Why is Gen III so popular all of a sudden?

[MetroLSD]

Every poll on the forums that lists Hoenn or Gen III as a option Hoenn always gets the most votes i though Gen III was the most hated gen in the series, why the surge in popularity?

 

[PD83]

I don't know if it is "all of a sudden." I mean, I love Hoenn the best because it was so big and vast in geography. The first region to show us that. Not to mention that the Pokemon there were awesome.

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

Not everyone hates Gen Three, a lot of people like Hoenn and the Pokemon in that generation a lot. Some of my favorites are Hoenn Pokemon, Milotic, Jirachi, Sceptile, Delcatty and others. While I feel it was a bit bland at times, it wasnt a bad generation at all. Many people like it because they may have started with Hoenn or just generally love Hoenn.

 

[Envoy]

Two reasons:

1) A lot of the users here were the target demographic back when Ruby/Sapphire was being released, which means that a lot of users here started with Hoenn.

2) Hoenn is getting to that point where nostalgia can take over, kind of like Gen I and II used to be. Furthermore, with the remakes of RGB and GS, people have been able to replay those first two generations fully updated (meaning their nostalgia is, for the most part, appeased) while the lack of Hoenn remakes means that fans of that generation can't (meaning their nostalgia isn't.)

That's my opinion anyway.

 

[Otika]

The games are reaching their tenth year anniversary period, and as a result, the players that have started with Generation III have all grown up and have begun to share the same feelings for the Generation III titles that a lot of us feel for the first two generations.

That being said, however, I never really hated Generation III as far as the games go. They very much capture the same feel as the Generation I and II games in terms of quality and I honestly don't see why there was so much critical backlash. Bearing in mind, I didn't own my own copy of Gold/Silver, so I played it whenever I got the chance, but I did own my own copy of Ruby as well as Sapphire, so when I played through Ruby, I couldn't even tell which Pokémon were from each generation aside from those I recognized from the Anime. They all blended in so seamlessly, in my opinion.

As for the Anime, though, the Hoenn and Sinnoh chapters are around the time I stopped watching. It had become all about battles and contests, with the latter being the most boring segment of the show, in my opinion. I didn't start watching again until Black and White.

 

[Pidgeot]

I've always loved Gen III as well, and yes, I didn't really know the reasoning behind the backlash of Gen III either (though I think it's because only 25% of pre-Gen III Pokemon were in Ruby and Sapphire). But as I've said, I've always loved Gen III, mainly because that was when I started playing the Pokemon games. But I guess now we're starting to feel nostalgia for that generation, so the fans who didn't like Gen III that much like it more, and the people that loved Gen III now love it more due to the chance of there being RS remakes.

 

[smalllady]

Because everyone and their dog wants Gen III remakes.

 

[Shiny Shinx]

I think it was always popular. And besides, I don't think the popularity is going to die down until we hungry hippos get our Gen III remake. But then, after that happens, Gen IV is going to get really popular, and so on.

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

It's probably because of two following reasons:

- Like Gen I, the people who grew up with Gen III considers it as the superior gen
- Like the Zelda series, the fans hate on the latest gen and start liking the last gen, which was previously hated before

 

[Shiny Shinx]

- Like the Zelda series, the fans hate on the latest gen and start liking the last gen, which was previously hated before

But I really like Gen V even though Gen III is my favorite.

 

[glow]

I'm betting that in another 4 years or so the same thing will hold true for the Gen IV.

 

[sonic10158]

I definitely think that it is because it has finally reached the point where nostalgia takes over. I'm not saying Gen III is bad by any means, I'm just saying that it crossed that threshold.

As for the region itself, I think it is because of all the exotic locations.

 

[X-Strike]

Nostalgia is a very powerful emotion, Virizion's Lover.

 

[TeraDyne]

While it may be nostalgia for some, I personally just find Gen 3 to be my favorite. I loved the bright colors, the Pokemon selection, and the games from that generation. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone on this feeling, either. (For the record, I started with Gen 1)

 

[Glitchipedia]

The only thing I really disliked about Generation III was the lack of backward-compatibility with the previous two generations. With those games becoming unplayable due to the save batteries conking out, that lack of backward-compatibility is no longer a relevant issue. Realizing and accepting this fact has allowed me to better appreciate Generation III and recognize it as a fun game on its own.

I still think more remakes are unnecessary, though.

 

[X-Strike]

While it may be nostalgia for some, I personally just find Gen 3 to be my favorite. I loved the bright colors, the Pokemon selection, and the games from that generation. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone on this feeling, either. (For the record, I started with Gen 1)

You're not alone. /raise hand

 

[Yawn]

While Gen III isn't my favorite, I think that all the cool CITIES won me over... For example, Sootopolis, Fortree, Pacifidlog...

 

[Anser]

Well, I wouldn't say it was a bad generation. It was very cool, and Ruby and Sapphire were awesome games. I would say, though, that they are my least favorite, and it is the worst generation so far. Well, no. Not the worst, but the least good. I repeat, TO ME it was. Another thing I really take into account when judging a generation is its music, and Generation 3's music, while it was cool, had those horrible trumpets, or vuvuzelas, or I don't know what instrument it was but it made my ears bleed. The Pokémon introduced in that generation were the most forgettable, just like Generation 4's music is the most forgettable so far.

 

[Uppa]

Context does it for me.

I think there's a lot to be said for the feelings one experiences during a given gaming generation in general that colour one's recollections of a particular game. I rather enjoyed Ruby and Sapphire for what they were at the time, but I can't tolerate any prolonged excursion with them nowadays; it is, instead, the panoply of resplendent memories that I have of the other games I played during that generation and also factors incurred by my age and personal circumstances that reinforce my enthusiasm in speaking of the third generation of Pokémon games.

In 2003, at 12-years-old, my friends and I had already experienced the first two sets of games, and we'd also started to unearth the world of importing, upon discovering that the U.S. and Japan received the games long in advance of Europe. I'll remember Generation III for being that time where we used actively whatever methods we could to lay our mitts on the game sooner than the rest of the crowd--and that proactive enthusiasm poured over into playing the games themselves. Still of an appropriate age, sleep-overs were spent trying to crack the mysteries of the Sealed Chambers--and we'd all advanced enough intellectually by that stage to catch the implications of the game at large; and being young made the idea of secret bases such a hugely compelling idea, since we'd spent much of our earlier childhoods eking out bases in real-life. Those contextual factors made the ideas of Generation III that much more resonant with me than those of subsequent generations, whose impacts were soured by the new apprehensions in my life. Anyway, the enthusiasm I was able to muster with my friends during those days in 2003 is common with my early memories of the GameBoy Advance and all the treasures I found on that platform around that time, not to mention the presence of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on the Gamecube, which released during the May of 2003, around the same time I came into possession of Generation III. That summer was devoted to new journeys in the lands provided by the technology of the Gamecube and GBA, which dazzled me: my love of Generation III--a Generation which enjoys all of the series' predilections for exploration--feeds off the general air of exploration and wonderment that characterized my life at the time.

Reflecting on the matter, personal context is a huge, HUGE factor in colouring how I receive a particular game. If, thematically, the game doesn't resonate with my circumstances at the time, I'm almost bound to dismiss it--irrespective of how good it is. How fortunate, then, that those halcyon days in the summer of 2003 that are rich with colour and sunshine should have introduced Ruby and Sapphire--games which are, as mentioned in posts above, jubilant and colourful, just right for my present circumstances.

 

[Soulweaver]

Generation III was probably the most radical turning point the series has taken to this day. Instead of following in second generation's footsteps, it discarded backwards compability and used that in its advantage to update the basics of Pokémon growth. Also, for the first time the Pokémon world got the chance to shine in full colour as it wasn't limited to Game Boy Color's restrictions anymore. But now the once revolutionary Hoenn is the oldest region in the connected Pokémon game chain; both Red and Green, and then later on Gold and Silver (with Crystal elements) were remade, so it's only natural anyone who loved Gen III wants them to bring it into the DS era. And that's why it's so popular now. It seems more likely that if a rerelease is coming, it will be in Gen VI, not Gen V, though; just leaves more time for everyone to wish for Hoenn's reincarnation again.

The nostalgia factor for everyone who started with RSE, as noted above, might be a reason too, though I'd say it's just a part of the above theory.