Six Reasons Why You Should Look Forward to Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
A discernible pattern has emerged in developer Game Freak's Pokémon releases. With every new generation of games, they remake and re-release a pair of older games as well. On Game Boy Advance came Fire Red and Leaf Green (remakes of the original Game Boy releases). Then, on DS, they made Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Predictably, 2003's Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire are next on the remake list, with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire set to drop in November, more than a decade after the originals launched.
While some might call Game Freak's love of remaking old Pokémon games a bad habit, that's doing the developers and the games a disservice. Yes, it can be frustrating that the Pokémon powers that be insist on consistently exploiting the series' past. But the truth is that these remakes are very much worth playing, whether you're an experienced fan of the series, you haven't played since Red and Blue, or you're a total newcomer who never played the games before 2013's Pokémon X and Y. Here are a few reasons why Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire may be well worth your time.
VIDEO: Pokemon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby - Mega Rayquaza Trailer [00:57]
Ruby and Sapphire were pretty unique
Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire were the only original Pokémon games on the Game Boy Advance, not counting the Red/Green remakes. And they're packed with strange gameplay experiments and unique features, like customizable secret bases and weird, non-combat Pokémon contests.
The upcoming remakes give Game Freak the opportunity to revisit and expand on the original games' concepts with new technologies and insights. Just thinking about what they might do with the games' Battle Frontier, a surprisingly robust endgame area for the time, should make any Pokémon fan want to sing like Jigglypuff.
Remakes are (almost always) better than mediocre spin-offs
There have been plenty of Pokémon spin-offs over the years, but with a few exceptions (like Pokémon Snap and Pokémon Pinball) they've never even come close to being as compelling as the main series games. X and Y proved that the familiar, main series Pokémon formula is better than ever, and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, despite being rehashes of older games, will use X and Y as their template.
That's definitely a good thing. Although brand new games would be great, it's preferable to have well-made remakes of old games as opposed to bad spin-offs. And with the countless tweaks, improvements and changes to the gameplay made since the series began, Pokémon games right now are actually the best they've ever been.
Ruby and Sapphire's Pokenav will be great updated for the internet
If you've been playing Pokémon since the beginning it can be easy to forget how different the games' basic mechanics were back then. Likewise, if you haven't played since the old days, you might not know just how different these games are now.
The best change to Pokémon over the years is the ease with which you can now connect with other players. The original Ruby and Sapphire featured a tool called the PokéNav that helped players connect with trainers within the game, and it should transform perfectly to enable players to connect with one another in the remakes. In X and Y, the 3DS' bottom screen is devoted more or less entirely to online features, and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire's updated PokéNav will likely occupy the same space. After all, it's much better to be able to battle and trade with friends or strangers from anywhere in the game world rather than having to trek to the nearest Pokémon Center just to use their crappy dial-up connections.
X and Y's improvements will likely make Ruby/Sapphire a better overall experience
It may seem like Game Freak is making the same games now that they were 15 years ago, but it's actually hard to overstate how much the minute-to-minute experience of playing Pokémon has improved since the original games.
The 3DS' touch screen makes everything from Pokémon training to simple organization more intuitive. Remember what a pain it was to withdraw and deposit Pokémon from the PC in the original games? That experience got better with Ruby and Sapphire, but going back to it now feels like trying to organize a bookshelf without using your hands, compared with the intuitive drag-and-drop system perfected in X and Y.
Yes, Pokémon games get more complicated with each generation, with mega evolutions, fairy-type monsters, and more new additions in the latest round. But they're also more refined, and pure nostalgia value aside, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire will benefit from Game Freak's extra decade-plus of experience. Maybe Pokémon contests will even be worth something this time around.
The competitive scene is thriving
Even better are the many, many changes Game Freak has implemented to make life easier for players who like to delve into the really competitive aspects of Pokémon. Back in the day when Ruby and Sapphire were new the competitive Pokémon scene was severely limited by the Game Boy Advance hardware. You had to actually be in physical proximity with someone to battle or trade with them. Barbaric, right?
And unlike in earlier games like Ruby and Sapphire, Game Freak has lately taken to giving players plenty to do after they beat the Elite Four--particularly hardcore players who like to breed and battle the best Pokémon possible. There are more viable options and strategies for competitive battling than there were in Ruby and Sapphire's time, and combat is much more balanced, although it's still far from perfect. And thanks to a thriving community of players and more transparency from the developers, it's easier than ever for casual fans to make the jump into the competitive scene and train until their thumbs bleed.
VIDEO: Pokemon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby - The Battle Over Land and Sea Trailer [02:15]
Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire will look great
Finally, the most obvious improvement to the Pokémon series over the years is purely technical. The graphics have been improving steadily, and with the jump to 3DS they finally no longer look like something you could have played in your browser in 1999, like Ruby and Sapphire did. As creative as Game Freak is, 2D graphics can only go so far.
Thankfully the games' new 3D models make every detail clear, eliminating the need to ask awkward questions like "What are those bumps on its back supposed to be?" and "Is that a tuft of fur or is Beartic just happy to see me?" Pokémon X and Y were the best-looking games in the series, and it will be exciting to see how this new art style will translate to Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby.
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