Nintendo has just announced a new pair of Pokemon games for the 3DS titled Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. These are remakes of the 2003 Ruby and Sapphire Gameboy Advance titles, and will be out worldwide this November.
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There's an accompanying teaser trailer, below, which announces the game and displays the box art for both games. Like the original Ruby and Sapphire, the covers feature legendary Pokemon Groudon and Kyogre respectively. The two have gotten a slight makeover, featuring some bright glowing lines in their skin where it was previously just black and red.
The story of Ruby and Sapphire focused on the attempts of Team Magma and Team Aqua to capture each of the legendary Pokemon, which could control the weather (Groudon land and Kyogre sea). The two teams were both present in each game, but the antagonist role switched depending on which version you were playing. Legendary Pokemon Rayquaza was also present in both games, and completed the "weather trio" of Pokemon.
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Pokemon Emerald, like Yellow and Crystal before it, later combined the two titles in 2005, and the set of Pokemon titles became the best-selling Gameboy Advance games of all time. Nintendo stated the following alongside the announcement of the titles in a press release:
"The Pokémon Company International and Nintendo announced today that Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire will launch worldwide in November 2014, exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. Pokémon fans will collect, battle, and trade Pokémon in a new adventure.
"Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire are a fresh take on Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire, which launched in 2003 and were fan-favorite hits on the Game Boy Advance system. The new titles promise to take players through a dramatic story within a spectacular new world."
Sapphire is personally one of my favorite games in the franchise, and a remake was expected at some point. I'm glad Nintendo waited until the 3DS to remake the pair--it will be great to see the world recreated with the new graphics technology allowed by the 3DS hardware. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire will be available on the both the 3DS and 2DS in November of this year.