Pokémon Emerald Ex stuns with 16 Gyms to beat and 479 'mon to catch
The best Pokémon generation is a highly debated topic amongst the community, but the two that get mentioned the most are Gen III and Gen IV.
Both have their merits, of course, so it’s hard to pick a favourite. Gen IV has a great regional pokédex and some fantastic legendaries, and yet there’s just something so appealing about Gen III.
The standout title is obviously Pokémon Emerald, which is now even better thanks to a new PC ROMhack called Pokémon Emerald Ex.
It’s brand-new and only launched on August 3, so it’s worth playing now before Nintendo sets its sights on it.
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As for what content it adds, it’s a complete map expansion. A bunch of new routes and towns are unlocked for the player, which means aside from the eight Pokémon Gyms, you’ll already find in the game you’ll now get to challenge eight more.
The mod’s synopsis says the “goal of this project was to make Emerald feel much larger” and it does that in spades.
In addition to the new areas, there are also new events to take part in, which leads us to the biggest change Pokémon Emerald Ex introduces: a hugely expanded roster.
Previously, you could only catch 202 Pokémon for Hoenn’s regional dex, but that shoots all the way up to 386 when you take the National Dex into consideration. That’s if you have a copy of Pokémon FireRed And LeafGreen to trade with too.
In Pokémon Emerald Ex, you can catch a grand total of 479, some of which have had their stats and attributes tweaked.
The teams you encounter in trainer battles have also been changed, so don’t expect the same tired combinations when you play.
Last, but not least, a new “vanilla” difficulty mode has been added for those that want less of a challenge.
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How to play Pokemon Emerald Ex
To play this ROMhack for yourself you’ll need a vital component: a copy of Pokémon Emerald.
There’s no getting around this unfortunately, you need that ROM, and the reason we say it’s unfortunate is because physical copies are ludicrously expensive nowadays. If you’ve still got your own copy hanging around somewhere, you’re sorted - but if not, you’ll have to track one down.
“But why not just download a ROM from the internet?” Nope, that’s piracy and you can get into trouble for it.
If only Nintendo/The Pokémon Company would be so kind as to make one of the biggest franchises on the planet playable on modern platforms…if only.
Anyway, if you’ve got your ROM all that’s left is to download the ROMhack and patch them together. If you’re struggling to do this there are guides online.
Provided you’ve done everything right, once you boot up your copy of Pokémon Emerald it should be the Ex version, allowing you to explore this new version of Hoenn at your own leisure.
You’ve got to jump through a few hoops to get ROMhacks like this working but they’re so, so worth it.
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