The game has a lot in common with previous Pokemon games Silver, Gold and Crystal. For example, players can choose to be a boy or a girl trainer, an internal clock sets events at certain times and the game's handy-dandy Pokedex helps players keep track of the many stats. Your main goal is still to beat all the Gym Trainers and become the Pokemon Master, and as before you can trade Pokemon via the Link Cable--both Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire include exclusive Pokemon, and you'll find that some species are common in one game and rare in the other. So if you've played the old games, you'll be right at home. But not all is the same.

The most obvious change is in the battles themselves. Now that two Pokemon can fight on your side at the same time, you can tag-team them against an enemy by taking advantage of the strengths of your Pokemons while covering their weaknesses. For example, you can now have a water Pokemon watch your fire Pokemon's back. You can also attack more than one Pokemon at a time.

A whole new element to the games focuses on how berries are used in battle. And if you collect enough berries, you can take them to a Berry Blender and make a PokeBlock, which is a little super-charged sweet that raises your Pokemon's "Condition" attributes. You can then groom your Pokemon for regional contests and compete for ribbons like "Best of Show", which will unlock additional contests. There's even strategy in how to best use your berries: pick too many and the berry tree will disappear; plant berries, though, and a tree will grow. You can also build a Secret Base in special areas of the game, which you can decorate just like you can your room.

If you are a die-hard pokemon fan Pokemon Saphire is a must-buy, along with Pokemon Ruby. if you are not a die-hard pokemon fan, however, you should start at pokemon silver or gold. If you gave up pokemon some time ago and are thinking about starting to play it again, go ahead and buy ruby, or saphire but not both of them as there is a big chance that you will be fed up with pokemon again.

Pokemon Ruby/saphire (the two are sister games, the only difference between the two is that you can catch pokemon in ruby that are not availiable in Saphire: same the other way around) has improved graphics over Pokemon blue/red/yellow and pokemon silver/gold/crystal. The fact that you can choose to be a boy or a girl is helpful, especially if you don't want to choose a character that is a different gender than you! The battles are more colourful, and the attacks are more realistic and sometimes 3d, unlike the original 2d uncolourful graphics. If you want good graphics in a pokemon game for the Nintendo game boy advance or game boy advanced SP, then pokemon ruby/saphire is a good addition to your games.

However, if you want a game with less colourful or basic graphics but a great storyline and a huge world to explore get Pokemon Silver/gold/crystal. The three games are only for the Gameboy colour so the graphics are less stunning and more basic.