Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

I admit, when I heard Generation 3 was going to be remade, I honestly had some doubts of how they would handle it being on the 3DS and how they would mix together the mega-evolutions into Hoenn. Worst yet, they were introducing new mega-evolutions into Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (ORAS) which made me skeptical. How would this affect game play? Would it alter the games I once loved and still have Pokemon from? Although there were some differences, these games still retained a lot of the same joy as the originals did ten years ago.


Seeing Hoenn in 3D really brought back a lot of memories from when I first started playing. The intro of Professor Birch in the Original Gameboy Advance graphics really hit it home for me, and this isn't even 5 minutes in. All of the locations look almost exactly as they did in Ruby and Sapphire except in 3D. When you dive now, if there is no grass, you can see the Pokemon peeking up at you from in the trenches, and riding on the back of Latios/Latias is an amazing sight to see. Having better graphics than Ruby and Sapphire did ten years ago enabled me to see more of what they were trying to do, such as Flannery's gym being a hot spring, or design of Tate and Liz's gym looking more psychic like.  Now,  one of my gripes is Mauville City, which used to be simplistic, now has changed into a mega-mall style city, that honestly was a pain to navigate.Another weird issue is the fact the transitions between the routes was not smooth like they were in original Ruby and Sapphire. It made the routes easier to navigate but having the awkward transitions broke the immersion for me. 

The elements they brought from Pokemon X and Y helped the game progress a lot faster than it did in Ruby and Sapphire. The experience share constantly being on made it so that I didn't have to worry about raising the one weak Pokemon on my team by throwing it out in front of my team. Although this is a constant complaint in the Pokemon world, they made it so you can toggle it on or off, like in X or Y. The primordial evolutions helped with the story line to help show Kyogre's and Groudon's true power in the past. Kyogre's Primordial Sea and Groudons Desolate Land are amazing and add a new power to them. The mega-evolutions keep their distance for the most part but they make their return at the Delta Episode.

The post game not lacking in things to do, unlike X and Y. The Delta Episode was full of fast passed action, with Zinnia, a young girl, goes around taking everyone's mega stones in hopes of reviving Rayquaza. After catching Rayquaza, you get a chance to catch the mysterious Deoxys. Being able to catch Deoxys, a former event only Pokemon, made me really excited due to the fact back when I was playing Ruby and Sapphire, I couldn't get Deoxys legitimately.

The new Mega-evolutions introduced in ORAS added a bit of hype to the game for me, although some of the Mega-evolutions didn't fit the theme of Hoenn.  Mega-Altaria and Mega-Sharpedo really brought the theme of Hoenn home, along with Mega-Rayquaza. They also brough up the starter Mega-Evolutions, although the artistic design of Swampert was not pleasing where as Mega-Blaziken and Mega-Sceptile seemed to ooze power.The addition of Mega-Audino and Mega-Slowbro felt awkward but I was glad to see a Generation 5 Pokemon get a mega evolution.

All in all, I'd recommend these games to any pokemon fan despite their flaws(and too much water), young or old, whether it is their first Pokemon game, or if they are a Pokemon master, any person will have fun with these games.