Pokémon Alpha Sapphire - Nintendo 3DS

What can be said about this game? Well, for a starter Ill preface that even though its a remake, its one of the best games Ive ever played in my life, if not the best. The story is still classic, it takes a lot of influence from the original Sapphire game but updates it a little, giving new, impressive designs to the characters and making them even more memorable than before. Every single one has a distinct personality and its wonderful to see these characters grow and change. New characters have been added too, as well as a brand new arc at the end of the game, after youve beaten the champion. That story was so game-changing it really solidified the game for me. Let me put the new content like this: you get to capture Rayquaza, Mega Evolve him, ridE HIM INTO SPACE AND USE HIM TO DESTROY A METEOR THATS HEADING FOR THE EARTH AND HOLY WOW HOW MUCH COOLER DOES IT GET THAN THAT?? This is one of the times where the 3D capabilities of the 3DS has been really great, really functional, and it isnt used 24/7 so it doesnt make your head hurt. The graphics are cute and appealing and amazingly well detailed. Its a beautiful game. It really, really is. The grass ripples in the wind, the waters beautifully done (and for a game centered around water thats pretty important!), the space scene is absolutely breathtaking. When you battle your Pokemon under some conditions it adds special effects like raindrops falling on the touch screen, its a nice touch really. You can tell how much effort the designers must have put into it its a really, really well put together game. The music was one of the best parts for me. Hearing that nostalgic tune modernised for the new technology took my breath away and, Im gonna be completely honest here, I cried at the beginning when the game started (purely nostalgia) and when the game ended. Twice. The music is so moving and it works so well with whats going on. Game wants you to feel pumped? The scores loaded with electric guitars and sic tunes. Game wants you to feel nervous? Violins and tense tunes. Game wants you to feel warm, cosy and comfortable? I didnt think it was possible to improve the original Littleroot theme, but I was proven so, so wrong. Its gorgeous. The overall feel I got from this game was that it was a lot more thought through than the other games in its generation (X&Y), it felt a lot more linear but without feeling limited. Theres so much to do but at no point do you feel overwhelmed, you can take it all at your own pace, whether you wanna challenge the gym, enter a contest or just play with your Pokemon in Pokemon Amie, a feature which I am so, so grateful they kept in the game. I really cannot overstate the little things in this game enough, just the smallest nuances that make you feel all warm and happy inside, seeing the characters you undoubtedly fall in love with learn and grow and go through emotions (if you dont think I cried when Archie cried youre mistaken) its just a smorgasbord of good writing, good programming and good game design. A perfect example of how to properly and perfectly remake a game. IN CONCLUSION: DO YOU LIKE POKEMON? YES? BUY THIS GAME. HAVE YOU NEVER PLAYED POKEMON? YES? GOOD, BUY THIS GAME AND JOIN THE HYPE. THIS GAME IS FUN AND GORGEOUS AND EMOTIONAL AND UTTER PERFECTION AND I WILL BE PLAYING IT FOR YEARS TO COME. THANK YOU GAME FREAK ♥♥♥

This game is stunning and a great remake of my personal favorite generation. Emerald was my first pokemon game ever that I alone owned and didnt have to share with my older brothers and I played it probably 1000 times through. This remake makes playing the game fun all over again. A little bit dissapointed they removed the charachter customization that was in XY but its not needed. My dad also got Ruby version of this game and after exclusively playing pokemon yellow on an old game boy he really loves the new style of gameplay and the animations.

Everything you loved and cringed about from the original sapphire with some extra goodies and much better graphics! I mean - who couldnt wait to compete in contests again? (Maybe a good amount of us...) Or even have to choose whether you wanted to zoom around on the Mach bike or bounce around with the Acro. Ah, it was good to play the nostalgia game again, and how I had another hard time choosing my starter. The user interface is nearly identical to that of Pokemon X and Y, and has a very good feel, inside and out of battle for the newer generation of gamers. The story is a remake (obviously) but I believe it was much better the second time around. Overall, with the lovely addition of the EXP Share extremely early through the play-through, the game is made a great deal easier, for better or for worse. Personally I enjoyed being able to keep my party around the same level, but when your lowest leveled Pokemon out-levels a gym leaders highest without any extra grinding, the challenge is almost nonexistent until the Elite Four. Catching your legendary will be a pain (as it should!) without the use of the master ball. And getting there was a great experience. Loving the new forms. Bottom line: If you enjoy Pokemon, youll love this series. GameFreak did another wonderful job delivering another solid revamp of an older series for the new generations. Ill probably keep playing their games until they run out of ideas for new regions. [spoiler] For the old school players who spent hours and hours hunting down your Latios/Latias, never fear! For now through the gameplay youll receive Latias who willingly befriends your party! ... Still very mixed feelings still about this.

Highly recommend

I wasnt even gonna buy this,but I couldnt resist. Im glad did because there was a ton of new features with the Nav to help you catch pokemon, tells youif you caught all in an area, andwhen a trainer is ready for battle. Thats just the surface from what I have so far(badge 2). It seems like they went overboard with HMs & Im yet to get online access. Overall if you didnt get to play the original(like me) then buy it for sure.

I hadnt played Pokemon since 2000, and even then, it was the original Pokemon Red. I cant speak on how this compares to other editions, with the exception of Pokemon X, which I also have as of recently. Whereas Pokemon X feels sluggish, this edition feels and plays very smoothly. I notice a good bit more optimization in the engine. Because so, I find it very hard to go back and continue playing X. It feels like a first-generation 3D game did in the Playstation/N64 era. The controls, as well, are a major improvement over X. But specifically about Alpha Sapphire. I havent even scratched the surface on the games content, but I am glad. Even from the beginning, it feels like there is a lot of life left in the game. It is of course going to end up being more of the same, but that is sort of the charm with Pokemon, really. I ran back and forth in one area of a tunnel just so I could encounter an elusive Pokemon again... and Im in my thirties. This game makes me feel like that kid again, while I never want to relive being a kid, it is a nice escape to be back in that mindset if only for a little bit.

This is just a really enjoyable game, and a fantastic remake. It has all the nostalgia you could ask for while still looking great in 3D. Its still very similar to the original games but puts cool twists, and the new features are so much fun, especially the PokeNav Plus and the Super Secret Bases. I love that this game allows you to collect every single Pokemon in the National Pokedex within a single generation of games. While the middle of the game lulls a bit, the beginning and towards the end are so immersive i couldnt put the game down for weeks.

I havent played a Pokemon title since Pokemon Yellow so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but this game is AWESOME so far. Literally everything I wanted Pokemon to look like when I was a kid. I never played Sapphire, so the whole game is new to me. It has so many familiar kinks from generation 1, but has improved in so many ways. For people that played X and Y, you know what to expect. My only gripes with the series is that its hard to Catch Them All when your inventory is stuck at 6. I understand they only want you to have 6 available pokemon when out in battle, and once you can Fly it becomes much easier, but Id like to a see an on-the-fly inventory storing system thats NOT worse than Borderlands 2 so I can actually collect more at a time when Im out and about. Also, no difficulty settings. I like to slow-pace myself through games, and I have to keep myself from over-leveling too many of my pokemon. Overall, 9.5/10.

This game is for the most part an excellent remake for an old favorite of mine. The only real issue I have is the particular feature of Dex nav which is a feature that tracks wild Pokemon on given routes. The biggest problem with this is that it can bring in may be about 10 levels higher then the others in the area, for earlier players this can be catastrophic to have to face and for me personally the Pokemon in those given circumstances have cost me half my team to bring just one down. That being said the higher levels are typically a lot more rare and youre usually notified when your target is one. Again I love this game and do recomend

In the aftermath of X and Y, which were staggeringly wonderful, with a dynamic PokeDex, dynamic new animation, the gloriously empowered Exp. Share and dozens of other impressive features, AS and OR were somewhat of a letdown. The game itself is a little different than it was back in Generation III, but only in ways that were redundant with X and Y. The new Mega Evolutions were wonderful, but are not available until much later in the game than in X and Y. With the Exp. Share upgraded, a game where you previously had to struggle to get a full party above level 45 you can now end up with six Pokemon in their 80s. Unfortunately, the levels of the opponents Pokemon remained the same, turning a game that was an enjoyable challenge into an unfortunate breeze. With the Battle Maison returning from X and Y, we lose the one thing that made Third Gen (or Emerald Version, at least) so enjoyable, namely an immensely diverse and challenging Battle Frontier. There are some awesome new features like the ability to find rare Pokemon and keep track of what youve caught off of each route using the Trainers Eye, but more or less, this game was a disappointment. If given a choice between playing this again or playing Emerald, Id pick Emerald again in a heartbeat. And that says nothing in comparison to X and Y.