It was one day back in 1995 that a development company called Game Freak released a little game on the original Game Boy brick for Nintendo in Japan. It quickly gathered support, went though the process of conversion for western shores and sold there phenomenally well. The game was Pokẽmon Red/ Blue. A fairly innocent Role Playing Game it had the player gathering little creatures from various places around an extensive world, and training them in preparation to beat the living daylights out of any opposition who dared to challenge them. With 150 creatures, each with their own unique abilities, strengths and weaknesses, the game had a real depth that ensured it deserved all the credit it received. Fast forward through a few years, years that have seen everything from stuffed toys and monopoly games to a variety of cartoons, movies and of course, Game Boy sequels that expanded on the original concept and we arrive in 2002, where, in just a few short months gamers will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the delightful world of Pokẽmon, again.

Upon seeing the screenshots for the new game, Pokẽmon Ruby/ Sapphire (a clever little homage to the original Pokẽmon Red/ Blue), it appeared that many gamers’ initial reaction was one not dissimilar to “How awful, it’s another Game Boy Color game,” and it does indeed seem that little effort has been made to update the game visuals. But is this all that important? The original Pokẽmon graphics were simplistic sure, but none the less they simply oozed style. The GBA version will simply be a refinement of that childish but aesthetically pleasing style. The monsters are as cute as ever, the backgrounds are vibrant and colourful and the sprite for you stout little hero looks to be as amusing as ever. Credit to Game Freak for choosing the remain with a readily recognisable, quality visual engine rather than attempt to create something more challenging for the GBA and potentially ruining the franchise’s style and appeal in the process.

Both the story and gameplay look to be retaining the same basic premise as previous editions of the game, with the focus being collecting as many pokẽmon as possible, training them through various means and battling through the ‘gyms’ in order to earn medals and the eventual opportunity to challenge the grand masters of all Pokẽdom for the title of “greatest trainer ever.” Training the creatures was always a simple affair, by getting yourself into an encounter with either a wild beast or one of the other trainers that inhabited the world, you would have to opportunity to give your creature some fighting experience. Give it enough, and it will gain itself a level, which could result in it learning new attacks or occasionally evolving into something bigger and more powerful. Yes it is a basic formula for the genre, but one that works remarkably well in this case, as the sheer depth of creature choice and development would mean anything but a simple combat system would make the game far too technical and detract greatly from the experience. That said, in the interest of progression, Game Freak have wisely included some new innovations.

Most importantly is that now, instead of combat being a single Pokẽmon squared off against another, Pokẽmon Ruby/ Sapphire will now have two-on-two duels. This a whole wealth of new opportunities for mixing and matching to create the perfect team, and in battle, there will now be the option to have your two monsters worth together to create more powerful attacks. Taking into consideration that there is now a whopping 350 pokẽmon available to catch (that’s 100 new ones!), the potential for near limitless gameplay by combining the many different types is very high indeed. Beyond this new innovation, it seems the much of the GBA Pokẽmon title will be an improvement on what the previous games offered. The option to play the game through as a girl remains in place, giving the series an atmosphere of gender equality, even if there is no difference in the way the game unfolds regardless of what character you do choose.

The Pokẽdex has been removed, replaced by what should be a vastly more useful PokẽNavi. The maps are now scaleable, meaning if you find yourself lost, you can use the zoom feature to hopefully make the area more viewable. As far as plot, the future of Team Rocket is as yet unknown. They may yet make an appearance, but there will definitely be two new evil groups who will attempt to thwart your every action. Team Magma and Team Aqua, welcome to the world of gaming.

For those who enjoy multiplayer pokẽmon battles, there is very good news indeed. The somewhat dull one-on-one only option has been expanded to offer full 4 way duels. How the combat system holds up under the vastly different play style this inclusion demands will be interesting to see, but it is easy to visualise how such a four player game could quickly degenerate into a combination of dirty tricks, alliance building and politics, all in good fun of course. Finally, you can expect that with the wealth of new pokẽmon to collect, the world to explore will also be larger than anything previously offered. All these new inclusions surely make the game as epic as they come, and should offer many hours of exploration bliss.

Despite all this lovely news about the advances the game will bring to the series there is a very bitter taste that will come with the release of Ruby/ Sapphire. They will not be compatible in any way, shape or form with any of the previous Pokẽmon titles, or the N64 Pokẽmon Stadium games. This is a big blow to those who were hoping to transfer their beloved monsters, lovingly raised to level 100, into GBA glory, and basically renders all those hours on the previous titles redundant. The positive to this is that everyone will begin the new adventure on the same ground, and there will be no option to “cheat” by transferring super-powerful creatures from the previous games immediately after beginning the new one, but none the less, it would have been really appreciated by most fans if Nintendo could have worked out some way to link the systems and games together.

The Pokẽmon soundtrack was never a favourite. Although it did suit the overall mood of the game well, when it came to the Game Boy Pokẽmon titles I was quite content to play with the volume off. Now the GBA obviously has a vastly improved sound chip, so there is a good chance that the soundtrack will also be significantly improved. I’m not asking for something that matches the beauty of Golden Sun or Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, but please Game Freak, the appeal of an RPG really does rise exponentially when a good background soundtrack is mixed in.

Pokẽmon will sell well, it’s becoming one of those things in the industry that can be considered a “given,” and while certain titles in the series, Yellow and Crystal in particular may have been milking the franchise a little hard, on the whole the games have been a worthwhile purchase. The new innovations and improvements on existing elements from previous titles should mean that Pokẽmon Ruby/ Sapphire is the definitive Pokẽ-title, at least until the next major sequel is announced. As with all Pokẽmon titles the best recommendation is to give them a fair shot. Don’t let the childish nature of the games lessen your spirit when it is released, for underneath that surface is one of the better RPG games you can find.

-Matt