Pokemon Ruby

Nintendo's Pokemon franchise became a massive success in its native Japan relatively quickly. Although it took the franchise a little longer to catch on in America, it finally did catch on, and when it did, it took the nation by storm. Pokemon games and products sold like crazy, despite the fact that the franchise was virtually unrecognized in America at its time of release. By 2003, the phemonenon was pretty much dead in America, but still, Nintendo went ahead and released the two latest adventures in the series, Ruby and Sapphire. How do these games up? Read on for my review.

PROS:
-THIS GAME GIVES YOU MORE OF THE SAME MONSTER CATCHING AND BATTLING ACTION THAT YOU HAVE GROWN TO LOVE IN THE FIRST AND SECOND GAMES. To put it simply, if you liked the first game, it's quite unlikely that you won't like this one.
-THE GAME GRAPHICS ARE DRASTICALLY IMPROVED OVER THOSE OF THE PREDECESSOR TITLES. In this game, the graphics are not only improved, but the game is also optimized to make usage of the Game Boy Advance's thirty-two bit technology. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it's as good as a Game Boy Advance game like this can look!
-IT'S NOT JUST A REHASH OF EARLIER GAMES. Although the game uses the same general formulas, the game is entirely new, and the world is much larger this time around. Even after you beat the game, there is still a ton of stuff to do, like capture all of the creatures in the game and train new monsters. The game even introduces the concept of two-on-two battles!
-NINTENDO DESIGNED THIS GAME WITH PLAYER CONVENIENCE IN MIND. Remember how in the first games you had to go through all those menus just to use an item (like your bike or fishing pole?) Well, in this game, you can set the select button to use an item! This really comes in handy and speeds up the general flow of the game.
-TONS OF NEW CREATURES AND ABILITIES. Many of the old Pokemon are gone, but there are tons of new ones! And some of the new ones are pretty damn cool. Needless to say, there are new legendary ones as well.
-YOU CAN TRADE WITH POKEMON SAPPHIRE, AND THE UPCOMING FIRE RED AND LEAF GREEN GAMES. This is necessary to complete your Pokedex, since no one game has every creature.
-THE GAME REUSES THE CONCEPT OF BREEDING POKEMON. If you get a male and a female Pokemon together at the Daycare center, they just might lay an egg! This concept is necessary to get many of the "baby" Pokemon in the game.

CONS:
-YOU CAN'T TRADE WITH THE OLDER GAMES! This is a huge problem which is the major reason the game doesn't get a five-star rating in my book.
-MANY OF THE PROBLEMS THE OLD GAMES HAD WERE NOT FIXED FOR THIS GAME. Examples of this include not being able to rename Pokemon you get in trades, not being able to unlearn HM moves on your own, and the general pace of the game moving too slow.
-CONSIDERABLY MORE DIFFICULT THAN EARLIER GAMES. Chances are you're a gamer who is looking for a challenging portable RPG, but in many ways this game is TOO difficult. It seems that no matter how much you level up your monsters, it just doesn't seem to be enough in many places.
-THE MYSTERY EVENT/EON TICKET CONCEPT IS FLAWED. Why, you ask? YOU NEED AN E-READER FOR THEM! And, to say the least, the E-Reader is a rip-off! Why didn't Nintendo find another way to incorporate these elements into the game?
-WHY DOESN'T THIS GAME USE THE TIME OF DAY AND DAY OF THE WEEK SYSTEM THAT THE PREVIOUS GAMES USED? This was one of the best things about the previous games, and I am disappointed not to see it here.

OVERALL:
Pokemon 3 is a damn fine RPG, even if it doesn't quite top Pokemon 2. If you have a Game Boy Advance, this is an excellent game to add to your collection. A little word of advice - you can NOT get all of the Pokemon in one game, so if you get Ruby, you might want to make sure a friend owns or will buy Sapphire, or vice versa. Also, these games are going to be compatible with the forthcoming Fire Red and Leaf Green, so you might want to start building up monsters in this game now so that you can import them into that game when it comes out! Either way you look at it, Pokemon 3 is a damn good portable RPG.

Recommended for anyone who can read! Seriously it is that good.