Released on the GBA in 2003, Ruby and Sapphire (Hereby R&S) included the Hoenn dex and two fields, named Ruby and Sapphire. Like the originals, different pokemon are exclusive to the fields to encourage you to play both, although it’s well known that Sapphire is significantly easier to play than Ruby. In my experience, the ball is way more likely to shoot through the gap of the bumpers when it’s going around the Ruby board.
The original game followed the pinball by flipping between two screens- The bottom and the top of the board- while the R&S moves the camera to keep the ball relatively in the centre. Some complained about motion sickness, but fortunately I never had an issue.
The simple game mechanics, catchy music, luck factor and sense of accomplishment makes R&S incredibly addictive for me. I don’t have to worry about getting stuck in a plot point or boss battle like in mainline games, as the game is about as casual as you can get. Except for the times I’ve been so close to evolving a pokemon to it’s final stage, only to fail it, get a game over, and have to re-roll for the right area and hope I can capture the first-stage pokemon again. Those times are very frustrating. And don’t get me started on the 1% encounter rate for Latios and Latias.
Still, the same reasons why I love this game could sound very, very uninteresting to someone else. It’s true, the late-game can get boring when you’re only after a few pokemon in one specific area, and I usually skip the bonus stages unless I’m trying to reach the legendaries. But it’s a sweet little gem of a game to me that I think will remain under rated, in my heart, for a very long time.
