Dimension Hopping: Sortof... Pokemon Omega Ruby Review

A remake of Pokemon Ruby has been a long time coming. For the uninitiated, the original Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire came out in 2003 on the Gameboy Advance. 

They were the third in the series of games and introduced a new generation of 100 Pokemon for players to catch and train. The remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were released last month on the Nintendo 3DS

While the layout of the game is 95% the same, it has been upgraded to a full 3D game. So even if you have played the originals like myself it does have a completely different look. The graphics still hold the same bright colours and anime style of the previous games and dare I say it…the cartoons. But the upgraded graphics is definitely worth the pennies you pay for the games. 

Something that I don’t quite understand is why only certain parts of the game utilise the 3DS’s full 3D mode. If you don’t own this console, this allows the game to appear like it is leaping off the screen - like a 3D television. Only Pokemon battles and select parts of the main game (roaming around the landscape) use this feature. 

I’m not sure why that is but it’s disappointing. Pokemon games have been criticised in the past for not keeping up with the graphics of the console successive titles have been realised on. Between the original two generations on the Gameboy Colour and moving onto the Gameboy Advance, there was very little change in quality of graphics or gameplay itself. 

As for game play, the fundamentals are the same: you catch Pokemon, you train them and battle them to progress further in the game. Some new elements have been added to the remakes, there’s much more emphasis on becoming close with your Pokemon - this is done by petting, feeding them and playing mini games. There is also a new form of evolution which certain characters can achieve in battle later on in the game and some new areas. 

There’s a lot to do besides the main game, so there is enough to keep players busy if they tire of battling. The game is very pretty and there is enough here to keep old and new players alike entertained. 

Omega Ruby gets 7/10.