Review: Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire aren't quite a mega evolution

The latest installments in the everlasting Pokemon saga, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire demonstrate yet another reason why games are very different from movies; gamers love remakes.

While the mere thought of a Ghostbusters reboot or a live-action Akira has had movie buffs up in arms (which, in fairness, usually turns out to be justified: hang your head, Total Recall), game devotees are more than happy to see the titles they grew up with rebuilt with dazzling current-gen technology.

No series provides a finer example of this trend than Nintendo's monster catcher. Even when it announced Pokemon X & Y, the franchise's first real kick up the backside since the GBA days, many fans responded with disappointment that it wasn't a reimagining. Pokemon studio Game Freak was listening, and here, finally, is another remake, this time focused on popular GBA game Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire (meanwhile, film fans get - gah - a new Scarface).

That lovely, shiny Pokemon X & Y engine is the foundation for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, offering a fresh look at the game's memorable locations. Rustboro City, Lavaridge Town Petalburg Woods: all these areas will be familiar to long-time Pokemon players, but can now be enjoyed in a new light with the same greatly improved graphics engine used in X & Y.

Despite its obvious visual upgrade over the GBA title though, it's not quite the remarkable spectacle the last 3DS game was. X & Y's locations were entirely built with the new engine in mind, allowing for all manner of dramatic camera swoops as players cross bridges, enter cities with high towers and the like.

Omega & Alpha, however, is still very much based on a 12-year-old game that had a locked camera and a rigid grid structure for its map layouts. As a result, due to its need to stay faithful to the source, said high towers and impressive camera swoops are far less common here than 3DS Pokemon players will be used to by now.

That said, Game Freak does the best it can with the source material on offer and there are still occasional visually striking moments. Seeing the ship being built at Stern's shipyard is an impressive sight, as is the first time you look up at Mt Chimney. A notable sense of scale is also provided at times with the game's occasional decision to zoom the camera out during some Routes, making it clear how expansive some areas are.

For the most part, however, these graphical set-pieces are relatively few and far between and as such the majority of the game's visuals will be nothing to tweet home about for those who have already spent hundreds of hours on X & Y.

Still, Pokemon has always favoured substance over style and in that respect, as ever, it doesn't disappoint. The majority of Omega and Alpha's main story echoes that of the original Ruby and Sapphire, but it does keep things interesting by adding in a few sub-plots. No spoilers, but the much-reported new primal versions of Groudon and Kyogre get their own little storyline, for example.

Other features have been added to bring the GBA originals in line with more modern versions, usually with positive results. A good example of this is the Exp Share, which in Ruby and Sapphire was a hold item. You gave it to another Pokemon in your party and, after winning a battle, that Pokemon would get some XP even if it didn't fight.

Now the Exp Share works as it did in X & Y - it's now a Key Item that can be turned on and gives XP to all five other Pokemon in your party. It's also given to you earlier than ever before - you'll get it within the first hour, before you even reach the first gym.

"Pokemon has always favoured substance over style and in that respect it doesn't disappoint"

Crucially, this helps combat - though not completely resolve - one of the biggest niggles the Pokemon series has always suffered from: that horribly slow-paced first three or four hours that feels like an eternal grind for longtime Pokemon fans who have done this countless times before.

Less useful but undoubtedly welcome to some are the Hidden Base and Pokemon Contest features, both of which return from a five-year hiatus having last appeared in Pokemon Platinum.

The former lets you use the Secret Power move to reveal hidden rooms inside trees and the like, which can then be claimed as your own and customised with furniture and other decorations found throughout the game. New to the series, players can now generate a QR code for their Hidden Base and save it to an SD card so they can stick it online for others to scan and visit.

Pokemon Contests, meanwhile, are a throwaway inclusion in which players choose a Pokemon and make them perform moves to make a crowd happy. This time the best thing to come from them is Cosplay Pikachu, a special version of everyone's favourite Pokemon that can be dressed in a variety of odd outfits and learn unique moves.

These returning features aside, there isn't a lot to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire that feels new as such: there's certainly nothing truly revolutionary, other than a new method of hunting wild Pokemon in which rare variants are spotted in the tall grass and the player has to slowly crawl up to them to engage a battle.

Most of the headline features, like those mentioned above, aren't brand new ideas but rather ones carried over from previous titles. Mega Evolutions return from X & Y, with ten new Pokemon getting the Mega Evolution treatment. Horde encounters - in which you fight five Pokemon at once - also make the jump over from X & Y, although this time they aren't limited to wild Pokemon battles.

Despite this, there's still no denying that Pokemon magic remains alive and well in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Those sluggish first few hours soon turn into unquenchable addiction as you start to accrue gym badges and you begin to feel emotionally attached to the Pokemon in your squad.

Then, as ever, after your 30-40 hours of play, you beat the Elite Four and realise this is only the beginning. 'Gotta Catch Em All' may be a phrase that has long been retired by the Pokemon Company, but it continues to be relevant as a post-adventure quest to this day.

Older players who fondly remember Ruby and Sapphire will get a kick out of this remake. It perfectly walks the line between giving fan service - making sure the scenes you remember twelve years ago are still intact - and updating the adventure so it no longer feels like a GBA era storyline (the localised dialogue in particular is excellent).

But it's actually newer Pokemon fans who may feel an ever-so-slight tinge of disappointment. The re-introduction of 'new' (old) features like the Hidden Bases and Pokemon Contests will be welcomed by those who may not have encountered them the first time around, but X & Y veterans will see more steps taken back here than forward.

Granted, these are mostly cosmetic issues - the stiffer and less 'swoopy' camera makes things less visually appealing, as does the removal of trainer customisation options - but they're still issues that make the experience feel more like a sort of version 0.8 of X & Y rather than a further evolution in the series.

It may not be the greatest Pokemon game, but it's still a strong one: as far as remakes go, this is more Clooney and Pitt in Ocean's Eleven than Nicolas Cage in The Wicker Man.