The 20th anniversary of Pokémon is ever looming – we’re 13 days away now – less than a fortnight away! As we count down the days, our “Ask PC” column continues to share 20 days of significant memories from The PokéCommunity‘s Pokémon fans! Yesterday we talked about their remakes; today we look at Hoenn when it was brand new on the Game Boy Advance (GBA) in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and later Emerald.
While many started back with Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow, it’s easy to forget that many started later in the history of Pokémon games. Hikamaru‘s Pokémon adventure for instance started with Pokémon Ruby.
Ah yes, 3rd Gen… this one holds a significant memory for me because Ruby was the first Pokemon game I properly owned.
It’s often hard to forget your first shiny Pokémon. Hikamaru even kept hers on her GBA games.
I actually was very ecstatic when I got the game and a GBA SP for my 11th birthday, still one of my best birthday presents ever. I did get a DS Lite and Pearl on what was my 16th, and Black on my 19th but they weren’t as memorable as this one. I was quite the noob when I played this game because my team had type overlaps and crappy HM moves everywhere, but it does hold my only Pokemon to have ever won a Master Rank Contest – a Roselia. It was the Master Beauty Contest (where I think one of the opponents is a very annoying Electrode) and I somehow beat that Electrode trainer by just a few points, despite my Roselia’s moves all belonging to different categories.
It was also the game I obtained my very first shiny, an adorable red Duskull. Caught her without any cheap tricks, just a plain old random encounter. I had heard about shinies but never expected to actually catch one of my own. She still sits in Ruby today, because she holds that many memories.
It was also cRaCkZ‘s first generation. He was also quite taken by some of Hoenn’s awesome Pokémon designs:
Of course his first Pokémon was a Ralts…
My first game was Emerald (which is my all time favorite). I finished Emerald about eight times and never get bored of it.
I started my first game with a Torchic named Torch (yes I’m original). After Wally caught a Ralts I “fall in love” with her and I wanted one too. After long searches on Route 102 I managed to catch one, my cutie Remix (and Gardevoir remains my favourite since then).
My first team ever was Blaziken, Gardevoir, Breloom, Absol, Aggron and Altaria. Pretty good for a newbie, huh?
In my first games I always over-levelled my starter. I got Combusken before Roxanne and Blaziken during the battle with Winona.
He wasn’t the only one who over-levelled his starter Pokémon – others did too, like cookie-san:
I know for my first play-through my Blaziken was level 100 while the rest were like level 30!
The games weren’t easy for everyone, and Anvils Alive had to learn another way past the first Gym:
Where it was Gen 1 – thanks to my mom and a Game Boy Color – that got me into Pokémon, Gen 3 was a rite of passage for me.
I remember it clearly: After failing miserably at Roxanne with a not-quite-trained Torchic and a few other things, I restarted and powered through with a Mudkip.
Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald offered more legendary Pokémon to catch too, but the main one to stick in the mind of The Annoying Rollout was the green leviathan Rayquaza:
I remember my struggle on reaching Rayquaza on the second time because of the Fragile Floors when I realized I need a MACH BIKE FOR THOSE OBSTACLES LOL.
Even the other box-legendary Pokémon respected Rayquaza.
Gen three is my favourite gen because when I first started playing, it was Pokémon Emerald. And I still remember how I was able to beat the Elite Four. I went and caught Rayquaza with my Master Ball and used only her to beat them all!
…and the same applied to killer150! He also pointed out that it was still a different age for players compared to now, where we have internet guides at our fingertips:
Anyways, the funny thing is we figured how to catch all the legendary Pokémon for months since back then we didn’t have the Internet. Some of the Pokémon only available for trading so it is a pain in our arse just to catch em all.
Besides, we literally wasted a lot of freaking Ultra Balls just to catch those legend arise like Rayquaza (pretty almost 99 Ultra Balls). Not many of my friends knew about Pokémon games, but we could show off to them how many legendaries we had.
Images courtesy of The Pokémon Company. Edited by .
bobandbill is a staff member on The PokéCommunity forums, and the Head Editor of PokéCommunity Daily. He likes discussing and writing about Pokémon on top of playing the games. He is not, contrary to popular belief, two people.
