Emerald Feeding Frenzy

I was a Pokémon fan for many years. In fact, I have been collecting the games for a long time now. No DVDs, no cards, no toys or plushies, just the games. I have almost all of them except for Pokémon Emerald and Violet. Yes, Pokémon Violet was one of the newer ones, but i could never find the Emerald version though. I couldn't even find it on Ebay or Amazon. I know i have Pokémon Sapphire and Ruby, but i always loved the Rayquaza on the case.
To satisfy my gaming craving, I went to GameStop to see what they had to offer. Once i got there, I saw the game Pokémon Violet. It was kind of pricey, since it's new but the money as worth it in my mind. But then I saw it. Pokémon Emerald. I was trying to hold back my excitement as I picked it up off the shelf and checked the price. It was a good deal. I bought it enthusiastically and had some fast food afterwards.
Once I got home, I picked up my Gameboy Advance, opened the case, and inserted the cartridge into the console. I watched as the screen flashed with the nostalgic, psychedelic Gameboy logo that glided onto the screen. Then, the usual Pokémon Emerald start screen showed up, yet the game was pretty old so a glitch in the title removed the Rayquaza in the background. I continued the game and waited for Prof. Birch to show up. Although, instead of the Professor showing up, all I see is a page of paper where he once was. I was confused at once, but I rationalized there was a story behind it. I read the text box below the screen, and the dialogue was not what i had expected.
"You picked up the page and read it." Oh really? So I must be holding a ROM hack apparently. Honestly, a hacked copy of Pokémon Emerald was still better than nothing. I continue to read the dialogue. "Anyone reading this must know that there is something strange going on in Hoenn, and the researchers and I have gone there to check out this phenomenon. Take care!" It was succinct, and I liked it.
Now that the cutscene was over, I customized my trainer to be a boy, and named him Pepe, because I liked going online and viewing funny memes. Once I got into the game world, it just boots me to the starting town with no cutscene, no text, no nothing. Littleroot Town was empty and desolate as if something came over and destroyed the whole thing on a Godzilla-sized scale. I tried entering one of the buildings, but a dialogue box pops up instead and says "You can't enter. It's locked." Well, I can't really go inside any buildings, and I can't talk to NPCs since they disappeared. The only thing I could do was go into the tall grass.
I expected to see Professor Birch being harassed by a Zigzagoon, but the cutscene was only showing the Pokémon. Then, instead of a Pokémon battle, the Zigzgoon just ran away. I didn't realize that the cutscene was over, and I just stood there stupidly for a few minutes. Once I find out that I can move again, I then tried to chase after the Zigzagoon. The more I follow it, a hazy fog fades into the screen, and it gets more thick, to the point that you can't even see through it, and I had to just hold the up button hoping for the best.
The fog dissipates, and I had wandered to a cave with a colossal entrance. The Zigzagoon ran inside the cave so obviously I ran in too. I remember other caves in the Pokémon games, and figured I'd just be swarmed by Zubats. I went through the cave while chasing after the elusive pokémon. It got darker in the cave, and I thought I could see sprites of bones of previous less fortunate pokémon laying about. The cave gets more littered with bones of pokémon and soon, human remains? I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw a mutilated corpse of an NPC (Crimson) with pixelated blood pooled under the body. I walked more into the cave as more gory sprites of pokémon were strewn about the map.
While playing, I asked myself inside my head, 'Why did the Zigzagoon lead me here?' Then, we finally reached a dead end. The Zigzagoon was cornered. Another cutscene plays, and I watched from my couch as I grasped the Gameboy Advance in anticipation. Out of nowhere, a Rayquaza flew in, as big as a temple, snatched up the poor Zigzagoon and snapped it in half with its large, bloodied jaws. A Pokémon battle broke out, and only Pepe and Rayquaza were on the battlefield. I never got any pokémon since the bag with the pokéballs that belong to Professor Birch didn't show up in the beginning. I was given a set of moves, and the first thing I chose was to Run Away. The only text that appeared was "You cannot run. Rayquaza's tail is blocking the way." I did not have any other items either, so my only choice was to fight.
The one attack that Pepe has was Quick Attack. I used it, but the game slapped me in the face and showed me a text box that told me "Pepe's fists were not able to damage Rayquaza's tough hide." I realize that I'm fighting a losing battle. It's Rayquaza's turn now, and it used an attack called Devour. A well animated attack plays out of Rayquaza flying up out of the screen and descending back down to the battleground, and takes a bite out of Pepe, showing it ripping his upper half off in a pixelated bloodbath, and the lower half spraying blood all over the place before stopping and falling into the ground.
The screen turns dark, and then loops Rayquaza's cry. I tried turning the Gameboy off and muting it, but it just keeps playing that noise over and over. I decided to take the cartridge out, but the GameBoy kept making that Rayquaza cry. I took it apart and sold the parts for change. I even threw away the sound chip as I could still hear the echos of the sound bite. I believe that the cartridge had to have had a virus that prohibits the Gameboy from working properly after installing. It was still a pretty good gameplay unlike anything I'd played before. The downside is: I have to buy another Gameboy Advance which is a whole $99.99 to spend. I hope to get an actual clean copy of Pokémon Emerald next time I come across one.
Category:Pokemon
Category:Video Games
Category:Hacked Game