Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby, the newest games in the Pokémon series, are remakes of the 2002 games Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. These games are role playing video games where the player is a trainer for the species of creatures called Pokémon. The player has to pick from three preselected Pokémon, often referred to as a starter Pokémon, to begin their journey. They were released for the 3DS and the 2DS gaming systems on November 21, 2014. These newest installments of the Pokémon franchise were developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo.

In some places it was sold out before it even hit stores. Poke-fanatics didn’t waste time when they saw the official trailer for both games come out. The major hype was the fact that Nintendo was bringing back the popular map and gameplay from a previous release, also known as a generation. Yes, Nintendo brought back generation III map, Hoenn, along with Pokémon starters Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip much to the excitement of current players.

The gameplay certainly brought back memories to past players as they went through the storyline. Nintendo was able to bring back Archie and Maxi, leaders of Team Aqua and Team Magma respectively, with improved reasons as to why they want to awaken the primal Pokémon Primal Kyogre in Alpha Sapphire and Primal Groudon in Omega Ruby.  All of this continues as you and neighbor Pokémon trainer Brendan or May, depending on your gender selection, battle your way through gyms in order to become the next Pokémon Champion.

Nevertheless, the game was able to live up to the all the hype by not just bringing back memories, but by also incorporating new enhancements of generation VI. You can now become the best friend of your Pokémon through what’s called Pokémon Amie, strengthen their statistics in the Super Training feature, or battle your friends through internet connection with all Pokémon from all previously released generations.

Nintendo brings it home with the amazing 3D animation. Players can see your Pokémon do various attacks while in battle or see its various reactions while in the Pokémon Amie in real time. The sceneries show various Pokémon inhabit several regions of Hoenn without having to battle them directly. And yes, the battle cutscenes are animated, but are redesigned cameos of old gym leaders and opponents.  Nintendo and Game Freaks spared no expense in the development of the game and it shows.

This is a fun, nonviolent alternative to most fighting and strategy games. I highly recommend it to anyone of any age. The touching storyline merges with beautiful graphics making this game rating an easy five.