Pros: simple but deep, high replay value, decent AI
Cons: story isn't deep, graphics, spotty sound
The bottom line: Many will write this game off as a kid's game. Those people are foolish.
I feel really stupid. The original Gameboy Advance I bought came with Pokemon Crystal. But unfortunately, I never really played it. I preferred the Final Fantasy style RPGs that blended in a slightly more mature storyline. Besides, last thing I want is yet another excuse for my wife to make fun of me. However, recently I picked up Pokemon Emerald (yes that and lots of work is what I've been doing for the last two and a half months). For those out of the loop, Pokemon is all about catching wild fictional creatures based off real life animals in pokeballs. Once captured, you battle them against other wild pokemon and/or other trainer's pokemon in RPG-style turn-based combat. Yes I know what many people are thinking, and yes it kind of does seem a lot like cockfighting. However, instead of killing other pokemon, once they run out of hit points, they faint. In addition, the game stresses friendship with your pokemon and instead of battling you can put them in contests that resemble dog shows. Still, the basic premise is to catch as many pokemon as possible, level them up then battle them. This game, Pokemon Emerald, is the amalgamation of the first two Gameboy Advance generations of the Pokemon series, Ruby and Sapphire. That means that you can capture almost all the pokemon from Ruby and Sapphire along with many additional not available in either game.


Story

You're a Pokemon trainer in the world of Hoenn, who sets off to catch lots of Pokemon and win a championship. Along the way you face off against your friendly rival May and her team of pokemon. You also help thwart the mischievous deeds of Team Magma and Team Aqua as they put the region in peril in an attempt to capture the most powerful pokemon. Overall the story doesn't take many twist and turns, most characters do not develop much, and the theme never hints at anything mature. Still, it makes the game accessible to all ages because there aren't any themes that would get many parents in an uproar about. And most importantly, despite the lack of a mature story, it really draws you into the experience because you care about the pokemon that you catch and your team that you take out to battle.


Gameplay

The heart of what Pokemon is all about is the gameplay. On the surface it's pretty simple. You have a team of six pokemon that you pit against other wild pokemon or another trainer's team of 6 or less. The more you battle your pokemon, the more they develop through the acquisition of experience. As they reach specific intervals of experience, they gain levels, which in turn improve their statistics (HP, attack power, attack defense, special attack, special defense, and speed). At specific levels they will acquire new moves, which can be added or replaced to your current moveset. Also at specific level intervals, your pokemon might "evolve" into another, in most cases, more powerful species. Evolution can occur via level up or sometimes through other means like applying an item to it, trading it, or increasing its happiness.

A pokemon's stats, moveset and abilities (a set of one or two passive moves that affect battle or non-battle conditions) affect the nature of the battle. If your moveset doesn't fit well with your pokemon's stats or abilities, then it will be weak compared to pokemon of similar level but more thoughtful makeup. A pokemon can be assigned one or two "types" and a particular move also is assigned a "type". These types range from 17 different values like fire, water, dark, psychic, ghost, normal, etc. This can turn into a large game of rock paper scissors, it does play out well because each type has many weaknesses and strengths and some even have some immunities (like ground attacks cannot damage a flying type). Overall this helps to bring balance into battling and helps temper the power of many overpowered pokemon like Mew and Mewtwo.

In the beginning of the game, you'll want to complete the story mode first. This involves walking around and talking with various characters in the game. You'll catch pokemon along the way as you attempt to form your first team. This means you'll battle other trainers as well as many wild pokemon. The main objective is to fight gym leaders for badges, which grant you access to the Pokemon Championships. These gym leaders inhabit maze-like gyms, which involve some puzzle solving. However, most of these puzzles are really easy for most adults, while some smaller kids might have trouble figuring out the solutions at first. This works well for me since I hate having to solve complicated puzzles because I'm more addicted to the battling. In addition to the gym leaders, you'll also acquire many different items that will help your team of pokemon. Also you'll traverse many diverse areas in Hoenn where several types of pokemon reside. Many of these areas also contain puzzles as well not unlike the gyms. Finally, you'll also meet up with several different characters as well as face off against Team Magma and Team Aqua. By the time you finish the story mode, you'll be an experienced battler who's ready to really get serious about building a strong team.

Beyond the activities in story mode, there are also many side quests that can net you various items like rare pokeballs, items that your pokemon can hold to boost certain moves and abilities, as well as side quests that can net you rare pokemon to add to your team. In addition you have a device that allows you to receive challenges from other trainers and even gym leaders you have already defeated. The battles can become more diverse in the battle frontier as well as trainer's hill and in the different battle tents. However, if you're not big into battling, there are plenty of other activities to participate in. You can find and grow rare berries. There are also pokemon contests as well, which are similar to the dog shows you see on ESPN. You can breed pokemon to create species with different movesets and abilities. Finally, you can create a secret base and populate it with furniture and different trinkets.

Finally, Pokemon Emerald really encourages you to link up with other people. You can mix records to unlock different effects in the game. That and trading is the only way to initiate certain evolutions and acquire specific pokemon. You can link up to other Emerald, Ruby or Sapphire games at any point, however in order to trade with Firered, Leafgreen or the GameCube's Pokemon Colosseum or Pokemon XD games, you must beat the story mode first.

Overall the gameplay is a very basic RPG on the surface, but when you really begin to see the type interactions, the sheer diversity of pokemon, moves, and abilities, you'll really appreciate just how deep Pokemon Emerald is from a gameplay perspective.


Controls

The controls are pretty standard for an RPG. The dpad moves your character, while the two face buttons enable actions like running, searching, or hopping on a bike. The start button brings up the menu, while the select button can be assigned to a particular item to use like a fishing rod or map. It would be nice if the shoulder buttons could be assigned items as well, but that's a minor inconvenience. The only other nuance I wasn't familiar with is the dpad can change directions of the character without moving. This is nice because of all the puzzles and it allows you to search a particular spot without trying to align yourself correctly.


Graphics

The graphics are pretty simple. The pokemon are represented in battle by a specific sprite that is transposed to shake or move before battle, but no true animation. Outside of battle, there are more animations but they are very simplistic, representative of many 8 and 16 bit RPGs such as Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. There is some layering effects, but they aren't complex. One example is the rainy or sunny weather that will sometimes occur or when the screen will distort on a specific interval when a member of your party is poisoned. You won't be bowled over by the graphics, but that's acceptable because they never really try to do too much either and they're effective given the simplicity of the game.


Sound

Like the graphics, the sound doesn't try to do too much either. The music can sound really pedestrian and borderline horrible at times, especially through the Gameboy Advance's speakers. Still, some tunes are catchy at times, while others will get stuck in your head for better or worse. The sound effects also won't impress many. Creatures have their own distinctive call, but if you're used to the Pokemon cartoon, you'll be disappointed to find out that the creature calls from the game sound nothing like the cartoon. That means if you have a Pikachu, you won't be hearing any "pika pika"s. While that will disappoint some, again like the graphics, simplicity reigns supreme here and the sound is no different.


Replay Value

Despite a relatively short story mode, Pokemon Emerald goes a long way to ensure an enjoyable experience once you've beaten the main story. After the main story is completed, you can trade Pokemon with any other Gameboy Advance or GameCube version of the game. Many pokemon evolutions only take place after trading. While trading is the only way to get some pokemon from the Firered or Leafgreen games.

If you don't have a friend or another Gameboy Advance to link up to, many new areas open up, which allow you to acquire more pokemon such as a new section in the safari zone, as well as alternating caves that appear all throughout Hoenn. Many of these Pokemon aren't new to the series, but instead are from the Pokemon Crystal game, or appear in the Firered or Leafgreen games. This allows you choose a team from a pool of more than a couple hundred Pokemon, without needing to link to another player. Also there are a few new pokemon that become available called legendary pokemon. These are generally more powerful that typical pokemon and are a lot tougher to catch. Finally, for those who do not have a friend to link up to and battle with, there's the battle frontier and trainer's hill that allow you to face off against numerous different pokemon trainers in various battle events. The AI of these trainers are very good and many of the teams are very thoughtfully constructed. The challenge will be like facing off against another person who knows what they're doing, only without the trash talk.

Pokemon Emerald is the deepest Pokemon game to date. I would even call it the deepest RPG I have played that isn't a rogue-like clone (moria, angband, nethack, etc.). Even though through trades and special Nintendo events you can only get 351 pokemon species, one particular pokemon species can assume multiple roles, abilities or movesets. The flexibility is unrivaled in any console RPG, portable or not. I feel really bad that it took me this long to find out about the Pokemon game series. But now that I have, I'm glad that Pokemon Emerald was the first Pokemon game I played. It really opened my eyes to just what Nintendo and Gamefreak have going here.