Best Pokemon game for GBA?

[Icedawg]

Picked up another GB micro recently & nothing else can complete a day without playing Pokemon on the go. I've played Fire Red before, but never any of the other series on the Advance. Since I'm going with only one of the games (for the moment), was curious what fellow Racketboy members would recommend?

[equalsign]

FireRed/LeafGreen or Emerald. There is no reason to get Ruby or Sapphire. FireRed and LeafGreen are the prettiest of the bunch, but they're kinda boring. Good for nostalgia though.

Emerald has much better breeding features, but there's very little reason to get into breeding and competitive Pokemon play on the GBA games. I think it's a pretty ugly game, though it does have moving sprites. The story is a little more involved, but it's not anything special. I also didn't think the Generation 3 Pokemon were very good, though they're better than Gen 4 IMO.

In FR and LG all the maps are based on a center square. In Emerald everything is based off of a center line. This means that everything in Emerald is off center. Also, you cannot stand in the middle of the Pokeball in the Pokemon center, which really bugged me to death.

Cannot stand in middle:

109702-pokemon-emerald-version-game-boy-advance-screenshot-healing.jpeg (173.1 KiB) Viewed 758 times

Can stand in middle:

Pokemon-FireRed2_35-2.png (7.76 KiB) Viewed 758 times

Opinion: Consider getting Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire. Of the main series games, I'd normally recommend FR and LG, but since you've already played them you might consider Emerald as long as ugly graphics don't get to you.

[jfrost]

Cannot stand in middle:

109702-pokemon-emerald-version-game-boy-advance-screenshot-healing.jpeg

That is a huge dealbreaker if I ever saw one.

[Key-Glyph]

Also, you cannot stand in the middle of the Pokeball in the Pokemon center, which really bugged me to death.

Ha! I like you.

I enjoyed Ruby/Sapphire. I think they have a very interesting aesthetic that's unlike the other original (non-rebooted) installments in the series, and if you're going to pick up another Pokémon game, you might as well round out your experience with an unplayed title.

FireRed/LeafGreen I've only played briefly, and somehow they don't feel right. I don't get transported back to my Red/Blue days and don't get the nostalgic rush. Normally I'd blame the graphics overhaul for this, but then there's HeartGold/SoulSilver, which feel almost more true and nostalgic to me than the original carts! They did everything right with those games in a way that doesn't ring true with FireRed/LeafGreen to me.