Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

Did You Know?

• Nintendo launched a $7 million promotional campaign for Ruby and Sapphire from March to May 2003.
• A contest was held where participants submitted videos of themselves singing the Pokémon theme song with rewritten lyrics; the grand prize was a Lugia PT Cruiser.
• Pokémon Colosseum, a spin-off for GameCube, was bundled with a GameCube–Game Boy Advance link cable and a Memory Card 59.

Plot

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire take place in the Hoenn region, which is located far from the Kanto and Johto regions seen in earlier games. Hoenn’s layout was inspired by the Japanese island of Kyushu, but rotated 90 degrees to improve the game’s balance. Like Kyushu, Hoenn includes many small islands, and much of the region is covered by ocean routes where players can dive underwater. The main characters are Brendan and May, who have just moved to Littleroot Town.

At the start, the player picks Treecko, Torchic, or Mudkip to help Professor Birch fight off a wild Poochyena. After this rescue, the professor gives the player that Pokémon as their starter. The player then meets May or Brendan, the professor’s child, who acts as a rival and battles the player from time to time. The game has two main objectives: first, defeat all eight Gym Leaders to earn the right to face the Elite Four and the Hoenn League Champion, and second, complete the Pokédex by catching, evolving, and trading to collect all 202 Pokémon available in Ruby and Sapphire.

Getting all 386 Pokémon is possible, but requires trading with Pokémon FireRed, LeafGreen, XD: Gale of Darkness, or Colosseum.

Development

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire were created by Game Freak and Nintendo, with Junichi Masuda leading the project. Ken Sugimori served as art director, but for the first time he did not create every piece of artwork himself. Sugimori explained that the design team drew inspiration from childhood memories of nature, animals, and media, often starting with insects. They would pick an insect, then add features like hard shapes to make it feel more like a Pokémon, such as giving it a steel-like appearance.

The Game Boy Advance’s improved graphics allowed up to four players to share information at once, a jump from the previous two-player limit. However, the team chose a simpler graphics engine to keep the game straightforward and avoid confusion. They aimed to make the games accessible for younger kids while including fresh elements to attract returning players. Masuda noted that communication is the core idea behind all Pokémon games, shown through trading and battling.

When asked about double battles, the developers said they kept one-on-one battles as the main focus and introduced double battles as an extra challenge, noting that positive feedback could lead to their return in later games. These were the first Pokémon games not to include every creature from earlier generations. Sugimori mentioned the team tried to feature all the new Pokémon alongside some older ones. Masuda also revealed that technical limits prevented him from giving each Pokémon up to three different cries based on its mood, a feature he had hoped to include.

Reception

Critics were split on Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, but the games generally earned high marks. IGN gave them a 9.5 out of 10 and an Editor’s Choice Award, later ranking them the tenth best Game Boy Advance game ever in 2007. GameZone also awarded a 9.5 and an Outstanding Award, while GamePro gave a perfect 5 out of 5 stars and an Editor’s Choice. ComputerAndVideoGames.com scored them a 9 out of 10, and GameSpot gave an 8.1 out of 10, calling it the best GBA game of March 2003. On the lower end, Eurogamer gave a 7 out of 10, and 1UP.com handed out a B−.

Opinions varied sharply on gameplay and graphics. IGN praised the “deep design” and said double battles boosted strategy. GamePro agreed that double battles added challenge and made tougher fights more strategic, while ComputerAndVideoGames.com called the gameplay “incredibly compelling and addictive.” GameZone found it more refined and challenging than earlier titles. But GameSpot dismissed the games as “a cakewalk from start to finish” with little challenge. Eurogamer felt the mechanics “get very tired, very fast,” and 1UP.com called the games formulaic, noting double battles were underused.

Graphically, ComputerAndVideoGames.com called the games “gorgeous,” but others disagreed. GamePro thought they were only “a fair bit prettier” than Game Boy Color games, and GameZone said they still used simple animations and basic character designs. IGN and 1UP.com saw only a minor upgrade, and Eurogamer felt the graphics reached a “functional level at best.” Audio fared better: GameZone and GameSpot both found the music catchy, with GameZone giving it an 8 out of 10, noting it could be annoying but was also very good, even humming it outside play. Other complaints included the removal of Gold and Silver’s time system and the inability to import Pokémon from earlier generations.