Pokémon Emerald is a relatively old game, released for Nintendo Game Boy Advance (GBA) console in 2005. Pokémon Emerald, along with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (and the remake of Pokémon Red and Green, which are called Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green) is called the third generation because it is the third series of Pokémon’s handheld game console. Pokémon Emerald is some kind of mix between Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, because it has the antagonists from Ruby and Sapphire and the unique legendary Pokémon from both Ruby and Sapphire (I’ll refer Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald as Gen 3 Pokémon).

All Pokémon Gen 3 has GBA’s pixelated graphic for the whole gameplay, except for the Pokémon battle sprite and animation, which are not too pixelated (and not as pixelated as Game Boy Color or the original Game Boy, of course). The background musics for this game is absolutely beautiful, especially Fortree City’s and Littleroot Town’s musics are just mind blowing in my opinion. This game still uses 2 dimensional perspective for the whole game, whether it’s the journey or the battle.

The plot for Pokémon Emerald in my opinion is far better than other Gen 3’s plot, because it gets the plot for both Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and some more addition which are only in Pokémon Emerald version. Not only that, but in Pokémon Emerald, players can also get the legendary exclusive to the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire without trading, which makes it better. And of course, as a Pokémon game, Pokémon Gen 3 has some easter eggs in it, for example post-game events or “hidden” Pokémon. And again, Pokémon Emerald has more easter eggs than Pokémon Ruby or Sapphire. Pokémon Emerald is indeed the best Pokémon from Gen 3, or maybe the very best Pokémon game for now.

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This game is highly recommended for everyone, especially for people who likes RPG genre or someone who likes “old” games in general. Also highly recommended for people who likes adventure and strategy games. This game can be free if you use emulator to play it, but you have to search form online shop to buy the GBA cartridge for this game. Overall, this is a really fun game to be played and explored.