As told in Part 1 of my Pokemon story, Pokemon has always been a huge part of my life. The time period following the early days of Pokemon was what I would like to call the Gameboy Advance Era of Pokemon. The main series for Gameboy Advance Era of Pokemon consisted of five games, which are Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, Firered, Leafgreen, and Emerald versions. Of these games, I have owned Pokemon Ruby, Fire Red, and Emerald versions at one time or another. The spin-off game that I played in this era of Pokemon was Pokemon Pinball Ruby and Sapphire. This era of Pokemon was relevant at one of the most interesting moments in my life. At the time I was in middle school, exiting childhood and transitioning into early adolescence. This era started in North America in 2003 and ended in 2007.
Ah the Gameboy Advance Era, the time where Pokemania has died down and all the cool kids were not playing Pokemon or even talking about Pokemon anymore. Pokemon was now considered for little kids and was "not cool". At this point in my life, I was going through puberty as well as the stresses of being in middle school. I was also in the accelerated mathematics and science program in my school, so there was a lot of stress and anxiety within me. Also, this is the phase in my life where so much was changing, and my pre-teen years would be filled with the many changes of the transition into adolescence featuring friendships in school, middle school drama, and the beginnings of the brain development and hormonal changes associated with adolescence. With all of these relatively dramatic changes going on within and around me, Pokemon was my way of escape from the stresses of school and life.
The first Pokemon game that I had gotten from this era of Pokemon was Pokemon Ruby during the Christmas season of 2003. I was in the sixth grade at the time. Pokemon Ruby gave me some of the most cherished memories to this day. I enjoyed going through the game and reading the lore on the Hoenn region. Also, the satisfaction was very real when I caught legendary Pokemon such as Groudon, Rayquaza, and the three Regis. The superior graphics, music and amazing story telling made this game-play experience especially immersive. Pokemon was so real and immersive to me despite being looked at as “not cool” during this time. This was also the time of my life where I was getting really into the Pokemon anime and watching it on television religiously. Even through all the crazy stuff going on around me with the stresses of school and the transition from childhood to adolescence, Pokemon was always there for me. The Pokemon game of this era of Pokemon that I played the most was Pokemon FireRed version. I had gotten Pokemon FireRed version from my cousin for my twelfth birthday at the start of the seventh grade. It was the first Pokemon game in which I had completed the entire Pokedex, which at the time consisted of 386 Pokemon. Pokemon FireRed version is the Gameboy Advance enhanced remake of the original Pokemon Red version for the Gameboy Color. I had logged in so many hours into that game because I was really into leveling up and making my Pokemon strong. Also, I found a few shiny Pokemon in this game. The shiny Pokemon that I had caught in Pokemon FireRed version were Nidoran male, Venonat, and Onix. I was so intrigued by shiny Pokemon that it initiated my interest in shiny hunting for Shiny Pokemon. Pokemon Emerald was the third game that I had the opportunity of owning from this era and was an expansion of Pokemon Ruby with animated sprites and movements. I owned Pokemon Emerald much later in time when I was in college and I will delve further into this in a later part of this series.
Stay tuned for Part 3, as I delve into my life experience and adventure for the next series of Pokemon games during my teenage years throughout high school. Thanks and enjoy my series on this Pokemon story!
