fight. Or know how to train their Pokémon to fight, at least. Humans don't compete in these games. That's a silly notion. Get monsters to settle your differences instead.
Anyway, my father won't fight me until I prove myself, so now I've got some leads on where to go next - to another town to fight another Gym Leader. Alrighty, let's get a move on.
On the way, we encounter the villains of Sapphire, Team Aqua, who have some sort of plan involving the ocean. Given their prominent blue hues, I would imagine they're not found in Ruby and are replaced by an equally stupid organisation. I also gather some more monsters, pick some trees clean of berries - an item that your Pokémon can hold and automatically use to restore health, or recover from poison or paralysis and so on - and get into some double battles.
These double battles are new to the Pokémon series, and are exactly the same as regular battles, but have more monsters in them. These little girls didn't stand a chance. Also, wibbly-wobbly reflections in the water - the Game Boy Advance continues to amaze.
While the great outdoors looks remarkably welcoming, the various towns and cities across the region are where you want to be. They have the all-important Poké Centers which fully heal your Pokémon from their injuries, and often Poké Marts to sell you items and equipment, from potions to poke balls and beyond.
The important towns also have Gyms, and other than collecting all the monsters, getting all the Gym badges allow you to prove that you're the best trainer out there. And it'll impress your father.
Pokémon exist in a kind of massive Rock, Paper, Scissors arrangement. One type of monster will be strong against a particular type, but weaker against another, often considerably so. This Gym is a Rock-themed one, where the Pokémon are hard as nails, but weak to water and grass moves.
My starting monster, Mudkip, is a watery fella. This Shroomish is a grass-lander. We're going to manage these fights just fiiiiine.
Shroomish tanked it all. Your moves can only be performed a certain number of times before your Pokémon forgets how to do them, I suppose, but you can just run to the Poké Center and top up if you're desperate - I rarely was, and there are items which can restore your numbers in a pinch.
In no time at all, I had my first Gym badge. I told myself that getting my first badge would probably be the stopping point for my playtime. I knew what Pokémon was, I'd played and completed Pokémon Red in my youth, just jot down the differences and it'll be golden.
But I couldn't stop playing.
Further Fun Times
I was having so much fun with Sapphire. If you've read my post for Advance Wars, you'll know that the Game Boy Advance has some kind of magic effect on me. I just cannot stop playing games from that system, and Sapphire was taking over my day.
After getting the badge, I bumped into Team Aqua again, who had stolen a package and were attempting to take someones prized Pokémon too. After dealing with them, I was welcomed into the Devon Corporation for another quest.
As far as I'm aware, there's no way of tracking all these quests in the game itself, so it's down to your memory, and/or just stumbling into things, to move the plot along. But again, lots of it is designed to be bumped into and explored, and you won't be able to move on until you do, so it was decided - I was going to Dewford and beyond.
At some point on my travels, the second thing that I said would stop my game happened: someone evolved.
If you're attached to a Pokémon, you can halt its evolution, but that's denying this little Mudkip a shot at achieving the unthinkable or delaying it at least. I'm a relaxed trainer. If they want to evolve, let 'em.
So now I have a Marshtomp to dominate the fight, and I should really get around to stopping for the day, getting some screenshots together, and getting a blog post written.
I was 3 hours in at this point. I gave myself a break. I collated some screenshots. I ate something before I forgot how to live outside of Pokémon. Then I went back in.
I played until the in-game timer read close to 7 hours. I've gone on boat trips, I've watered plants, I've fought anyone who dared look at me, I've ridden and pulled sweet tricks on a bike, I almost built a treehouse, I've gone through cave networks and played in volcanic ash, I've got three Gym badges, I think...
What I'm trying to say is that I am thoroughly invested in Pokémon Sapphire and I really didn't think I would be.
Final Word
It is so easy to get into, and so welcoming that you can't help but get stuck in. You run into the bushes until you trigger a random encounter with a wild Pokémon, see what it is, decide whether you want to catch it or just knock it out to level up your own team, press A a few times to choose an attack, and then think "that was great! Just one more..."
"I'll go to town. Oh, look, I can go here now. I need to fight you guys. Now I can go there. Cool, let's go there. Ooh, more things to do. Let's start with that one."
That was my Sapphire experience and still is. I have plans for this afternoon, but they may just be replaced by a little bit of Pokémon - I've yet to find out how much willpower I have to resist it.
I don't know what it is about Game Boy Advance titles that make me want to play them for extended periods. Unhealthy, lengthy periods. I don't even remember if the battery life of the GBA would survive what I've been emulating, I've played them that much.
The artwork is a potential candidate. While it doesn't look as brilliant as A Link to the Past, there wasn't a single moment where I was struggling to work out what I was looking at, and the little details like water reflections and footprints in the sand are simple little delights. Clearly, the GBA is capable of a lot more than I thought it was. That, or I'm easily amused.
It's good to listen to as well. I've gone blank when trying to hum along with any of the tunes, but I think the classic Pokémon tunes are in there. Each Pokémon even has its own cry, which you can hear in your PokéDex, or when they faint in battle. Charming!
I don't know where Ruby and Sapphire sit in the grand scheme of Pokémon titles. Up until this point, I have only ever played Pokémon Red, and have only ever seen any of the others (usually not knowing which I've even seen because they're so interchangeable). The 1001 entry for these two games even says that you can virtually play whatever Pokémon game you want, so long as you play one of them.
With the improvements in hardware, and knowing what players like and dislike from previous games, Ruby and Sapphire probably make for a pretty good starting point. Sapphire didn't feel old and broken to me. It's almost timeless, because of that art style and the use of the same structure and game formula of every other Pokémon title. I'm definitely happy with restarting my Pokémon gaming with it, at least.
With tens of mainline games to choose from, you should indeed play at least one Pokémon title. After this, I might go and play some more. I might even go back and play Pokémon Red. I might even go big and look into the upcoming/recently released/latest entries to the series.
I feel like a kid again. What a wonderful thing for a game to be able to do.
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| The Gang, after 7 hours. |
Fun Facts
$7 million was spent on advertising these Pokémon titles to new and old audiences. The ease of entry was a selling point for younger gamers, and the new features like double battles were a challenge to entice players of the previous generations of games.
Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire, developed by Game Freak, first released in 2002.
Version played: Pokémon Sapphire, Game Boy Advance, 2003, via emulation.