I had a pretty good time replaying Fire Red, even though I never really got into Gen III, and decided to play through Emerald hoping I'd like it more than Sapphire. However, I still find it quite a drag to play through, so few of the pokemon on offer feel fun or cool. Most pokemon still take ages to learn half decent moves. The soundtrack is, I guess, trying its hardest to squeeze a variety of instruments onto the GBA sound chip, but the results are really poor- FR/LG sounds much, much better, and the tracks from this game won't be good until they're revisited in ORAS.

I still need to come back and try the Battle Frontier stuff to see if that gives it another lease on life, but I struggle to find time for it.