Pokémon Omega Ruby Review

Pokémon Omega Ruby Review Screenshot 1

Pokémon is in my opinion, the biggest RPG franchise there has been in gaming, selling millions in each of it’s iterations. It is also viewed as a kids game, it’s anime playing on kids tv channels, plush dolls of Pikachu selling in any good game shop along with the card game. While I am not a mega fan, I am happy to admit I did love the recent game Pokémon X/Y. It came out during the 3ds’s resurgence to prominence from obscurity.  Curiously, I admit I hadn’t played a Pokémon game since Pokémon Snap on the N64, but I was wanting to give it a go again, and the result has been, I have been converted to a fan. So naturally, I had to pre-order the newest addition.

These new games are remakes of the Ruby/Sapphire games that appeared on the Game Boy Advance ten years or so ago, new graphics, new areas, new challenges and new things to do have all been added to these games, it certainly is a nice addition to the 3DS catalogue of games. As said previously, Pokémon games sell by the million easily, and this one has been no different, pre orders surpassing the X and Y pre orders, it’s obvious why this game was made, but is it worthwhile for a player, not just an avid Pokémon fan?

Pokémon Omega Ruby Review Screenshot 2

If you don’t know how a Pokémon game plays or can’t even guess how one plays, then yes, close this review and never read any of my reviews again! Pokémon is a gamer’s game, it’s a simple RPG, but also a competitive team building game of complex and indeed over thought and cheap online battling. I don’t like the online battling system really, people go to doing the winning strategies instantly and I like playing the game with the little monsters I like, making me terrible at it, breaking the experience for me.

Back to the single player, the story is the same as any other Pokémon game, you are a young adult leaving home with a starter Pokémon to adventure and collect your gym badges and indeed collect them all. At the same time you meet a team of baddies who are setting out to destroy the world you are living in, you battle them until they are finished and so on.

The story line is basically the same, also the game play is just the same, collecting levelling up your chosen team and traveling from town to town battling strangers and progressing the story. Simple stuff eh, but I must say this one has had me addicted over the previous episode much more.

Pokémon Omega Ruby Review Screenshot 3

I find myself compulsively playing this, not wanting to put it down, there’s just a lot to do and a lot to enjoy, fatigue can happen of it, but rarely. I think the setting is good, Hoenn is an island of variety, there’s so many different things happening. There differences from X and Y are obvious, from the Dexnav, a screen showing all the Pokémon that has been caught in one area, a new sneaking mechanic for catching new Pokémon, secret bases  work like a house in Animal Crossing, also a show thing where your cuteness of your Pokémon win prizes for you. I am sure you can see what would excite more for me, I don’t need a Pokémon secrete base or fashion show really.

What really excites me is the new Pokémon and mega evolutions, the different Pokémon to catch vary from legendary Pokémon not available in the previous game, the mega evolutions have been expanded to become a much wider variety, I don’t want to spoil them here, but you can find them out for yourself on the web, some of them are great. Putting everything together with the idea that there are a lot of spoileri-sh surprises I am not really willing to reveal in my review, you can see there is a lot of content.

I would put forward overall it is good content and there is easily more than forty hours worth of game play on the cartridge, more if you are a person who loves getting everything done to the maximum.  I cannot think of a better game to get for a kid this Christmas, it certainly made this big kid happy!

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo 3DS code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

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