LONG Review Warning, TL;DR and personal story at the bottom
This was the very first Pokémon game I ever played. Having played the whole series, I think this game (Hoenn as a whole) is truly where the Pokémon series started to hit its stride. So many core mechanics were introduced here that changed the way these games play, only one more change has been as pivotal to the core experience after that. These changes come in the form of Abilities and Double Battles primarily. Both provide much more depth to each individual Pokémon and battling as a whole. Double Battles are such a fun format that involve much more strategy, that it honestly makes me wish more of the game was just this format.
Beyond those mechanical changes, the Hoenn region brings forth such a diverse pool of Pokémon along with a sharply-balanced and damn-near perfectly paced (with only one major blip) adventure/main storyline. Without going into the minutiae of each, so many of the brand new Hoenn Region Pokémon feel very worth using, have interesting designs, and are spread throughout the region well. This region definitely dodges the issue Johto had where it felt like the region mainly featured Pokémon from the previous game and all its new mons were very sparsely available or featured. The locales are all varied with each city having stronger theming and identities, thanks to the enhanced graphical capabilities and more songs for towns in general. No gym battle stands out as too easy or too hard, especially here in Emerald, they're all just right and feel like fun challenges to fight.
While the story isn't anything earth-shatteringly deep, it's still well-written and developed for its simple nature. The threats in the game (BOTH Team Magma and Team Aqua) are very present in the main story and constantly amp up their antics towards a concrete goal, all resulting in the iconic climactic showdowns near Sootopolis City. It's a nice narrative to have these two fighting against the player AND each other, so much so that it feels like this expanded version of the story must've been the true intent all along.
In addition, while the Game Boy and Game Boy Color graphics were charming, the animated sprites, 32-bit color palette, and detailed sprite-work present here on the Game Boy Advance are timeless and still look great to this day. Even though the GBA isn't famous for its sound quality, Pokémon Emerald still shines in that part of its presentation too! This generation of Pokémon easily has my favorite suite of battle sound effects, all of them are so distinct, cartoony, and iconic. This is to say nothing of the immaculate soundtrack full of catchy, exciting, and fun tunes (All the town themes, battle themes, especially the Gym Leader theme).
Even with the main story as solid as it is, it doesn't end there! This generation of Pokémon introduced so many side modes and features that are so fun to engage with for countless hours. For starters, Gym Rematches and PokeNav rematches in general are a great continuing feature from Johto that adds a lot more replayability to wander around fighting trainers with stronger teams again. Plus, there are actual dungeons, legendaries, and post-game areas to explore deeply. Contests make for an alternate way to raise up Pokémon and engage in yet another new kind of battles that remain fun, going for Ribbons is also a nice challenge. Finally, the big change to Emerald, the Battle Frontier, not every style is a winner but in general, a complex in-game that tests your battle skills to the absolute max capabilities that only see use, normally, in competitive play is extremely satisfying and part of what makes this enhanced rerelease so great.
The only legitimate downsides I can think of are how the latter part of the story contains almost entirely water routes and weak Tentacool encounters, but amongst a sea (lol) of positives outlined above, this is almost a non-issue
In summary, Pokémon Emerald is a fantastic game on all fronts, design, story, music, post-game features, and stands out as a hallmark entry in the Pokémon series for its game design above all else.
I mentioned at the top that this was my first Pokémon game. It was really the first not-Mario game I'd played as a kid and helped expose me to more gaming outside Mario at the age of 5. I got my first copy of the game during a typical Saturday morning yard-sale run with my sister and grandma, when we happened upon a classmate of mine's house. Her older brother was selling all 5 GBA Pokémon games for $5 each (fancy that nowadays) and, while being rushed by my grandma, I picked this one on a whim. I picked Treecko at first, named it "Yoshi" and a Shroomish named "Goomba". I didn't make it far. It wasn't til later on in my childhood that I gave the game an actual honest attempt after the one-two punch of being introduced to more characters via Super Smash Bros. and RPGs via Paper Mario, and having played another later Pokémon game that I went back for this one. I had such a blast and drained a near endless amount of hours into all the side modes. For a good while, this was easily my favorite Pokémon game. It helped me branch out even further into other games and Pokémon Emerald will always be dear to me for that. On that playthrough, I used the team below, my first full Pokémon team:
Blaziken
Ludicolo
Azumarill
Slaking
Manectric
Flygon
This was the very first Pokémon game I ever played. Having played the whole series, I think this game (Hoenn as a whole) is truly where the Pokémon series started to hit its stride. So many core mechanics were introduced here that changed the way these games play, only one more change has been as pivotal to the core experience after that. These changes come in the form of Abilities and Double Battles primarily. Both provide much more depth to each individual Pokémon and battling as a whole. Double Battles are such a fun format that involve much more strategy, that it honestly makes me wish more of the game was just this format.
Beyond those mechanical changes, the Hoenn region brings forth such a diverse pool of Pokémon along with a sharply-balanced and damn-near perfectly paced (with only one major blip) adventure/main storyline. Without going into the minutiae of each, so many of the brand new Hoenn Region Pokémon feel very worth using, have interesting designs, and are spread throughout the region well. This region definitely dodges the issue Johto had where it felt like the region mainly featured Pokémon from the previous game and all its new mons were very sparsely available or featured. The locales are all varied with each city having stronger theming and identities, thanks to the enhanced graphical capabilities and more songs for towns in general. No gym battle stands out as too easy or too hard, especially here in Emerald, they're all just right and feel like fun challenges to fight.
While the story isn't anything earth-shatteringly deep, it's still well-written and developed for its simple nature. The threats in the game (BOTH Team Magma and Team Aqua) are very present in the main story and constantly amp up their antics towards a concrete goal, all resulting in the iconic climactic showdowns near Sootopolis City. It's a nice narrative to have these two fighting against the player AND each other, so much so that it feels like this expanded version of the story must've been the true intent all along.
In addition, while the Game Boy and Game Boy Color graphics were charming, the animated sprites, 32-bit color palette, and detailed sprite-work present here on the Game Boy Advance are timeless and still look great to this day. Even though the GBA isn't famous for its sound quality, Pokémon Emerald still shines in that part of its presentation too! This generation of Pokémon easily has my favorite suite of battle sound effects, all of them are so distinct, cartoony, and iconic. This is to say nothing of the immaculate soundtrack full of catchy, exciting, and fun tunes (All the town themes, battle themes, especially the Gym Leader theme).
Even with the main story as solid as it is, it doesn't end there! This generation of Pokémon introduced so many side modes and features that are so fun to engage with for countless hours. For starters, Gym Rematches and PokeNav rematches in general are a great continuing feature from Johto that adds a lot more replayability to wander around fighting trainers with stronger teams again. Plus, there are actual dungeons, legendaries, and post-game areas to explore deeply. Contests make for an alternate way to raise up Pokémon and engage in yet another new kind of battles that remain fun, going for Ribbons is also a nice challenge. Finally, the big change to Emerald, the Battle Frontier, not every style is a winner but in general, a complex in-game that tests your battle skills to the absolute max capabilities that only see use, normally, in competitive play is extremely satisfying and part of what makes this enhanced rerelease so great.
The only legitimate downsides I can think of are how the latter part of the story contains almost entirely water routes and weak Tentacool encounters, but amongst a sea (lol) of positives outlined above, this is almost a non-issue
In summary, Pokémon Emerald is a fantastic game on all fronts, design, story, music, post-game features, and stands out as a hallmark entry in the Pokémon series for its game design above all else.
I mentioned at the top that this was my first Pokémon game. It was really the first not-Mario game I'd played as a kid and helped expose me to more gaming outside Mario at the age of 5. I got my first copy of the game during a typical Saturday morning yard-sale run with my sister and grandma, when we happened upon a classmate of mine's house. Her older brother was selling all 5 GBA Pokémon games for $5 each (fancy that nowadays) and, while being rushed by my grandma, I picked this one on a whim. I picked Treecko at first, named it "Yoshi" and a Shroomish named "Goomba". I didn't make it far. It wasn't til later on in my childhood that I gave the game an actual honest attempt after the one-two punch of being introduced to more characters via Super Smash Bros. and RPGs via Paper Mario, and having played another later Pokémon game that I went back for this one. I had such a blast and drained a near endless amount of hours into all the side modes. For a good while, this was easily my favorite Pokémon game. It helped me branch out even further into other games and Pokémon Emerald will always be dear to me for that. On that playthrough, I used the team below, my first full Pokémon team:
Blaziken
Ludicolo
Azumarill
Slaking
Manectric
Flygon