Pokemon Emerald Review

You start out as you do in all Pokemon games; in your room (which has state of the art gaming consoles created by Nintendo; always thought that was a neat touch). However, it isn't long until the game's events have you acquiring your first Pokemon. In this game you have a choice of:

• Torchic: Fire-type Pokemon. You may have a bit of trouble in the early game, but this is the Pokémon to use if you want an easy endgame.
• Treecko: Grass-type Pokemon. The most well rounded of the three, as is usually the case for the Grass-type starter Pokemon. However it has weaknesses to Fire and Poison, two types that become horribly common later on.
• Mudkip: Water-type Pokemon. I love Water-types, so I invariably choose this one on all playthroughs. Things get sticky against Electric and Grass types though.

So, having gotten your first Pokemon, you must now complete the Pokemon League Challenge, which consists in traveling around the region (in this case the region of Hoenn), capturing more Pokemon, and defeating the Gym Leaders to get their badges (most towns have a gym; there are 8 gyms; you must get all 8 badges).

The gameplay is pretty interesting. First of all, you encounter Pokemon inside of grass (as well as in caves and while navigating on water as well). When you encounter them, and if you want to capture them to add them to your team, you must weaken them (the battles are turn-based). Once adequately weakened, you can throw Poke Balls at them. If you're successful, you'll get a brief fanfare and the game will announce your capture. Then, you will get the full Pokedex (a device that logs all of the unique Pokemon you've captured and/or discovered) entry for that Pokemon.

Like in all other Pokemon games (at least those for the portables), there is an organization that conspires to bring the region down to its knees. In this particular case, there are two (Team Magma and Team Aqua). You will face both of them (a change from Ruby/Sapphire where you only face one and are allied with the other) in order to restore peace to the region. The plot itself is somewhat cliché, but then again very few games are truly original (in terms of plot) nowadays.

All in all, Pokemon Emerald is a very nice and addicting game that, unfortunately, seems to have a stigma surrounding it since it's so kid-friendly. Some would say you fail at life if you're over a certain age and still play this game. I say, do what you find fun. If you enjoy this game, play it and ignore the haters! ;)

So, if you want to talk about this game or any Pokemon game in general, feel free to post in the comments section!

Until the next time, take care and have fun! ;)

-Winterfate