Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are two games that are very close to my heart. Not only were they my first step into the world of Pokemon, they were also the reason gaming is such a large part of my life today. Choosing Mudkip as my starter, catching the legendary Kyoge, defeating the Elite Four, traking down Latais and working with my friends to complete the Pokedex are memories from my childhood that I will treasure forever. It is these games that pulled me into gaming and introduced me to other Nintendo franchises and eventually to the PlayStation and Xbox. Though 10 years has passed the Pokemon games still take up a large portion of my play time. When I bought my copy of Pokemon X last year I put 17 hours into it on the first day. That's a crazy, especially for me! I'm the type of person who takes a week to finish a 10 hour game, I typically like to gradually chip away with smaller play sessions. Not Pokemon though, you know when you're enjoying a game when you put it down at 4 AM not because you're tired, but because "you just should".
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| My ticket into the world of video games |
Ever since Heart Gold and Soul Silver (remakes of Gold & Silver on the GB) were released I thought about how awesome a Ruby and Sapphire remake would be. All those familiar locations recreated to look better to match up with the modern day. Though when Black 2 and White 2 for the DS come out it changed my thought pattern. These games were sequels rather than the same game with a new coat of paint the series had come to expect. What if the Ruby and Sapphire "remakes" used this approach? Revisit the Hoenn region and meet familiar characters while experiencing a whole new story. Though to be honest any excuse to revisit these games would get me excited.
The other day I bought a brand new iPad Air and my favourite thing to do on it is play Pokemon Emerald. I was so excited when I found out you can run a GBA emulator without jail breaking your device. But that was nothing compared to how I felt when I checked my Facebook this morning and seen my wall spammed with "Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire". Oh my Jesus balls, it's finally happening! I've been waiting for these games for years it was really surprising for them to announce them randomly like this. If Nintendo hinted the games it would have been too obvious and wouldn't have had the same impact, so kudos to them for doing it this way.
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| I'm aboard the hype train! " Doot doot"! |
According to the short teaser trailer a "epic new adventure is coming" and we're going to "explore a dramatic new world". To me this indicates that these will be sequels rather than simple remakes of the original titles, which I'm thrilled about. With all the new additions brought into the Pokemon series over the last decade I think it would be difficult to keep the new titles true to the originals. Let alone all the work it would take to recreate everything in 3D, in someways a whole new presentation with the same story would be wasted potential. We're still not sure what the games look like, but it's safe to assume they will be presented in a similar fashion to X and Y. A good reason to get excited for E3!
After 10 years I'm finally heading home. I'll see you in November, Hoenn.
Expect to see plenty of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on Life's a Game in the upcoming months.
