Pokemon Week! Generation 3: Natures and Abilities Oh My

So I heard you like something? Well enough of lame, old, and tired memes, welcome back to the next installment of Pokémon Week. Today we are going to take a look at the third generation of games. I’m going to be completely honest with you here, I missed out on this generation as I never got a GameBoy Advanced, so I wasn’t able to play them until years later. Now the first games to launch for the third generation, were Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire in 2003. The games took place in the Hoenn and were the first to depart entirely from Red and his adventures. In addition to the new Pokémon and new region, this game introduced something that would forever change the competitive landscape of Pokémon. For those of you wondering, yes there is such a thing a competitive Pokémon that not just children partake in. What these games introduced were natures and abilities on Pokémon. A nature meant one stat got better progression while another received a hindered. For example: your attack was stronger but your special attack was weaker. Abilities were things a Pokémon had such as Swift Swim, which doubles a Pokémon’s speed in the rain if they have that ability. Also at this time EVs (no not the Pokémon) or effort values were brought into the limelight. If you have ever heard a person saying they have to beat a bunch of Rattatas to raise their overall speed, EVs are what they are referring to. I’m not going to get into that as it’s way too complicated to go over in a small blurb (seriously if they want to get kids interested in math they should have them calculate a Pokémon’s hidden power). Oh, I should also mention Double Battles where introduced in this generation and many players found this fun as you could use two Pokémon at once.

Training was never the same

Story wise Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire dealt with the hero or heroine saving the world from organizations known as Team Magma or Team Aqua. One team was trying to get rid of the ocean, while the other tried to flood the earth (both not realizing the importance of one another). Both games sold well and in 2005 Pokémon Emerald came out. It was sort of a hybrid Ruby and Sapphire and it offered more feature wise, such as animated sprites during battle and expanded story. Now usually this would be the end of that generation, as in the past three games seemed to be the magic number. Players however got a sweet surprise in this generation, getting remakes of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue versions.

Gary you’re going down again!

In 2004 Pokémon FireRed  and Pokémon LeafGreen were introduced to players. They followed the first games story, but with updated graphics and the new mechanics introduced in the newer games. Also new areas were added and it was the first Pokémon to use wireless, as they came with wireless adapters. No longer would trainers be linked through cables (bye bye link cable battles, you’ll be missed.), and instead players can get together in “Union” rooms and trade and battle that way. Generation three might have changed the competitive landscape, but tune in tomorrow to find out how fourth generation completely overhauled it! See you tomorrow! For now I must go beat a bunch of Rattatas as I need to increase my Adamant Torchic’s speed.