Pokemon Emerald

⭐ 8.5/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

The third of the series, and the last of the games I know off by heart.  This was probably the one game among the first three that gets the most right.  Everything is sped waaay up after Crystal, it’s colorful and vibrant, the characters are a little more charming.  It takes everything good from 1, discards all the bad stuff from 2, and then adds some nice “modern” touches.

I love playing these games in order because you see the new, cool bold choices they were making and understand how these games were such a sensation for that first decade.  Not only with artistic choices, which were solid, but adding things to the battle mechanics like abilities and double battles.  This is the first game to introduce anything resembling a real story, and although it may not be Shakespeare (the bad guy’s motivation still makes no sense), it still has some nice moments that I loved as a kid.  You emerge from the Seafloor cavern to torrential rain?! That’s still pretty cool. 

I didn’t even get close to completing the Nuzlocke cuz this game cheats and I was the VICTIM of menacingly bad luck.  I’d also say this was the hardest entry, which was not a bad thing, though playing by normal rules still isn’t too difficult.  Anyways, my team: Blaziken, Gyrados, Salamence, Manetric, Absol, Lombre (last two weren’t really contributors).