Pokemon Ruby

Download Pokemon Ruby and embark on an exciting adventure through the Hoenn region! Catch, train, and battle Pokemon, earn Gym Badges, and become the ultimate Pokemon Master. Unfold a new chapter of your Pokemon journey and play now!
a game by Nintendo
Genre: Action
Platform: GBA
Editor Rating: 7.8/10, based on 3 reviews, 2 reviews are shown
User Rating: 7.4/10 - 87 votes
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See also: Pokemon Games, Top GBA Games
Pokemon Ruby
Pokemon Ruby
Pokemon Ruby

As part of the first Pokémon generation for the Game Boy Advance, Pokémon Ruby certainly had a great deal to live up to. The series had gone from strength to strength on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, but now things were looking to get more advanced as the series jumped to Nintendo’s 32-bit handheld.

Welcome To Hoenn

The setting for Pokémon Ruby is the region that is known as Hoenn. This is actually based on Japan and it has a real island kind of theme to it that I like. The architecture and so on makes it stand out from the Pokémon games that came before it. As far as the actual story of Pokémon Ruby goes, you probably know what to expect here as it is all about proving your worth.

There is, of course, more to it than that, but at the end of the day you still want to enter the Pokémon League, you still want gym badges and you still want to capture as many Pokémon as you can. You start off as you always do by selecting your starter Pokémon. The three on offer here are Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip. Out of these three I like Torchic best, but I will be honest and say that these are my least favorite Pokémon starters of any game.

What Is New?

At first glance, some may not think that Pokémon Ruby changed things up all that much, but it actually did add in some really cool features. The one that is most obvious is the Double Battles. Having two Pokémon fighting side by side to take down two other Pokémon is not only awesome from a concept point of view. It also requires you to really think about what you are doing in battle as things are more complex now. Another interesting new thing is called Pokémon Contest. Here you need to not just worry about “battling” you need to put on a show for the judges and show them exactly what your prized Pokémon can do. These are way more fun than you would think and are a great addition to the game.

More Unique Pokémon

Of course, with each Pokémon game comes a bunch of new Pokémon, but here they are extra special. They have given each Pokémon a very special ability and this is not only just cool. It can also have a great effect on the way battles can go. Each special ability has a purpose and knowing when to use it at the right time can make all the difference in the world.

What About Those Extra Bits?

The Game Boy Advance is much more powerful the Game Boy Color, but Pokémon Ruby does not really take full advantage of that. Sure, it looks noticeably better than games like Pokémon Gold and Silver did on the Game Boy Color, but for 32-bit hardware, the presentation could have been just a tad more ambitious if you ask me.

For the first game in the series on the Game Boy Advance, I feel that Nintendo and Game Freak did a great job. While I do wish the presentation was a bit better, as a game this is one awesome Pokémon adventure and well worth checking out. After this the series really went from strength to strength in my opinion.

8.5/10

Pros:

  • The new setting is very cool
  • Many of the new Pokémon have a lot of charm to them
  • Double Pokémon means double the fun!
  • I liked trying to impress the judges
  • It has that addictive Pokémon gameplay!

Cons:

  • Nothing really groundbreaking in terms of the story
  • They could have used the power of the GBA just a tad more for the visuals

Download Pokemon Ruby

GBA

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP

Game Reviews

Welcome to the beautiful region of Hoenn, home of all sorts of interesting people, places, and Pokemon: Ruby Version. It's up to you to explore the region and see if you can find, capture, and train over 200 different types of Pokemon. Of course to do it, you'll also need Pokemon: Sapphire Version.

Pokemon: Ruby Version is almost the exact same game as Pokemon: Sapphire Version except for a few minor changes. In fact, the ONLY changes I saw between Sapphire Version and Ruby Version are the title screen graphics and some different Pokemon. Like the older Pokemon 'color'? games you'll need to link up both versions of the game (which, of course, requires an additional GBA, link cable, and another cartridge) and do some trading to collect all of the different kinds of Pokemon available.

With that in mind, unless you're a hard core Pokemon trainer you'll likely only need one or the other version of this game to get most of the experience out of it. Just find a friend with the other version and you're all set.

Snapshots and Media

GBA Screenshots

See Also

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