A scene from the trailer for Pokemon Omega Ruby. Photo / YouTube
A scene from the trailer for Pokemon Omega Ruby. Photo / YouTube
Some things in life need not be messed with. Fairy bread was perfected ages ago and kids are probably happier for it, the developed world knows what happened when Coca-Cola went "New", and Pokemon's still Pokemon. Reliable, undeniable, always there to satisfy our inner magpie, Pokemon is and always willbe ... simple.
The Omega Ruby version is a 3D remake of 2002's Ruby - there's a remake of 2002's Sapphire also, now Alpha Sapphire - and it's got just enough imagination to make it worth paying for. The first Pokemon games to employ battle-tilting creature attributes and stat growth influences beyond the basic elemental type, there was nevertheless something unfair about this Pokemon generation's creature-type balance (fire for Ruby, but especially water for its clone Sapphire) and pleasing purists may have taken precedence over fixing game-bending issues. But that's no major problem and hey, the rest of the experience is so much cooler.
The dinky and dull two-house towns of the Hoenn region have been reimagined as fully populated centres, teeming with chatty and helpful citizens who watch you as you pass by.
Hunting new Pokemon is less tedious with a new in-game app that finds and indexes them in the wild. If you keep an eye out, you might even see your target hiding in the grass.
Your reward for capture: a new pet and, maybe, some rare powers to help make the fluffy/scaly/pearly little thing tip the odds of battle firmly in your favour.
Omega Ruby is a shiny update with nice features and at the core, it is another example of Pokemon's quintessential, timeless strategy chops in action. Fans shouldn't miss it. Curious outsiders are well advised to start here, by the way. As long as you're not into plot, this is a three-ring circus with something for everyone.
