Thoughts – Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Demo

Earlier today, I received a code for the Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire demo. As soon as I got home from work, I opened up the email again to redeem it on my 3DS aaaaaaand

Hey! Where’d my code go? Rude!

Turns out I wasn’t the only one having issues with the code. Luckily, it seems like The Pokemon Company is on the case.

After reopening the email in a few different browsers, the code magically appeared. Next thing I knew, I was downloading a demo for a remake of a Pokemon game that I never fully appreciated.

When Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire were released in March of 2003, I was pretty stoked. I had been a fan of the series since the original Game Boy games, and absolutely adored the GBA hardware. It seemed like a match made in heaven, but just days after picking up my copy of Ruby at the game’s launch, I had completely lost interest. Thinking back on it, perhaps large reason the game didn’t click for me was the lack of a social experience. When R/S launched, my friends whom I had battled and traded with throughout high school were now in college, and things were a bit different.

Fast-forward over a decade into the future. As I’m typing this, my wife yells from the bedroom: “we need to go to GameStop this weekend!” “To get Shiny Gengar?” I respond, remembering an email I received from the store this afternoon. “Yeah!” I hop over to Twitter to see my friends, other grown-ass men and women in their 20s and 30s, posting impressions of this very demo.

I don’t think the social element will be an issue this time around- funny how life works out sometimes.

But yeah, the demo!

At first glance, the game looks an awful lot like Pokemon X and Y, right down to the lack of 3D on the overworld. However, little additions, like the new BuzzNav on the touch screen, help the game’s appearance feel fresh.

This 24 hour Pokemon news cycle seems to primarily be fluff pieces, but subtly adds to the immersion in The World of PKMN.

What I found to be the most striking aspect of the presentation however, was the music. I don’t really remember the music from Ruby, so I’m not sure what’s new and what’s remixed here, but I really dug what I heard- absolutely lovely and catchy stuff!

The demo is short and linear, but still manages to feel substantial.

It’s like

and then whoa