I HAVE RIDDEN A DRAGON INTO SPACE AND PUNCHED AN ALIEN IN ITS GODDAMN FACE!
The Pokémon game series is one I've gone on record as having been a fan of before. On multiple occasions. I played the First and Second Generations with the caring hand of a child who had no real concept of any of the complexities to the system (i.e., I caught only Pokémon that I liked and didn't think much about anything other than hitting the opponent repeatedly until they died). When Generation III came out, though, I kind of fell off.
You see, my dear readers, back in my youth I was very susceptible to the influence of my peers and thus the consensus from them was that Pokémon wasn't "cool" anymore around early to mid Middle School. Thus, I did not partake the third Generation in full until much later on. While I did own Sapphire, I just. . .kind of stopped playing it. Sadly, when I found all of my old Game Boy effects, it wasn't among them (neither was Pit Fighter on the Game Boy, but I wasn't exactly weeping about that). So, Generation III remained elusive for me (as did Generation IV - the only version that, to date, I still haven't played) until I got one of those Nintendo-hated ROMs and did a ill-advised Nuzlocke challenge. A real serious case of "What in the Hell were you thinking?"
Personally, I blame the rap music.
Regardless, with that, I hadn't really sunk my teeth in Generation III. How very fortunate I was that Nintendo and Game Freak took it upon themselves to remake that generation in concert with Pokémon X and Y. Considering I reviewed that way back in 2014...eh, y'know what? I've never been particularly timely, so why start now? So, let's crack into it and see what's different this time around.
. . .okay, as it turns out, not overmuch. Sorry for the anticlimax.
Most of the changes are to the plot and the graphics rather than any real major changes to the game in terms of mechanics, which is par for the course with the remakes as we saw with HeartGold and SoulSilver as compared to Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Game Freak really does utilize the next technology, the game looks absolutely great for something that's animated for kids. The cutscenes are pretty well done, given the style.
Still pretty much mute besides the background music, Pokémon cries, and a Foley artist's entire career worth of noises for just about every object ever.
However, as is customary with almost every game in the main series, defeating the Elite Four unlocks a whole plethora of new content. In the case of the original games, it was the Cerulean Dungeon where one could catch Mewtwo. In the case of the aforementioned Gold, Silver, and Crystal, it was the entire region of Kanto with a bunch of new Gym leaders to battle and eventually Mount Silver itself to battle Red.
Hopefully not a False Red. . .
In the case of Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby, it presents itself as the "Delta Episode". Basically, a meteor is coming to the Pokémon World and is going to strike Hoenn. The player character gets embroiled in assisting the former Champion Steven and some scientists in trying to develop the means to transport the asteroid away before it gets there...only to be stopped by an enigmatic young woman who very rationally wants to summon Rayquaza and force it to Mega Evolve.
The problem with this being that Rayquaza doesn't have the strength to do so. So, what do you do? You battle it, catch it, and then FLY IT INTO SPACE IN ORDER TO DESTROY THE ASTEROID! All the while, there's a screeching guitar theme that is worthy of the likes of Adrian Smith or Ace Frehley as you - and I need to reiterate this from my opening statement: RIDE A DRAGON INTO SPACE AND PUNCH AN ALIEN IN ITS GODDAMN FACE!
. . .oh, right, Deoxys is hiding in the asteroid. So when you break it up, you get to take him on.
 |
| AWW YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! |
Honestly, I'm not gonna lie...I find it difficult to criticize a game where the endgame is RIDE A DRAGON INTO SPACE AND PUNCH AN ALIEN IN ITS GODDAMN FACE. The gripes you'd have about a Pokémon game are here and a few others as well. I find the Pokémon Contest concept to be kind of dumb, honestly, though I imagine that was Nintendo and Game Freak trying to reach more of the female demographic, so I'm not going to ding them any points for that one. It's not something you actually have to do to complete the main storyline.
Other than that, it kind of goes back to my usual rule for Pokémon games (at least in the main series) - you're either going to like it, or you aren't. No middle ground. If you do, then definitely check it out if you're one of the three people who haven't already.
Given my track record, I ought to be back with a timely game review somewhere in mid-July!
Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby are available from Nintendo and Game Freak for the Nintendo 3DS.
No comments:
Post a Comment