March 17, 2003 - The game that really set the Game Boy market ablaze in the past few years was a little game known as Pokemon. Nearly a half-decade and six versions later, Nintendo ups the ante with the first Game Boy Advance-exclusive edition of the Pokemon brand; it's already sold out the wazoo in Japan since its November 2002 release, and even though it may seem like it's sold based upon brilliant marketing alone, the Pokemon RPG franchise is actually a fantastic and well-designed gaming experience. It not only has extensive variety in its adventure, it's chock full of strategy and it will consume a whole lot of time due to its addictive "gotta catch 'em all" motif. The GBA game expands on an already successful design, and its only mark against it is the designers' failure to advance the game's visuals as far as it did the gameplay.

Features

  • More than 350 Pokemon to collect, battle and trade
  • 40 hour quest
  • Cartridge save (one slot)
  • Connectivity with future GameCube game(s)
  • Link cable support for four player (multiple cartridge)
  • e-Reader compatibility
  • Only for Game Boy Advance
Pokemon: Sapphire Version and Pokemon: Ruby Version are the official sequel to the RPG released on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color in various "colors": Red, Blue, and Yellow on the Game Boy; Gold, Silver, and Crystal on the Game Boy Color. Though there have been six games in the series on the past Game Boy systems, Ruby and Sapphire are among the third drastic extension of the Pokemon adventure.

Just for the folks unlearned in the ways of Pokemon: in the Pokemon series, players assume the role of an up-and-coming Pokemon trainer. Pokemon are are among the class of various creatures who live in harmony with humans, from bird to bug to fish to...puppet. Players work their way through the land, going from town to town, using their skills to capture Pokemon in the wild to do their bidding against other Pokemon trainers. Successful battles between Pokemon will strengthen those creatures, and the higher their level, the more powerful they can be. When a player's set of Pokemon is at a certain level, they can attempt to challenge the town's Pokemon Gym leader. The leader holds a specific badge for Pokemon trainers to collect, and by defeating this leader, players earn that badge and the abilities that the badge holds. By collecting all eight gym badges, players will earn that coveted Pokemon Master title. But the game doesn't end there, as Ruby and Sapphire are almost separate lives; there's so much to do beyond the standard adventure, including separate tasks like beauty contests, as well as mini-games that both can be played solo or with as many as three other Pokemon players. Pokemon: Sapphire Version and Pokemon: Ruby Version feature extremely deep game design that will suck up a lot of players' gaming time. And that's a really good thing, folks.

Just as the first official Pokemon sequels (Gold, Silver, and Crystal) added a hundred new Pokemon to the original mix of 151 critters from Red, Blue, and Yellow, Pokemon: Sapphire Version and Pokemon: Ruby Version offer another hundred or so more Pokemon on top of the pile. And just like the other previous critter additions to the series, some of these creature designs range from the very cool to the very stupid, but discovering these new guys is definitely an adventure in itself. One of the fun aspects of Pokemon has always been encountering and discovering creatures that you haven't been seen before, and with the addition of the several dozen to Sapphire and Ruby there's a lot of that element in place...especially for folks who have yet to play a Pokemon title. More than 350 creatures to encounter, collect, fight and trade is a mighty impressive number.

Pokemon: Ruby Edition and Pokemon: Sapphire Edition are, at their core, the same game. But there are subtle differences throughout the two adventures. Within these two games' storyline, there are two rival Pokemon teams: Team Aqua, and Team Magma. In Sapphire, Team Aqua's trying to flood the world to make it more inhabitable for water Pokemon, with Team Magma trying to stop them. In Ruby, it's the other way around, with Team Magma trying to overflow the world in lava for the Fire-based Pokemon to live. The main quest's the same in both games, though...but like the previous Pokemon games, only certain creatures can be caught in each version of the game. Some Pokemon can only be caught in Sapphire, and others can only be caught in Ruby. This encourages either, A) playing both versions of the game, or B) finding someone with the other copy of the game and trading Pokemon between the two. It's a brilliant marketing ploy that's been copied by other Game Boy RPG publishers.