The game became much more than a typical RPG, with raising Pokemon and following patterns in real-time moving the game into the realm of a very complex virtual pet. Gold and Silver’s introduction of a real-time clock, requiring certain Pokemon be captured at certain times of day in the real world, along with day-specific events broadened the game’s scope. The games introduced a new region, a massive amount of side-quests, and most prominent, 100 new Pokemon to catch in addition to the classic 151.
With Ruby and Sapphire, Pokemon began its step toward being a tournament-worthy RPG series and a prime example of competitive play done right.Īfter the enormous success of Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow, Nintendo furthered their groundbreaking series with Gold, Silver and Crystal. These two games, games that are constantly in the shadow of their predecessors (and even their successors), mark crucial points where the competitive nature of Pokemon was enhanced. Widespread opinion has even considered them to be the worst of the series while not complete trainwrecks, due to a number of gamer disputes, many believe the series to have peaked at Gold and Silver, with Ruby and Sapphire being stuck between the massive single-player of Gold and Silver and the online ecosystem of Diamond and Pearl.īut Ruby and Sapphire’s negative reputation is unsupported. But even with the excitement filling the air, it can be easy to forget that Ruby and Sapphire were not games of unanimous support. The third generation would finally be getting enhanced features for a current generation of gamers. With the recent announcements of Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby, 3DS remakes of the GBA Pokemon games Ruby and Sapphire, long-time Pokemaniacs threw their hands up in praise.