Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 128
 Pokemon Emerald February 24, 2005
8 out of 18 found this review helpful
Although Pokemon Emerald isn't out yet,it looks really fun.All of the previous Pokemon games were in a class of their own.Emerald features a new land,called Battle Frontier with fourteen more badges to collect and seven gyms,each with two badges.This game will surely be the best of the GBA games.
The Best One Yet!! May 4, 2005
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is the best Pokemon video game they've made yet! If every video game was as fun as this one was, probably everyone in the U.S. would love video games. This was the best 36 dollars I've ever spent!
 ADDICTED TO THIS GAME. IT'S THAT GOOD! June 15, 2005
Z.L. (NYC, NY USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I'm a Pokemon noob, never played, never even considered it so my friends helped me through most of it, but I did get through the better half of it on my own.
The game was a pretty standard RPG. You start off saving Prof. Birch from some wild Pokemon, get to pick either, Torchic, Treecko or Mudkip, same old same old I'm told. You get to train your Pokemon, level up, beat people, Gym leaders, the Elite Four, catch legendary Pokemon, there's also a battle frontier. You have a secret base, your "home away from home" to decorate with posters, ornaments and doll. You can also breed, (tip: Catch a Ditto and breed like hell with it!!), trade, battle and all that with other GBA, DS, SPs and all. You can challenge Gym Leaders twice, three times even, this gives a LOAD of money, especially if you had the amulet coin. But the best part of the game are the Pokemon themselves and the idea of "catch 'em all" which is addictive since it takes quite a bit to actually "catch 'em all". There are over 400 of them.
The graphics are decent. Sometimes the battles take too long, for example, it repeats all status problems of each Pokemon, be it poisoned, burned or pelted by hail. The speech are kind of strange but okay. The other thing that is quite is annoying is the wild Pokemon, but they can be taken care of by repel. Trainers are also rather annoying the first time around where they jump out at you, one at a time or two at a time to challenge you. You can take their name down in the PokeNav and challenge again for Exp. points. However, this is tedious, thus the best way to level up is to give Exp. share to a Pokemon and beat the Elite four. The battle system seem very efficient.
The major thing I didn't expect from Pokemon was a really good storyline. There are two Teams in the Hoenn Region, Magma and Aqua looking for the legendary Pokemons. You battle them but they unleash the legendary Pokemons anyways creating odd weather patterns. You have to stop them and save the world. Along the way, beat Gym Leaders, send mail, check out abandoned ships and compete in Contest and win Ribbons.
In the end (not the end of the game), I think that the time I devoted to playing this game was worth it. Just some minor flaws, nothing big. Buy it, play it and enjoy it.
GBA Pokemon Emerald September 28, 2005
Tigereye (USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Just working my way through the game but I must say there are a whole lot of new goodies! Advancing through the game is going to be LOADS of fun!!
 It's different from Ruby/Sapphire, but not enough August 20, 2006
Lee G. Gilman (Charlotte, NC, USA)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
There seems to be some debate as to how different the storyline is this time around. First I will clear up these matters as well as I can.
Both Team Magma and Aqua are enemies here, and there are several new areas where you will face the two teams. Rayquaza plays a fairly large role in the whole Magma/Aqua struggle. Wallace got a promotion and is now League champion. His gym was taken over by this dude named Juan who is Wallace's mentor. Steven takes a role like Red in GSC, except that I have been unable to get him to battle me more than once. All Contests have been consolidated in the Lilycove location. There is a new area called the Battle Frontier - more on that later.
Concerning Legendary Pokemon: Rayquaza can be caught before the Elite Four- good luck. Both Kyogre and Groudon can be caught here, but not until after you clear the Elite Four. You get to choose whether it is Latios or Latias that you must track down.
The game also has a phone built into the Pokenav, like GSC, only more annoying. This time around, Gym Leaders will demand rematches. The playable characters are slightly redesigned but look worse than their Ruby/Sapphire counterparts. Pokemon have little animations when going into battle, like Crystal.
Besides these things and a few reworked rosters, things are mostly the same as Ruby/Sapphire. Same annoying "rival", same basic path through the game, and same towns and environments. And the new stuff is not worth the price if you have one or both of the original 3rd generation games.
After having the privilege of using the VS Seeker in LeafGreen, reverting to the old PokeNav system of trainer rematches seems like a step backwards. Battling Gym Leaders again is an interesting diversion, but it doesn't come close to the VS Seeker's convenience. Trainers will call you, and mostly it will be pointless drivel. You will tire of their calls very quickly. Also, the Pokemon animations often take too long and aren't worth it.
Now onto the Battle Frontier. This is a amusement park-like place for tough Pokemon battles against bosses called Frontier Brains. Two of the facilities have normal Pokemon battles. One has normal battles with a 3-turn limit. One has you choosing doors with random surprises behind each one. One forces you to wander in darkness, collecting whatever items you can find to survive numerous battles. One puts the Pokemon on autopilot, attacking (or not) depending on their nature. And the last one has you using rental Pokemon.
Using Rental Pokemon sucks. They have bizarre and marginally useful attacks. In fact, the whole Battle Frontier is infuriating. Your opponents have surprisingly good luck- inaccurate attacks like Blizzard and Hypnosis will hit you 9 times out of 10. When you use such attacks, you will miss them 9 times out of 10. Also, they will score five critical hits for every one that you get. Too often, they will snatch victory from you because of a lucky hit. Perfect if you like throwing your GBA across the room.
For hard-core trainers who understand the game's mechanics, there are several features that help you properly raise your Pokemon.
Again, if you have Ruby or Sapphire, this game is unnecessary and a waste of money. But if you don't, go ahead and pick it up. Slightly better than Ruby and Sapphire, but Fire/Red and LeafGreen are the standout games of the 3rd generation of Pokemon RPG's.
|
