It’s 2003 and the Pokémania hasn’t died down in Europe. While generation 1 and 2 were iconic in their own right and established the world of Pokémon, it is in my humble opinion that Generation 3 became the foundation that is what made the franchise endure for almost 30 years. A lot of ground is out there to cover, but I’d like to keep it focused on three core points, fitting a third generation. The game’s design, interconnectivity and broadening the idea of what Pokémon could be. So join me for a walk through Hoenn and yet another return to Kanto as we take a magnifying glass to generation 3.

I think it is often overlooked how influential the third generation of Pokémon has been for the entire series, primarily because of a shift in the game’s design. No, it’s not a radical departure from what Red, Blue, Gold, and Silver did before it. You’re still exploring routes akin to a classic RPG and catching the many available creatures to build up your own team to take on the challenging gyms and elite trainers of the Hoenn region. Under the hood, there are a lot of fundamental changes that were implemented to enable the longevity of a series like Pokémon.

Take natures for example. Starting in the third generation, every Pokémon has a nature that slightly influences the distribution of their stats. Some natures give Pokémon a certain edge, with improvements to their most important stats. But having a nature that improves special attack on a Pokémon that rarely uses attacks of that type is detrimental to its performance. Most importantly, it is something that the majority of players are easily able to ignore. If your Numel has a bad nature, it doesn’t mean that you cannot get all the gym badges, but rather that as a player you’ll be more likely to swap him out for other Pokémon in certain scenarios. This change compounds with the other addition: abilities. Each Pokémon has a possible set of abilities that enable a passive bonus during battles. For example, Tyranitar can begin a sandstorm on its turn for free thanks to the Sand Stream ability. That, in turn, is a weather effect that damages all non-rock, steel, or ground-type Pokémon. Certain Pokémon introduced this generation are designed around their abilities, such as Shedinja, which cannot be attacked by non-super effective moves thanks to its Wonder Guard ability. Or the Lotad evolutionary line that recovers HP in rainy weather due to the Rain Dish ability. What all these changes do is greatly enhance the availability of options available to the player in their teambuilding, which is, if you ask me, the most fun of any Pokémon game.

Finding ideal team combinations or switching out at the perfect time to a Pokémon with Drizzle to begin a rainstorm without wasting a turn never gets boring. It allowed Pokémon to reach a deeper strategic level that simply wasn’t available before. Gen 1 and 2 were mostly games where you needed to remember the rock-paper-scissors combat system, unless you went extremely deep into the more competitive scene of the game. With Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and even FireRed, LeafGreen, Colosseum, and XD: Gale of Darkness, the creatures were much more versatile and dependent on the way you as the player were planning on training them. To bring out their best potential or find unique ways that would define your own playstyle. And again, all this was optional, because at its core this is still a game primarily designed for children and younger players. That balance was what helped these games endure, even returning to them over 20 years later.

Then there’s interconnectivity. While I do agree this can be seen as a curse back in the day for the true completionists, it was something that helped make the world of Pokémon feel magical. The complete National Pokédex wasn’t obtainable with just one game. If you truly wanted all 386 Pokémon, you would have to trade with other games from this generation. While the capitalist argument can be made that players were forced into buying multiple copies, link cables, and even systems, I think that it helped generation 3 to feel like a truly interconnected world. The Orre region in Pokémon Colosseum and XD was easily understood as existing besides the Hoenn region, which in turn could be connected to the Kanto region via FireRed and LeafGreen. Pokémon having their own habitats finally made sense to me and it made it a lot more fun to find friends to trade with.

Especially when I didn’t own Emerald, but my copy of FireRed could still receive those Pokémon, which was always puzzling to me as a kid being unable to have a Marill in Pokémon Red. The Pokémon Wireless Adapter was a big thing for me as well, as it made my GBA feel like a machine from the future, free from the mess of cables. Having that in my backpack visiting friends and easily trading and battling them was a lot of fun. And finally, my GameCube became just as relevant as my Blaziken and Ludicolo traveled from the GBA cartridge to assist me on my adventures through XD: Gale of Darkness. While there are a lot of nostalgic and rose-tinted glasses here, I don’t think I’ve ever built up such a special relationship with my team as I did during this generation. Even seeing some of these Pokémon and their nicknames over 20 years later, it still makes me feel connected with them (even if I despise my terrible taste in movesets, who the hell gives Charizard strength?).

Finally, I think that generation three also broke away from the idea that Pokémon are just ‘real world animals but weird.’ With the establishment of the dark and steel types and a long-needed expansion of the dragon-type, the creatures introduced in generation 3 are so varied in their design and applicability that it kind of reset the expectation of what Pokémon could be. Look, every generation has duds, and I will never be able to tell you without googling how to evolve a Nincada into a Shedinja (and I definitely never mix up the evolutionary lines of Wurmple and Nincada). I’d rank Volbeat, Ilumise, Kecleon, Chimecho and Huntail as some of the worst designs, but they are easily offset by some of the greatest designs in all of Pokémon like Metagross, Absol, Duskull, Ludicolo, Claydoll, Flygon, Torkoal, Mawile, Gardevoir, Pelipper and yes all of the starters and their evolutionary lines. That’s not even including the mythical Pokémon like Rayquaza, Groudon, Kyorge, and the Regis. Two of the best ‘trios,’ period. They absolutely break away from what was aesthetically established in Gen 1 and 2, but they all still undeniably feel and look like Pokémon. I think this uprooting of Pokémon was necessary for the series to endure and attract new players over time. For people that skipped this generation, looking at often maligned designs like Alomolola, Garbodor, Barbaracle, and Bruxish makes a lot more sense if you see how the definition of what Pokémon look like has been widened thanks to these bold choices in generation 3.

All this ties back to the Hoenn region in particular and the graphical style that accompanies the third generation. It’s colorful, routes don’t feel strewn about but like an actual trek across a continent with several islands. It’s a pleasing art style that shines in its simplicity, but revels in the little details. The way it looks like winds are sweeping across the plains and waters, to the ash falling down from Mount Chimney. It’s all accompanied by some of the best tunes that aren’t just dedicated to specific towns and cities, but routes and caves as well. It makes the world come alive in a way that makes earlier generations look static by comparison. While not as expressive as later games would be, there is this fine balance where the world is shown with enough detail that you sense what kind of town Dewford is, or how Rustburo is a bustling city and yet leave a lot open to the imagination. In this intermediary, Pokémon as a series has always felt the most alive as a game.

I often return to generation 3. My single gripe going back in 2025 is that the physical / special split wasn’t yet implemented in these games. So your fire-type moves are always considered special, regardless of whether it is a Fire Punch or a Fire Blast. That shift requires a little cheat sheet to be kept on me at times. If this is the only change that has aged these games then I’m pretty sure they’ve stood the test of time, much better than Red or Gold. Generation 3 was and still is a standard within the larger Pokémon franchise. I am genuinely of the opinion that without this bold shift Pokémon would be considered a fad of the late ‘90’s instead of the juggernaut of a franchise that it is today.