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Pokemon Ruby Version

Review

Rating: 6/10

The first thing I thought when the starting screen came up was, �WOW! This is gonna have awesome graphics!� It turns out that the graphics are really nice. The special effects like ripples in the water, footprints on the beach, reflections, etc. add a special touch of reality to the game. When I actually started the game, I thought that this might be a big flop. The game play is very similar, almost too similar for liking, because you feel like you are just starting over on an old pokemon game. In a way, you are, because you still have the same objective of traveling from one city to the next, getting badges, and of course catching all the pokemon. Nintendo decided to make a new type of art I guess, making the game look too colorful, which makes it look like a cartoon. I mean sure it�s pretty, but that takes away some of the reality. There are plenty of nice animations in the game which makes just about everything, even the screens (Pokemon, PokeNAV, PokeDex, etc.), flow very nicely.

Even if you have played previous pokemon games, you might have a little bit of trouble figuring some things out. There are two main buildings that you have to know about. They look completely alike, except one has a red roof, and the other a blue roof. The one with the red roof is the pokemon center. The one with the blue roof is the mart. All the other buildings are houses and stuff. The gyms will be easy to find, because they stand out pretty well. Nintendo did a good job on the names in this game. They have names like Lady Cindy, Rich Boy Charles, etc.

Probably the most important thing about the pokemon games are the actual pokemon. When I first had to choose my one out of three pokemon, I new that they were weird. The pokemon are very strange I think. A lot of them look like normal animals, except with some modifications. As for the attacks, I�d say Nintendo did poorly on them. Of all the pokemon that I have caught and trained, I haven�t seen any new attacks. Nintendo didn�t even change the name of the attacks! There are also a lot of old pokemon like geodude, pikachu, machop and just about all the famous ones. In a way you can get angry, because it is just like catching old pokemon with a little better graphics in a new world for 50 bucks! I was very disappointed because of this. While the new pokemon, are just different versions of older ones with the same attacks. The actual battles are very visual, with really nice animations. I especially like to use Sonic Wave, and see the rubber ducks spinning around their heads when they get confused. The Pokemon selection screen is very user friendly, and any new person to pokemon would probably figure it out quickly. The items are just like in the later gameboy color pokemon games, but with a nice animation.

Now, my final word on Pokemon Ruby is that it is a pretty good game, but definitely not the best. If you already own a pokemon game, even if it is that old blue or red version, I suggest you keep your old version and not buy this one. It is not worth the money. Unless of course you are obsessed with pokemon and you just gotta catch em all. If you have never owned, or played a pokemon game, and would like to do so, and you own a GBA, then I think that you should give it a try.