Road to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: Pokémon Contests

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Back for more…

Over three weeks ago we brought you the first entry to the Road to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. A little later than we initially intended (due to issues with my internet) I am pleased to bring you the second episode, focusing on Pokémon Contests.

Once again this article has been written by the fantastic, close friend of mine, DefensiveBastiodon (who takes both full credit for it and once again my lovely profile.) Expect more from him in the future. Little does he know that I despise passing my ideas for article series on to others, but I can’t deny that he has does an excellent job thus far!

Road to ORAS: Pokémon Contests

The third generation of Pokémon introduced a series of mini games called “Pokémon Contests.” In these contests, a Pokémon was scored based on their condition on moves. They were held in Contest Halls scattered across Hoenn. In the show, characters would flaunt their well groomed monsters and take part in battles to show off fancy move combinations to win the hearts of the Judges. The original contests were eventually expanded in Sinnoh into Super Contests. It added three categories for the player to partake in: Visuals, Dance, and Acting.

Focusing on Hoenn, categories of the contests included Pokémon Conditions: Tough, Cute, Smart, Cool, and Beauty. You could improve the condition of a Pokémon by using Poké Blocks. Poké Blocks were created using various berries scattered across the region. Throw them in the Berry Blender and take off! The better you were about pressing the button on time, the smoother the Block would be. Poké Blocks also introduced new evolution method for Pokémon; Milotic could only be obtained by maxing out a Feebas’ Beauty condition and leveling it up. (This being after you find one of the elusive demons.) Aside from Blocks, scarves were also available to the player to boost the condition. You could receive these in Slateport City from the Pokémon Fan Club President.

The secondary portion of the contests was partially based on your results from the first round of conditioning. The more hearts you received, the higher the chance you had to be first the next round. Secondary judging focused on attacks. Different attacks had different levels of appeals from the audience. To go along with that, some of them even had secondary effects, such as lowering the appeal of other Pokémon or earning extra hearts for yourself. If you use a move that is in the wrong category, such as a Smart move in a Cool category, you’re not going to appeal to the audience well at all. This will lower your score.

There were four ranks to Pokémon Contests: Normal, Super, Hyper, and Master. The rank, of course, controlled the level of difficulty for each contest. You couldn’t move up to the next rank without collecting the ribbon from the previous rank. In Ruby and Sapphire, ranks were scattered (as previously mentioned) throughout the region; this, however, was changed in Emerald to where all four ranks were in Lilycove City.

The final feature of contests were the multiplayer options. Players could connect their copies of Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald to compete in the competitions. This was one of the big features of the third generation; the capability to play with three other players.

Seeing as Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are getting closer and closer each day, and we are seeing new Megas appear. I would personally love to be able to use different Megas in contests for a boost in appeal. (Mega Milotic being better for Beauty, as an example.) To add to that, having online multiplayer for contests would be great too! I’m pretty sure that will happen considering they were a spectacular addition to the original games. If anything, they should make the contests more like the show: allow us to use different move combinations in battles for special effects! We already have the pledge moves, but to utilize that feature with contests would be amazing. I can see it being kind of like Super Training in all honesty…. What changes would you like to see in the contests for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire? What are your thoughts about contests being revived? Leave any comments and discuss them!

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Once again we now hand over to our readers to get discussing the hopeful comeback of Pokémon Contests and the ideas shared by DefensiveBastiodon in the article.

As always, please keep the comment spam down. While this time we haven’t featured any comments from the previous episode, all being well we will do next time – possible in a separate follow-up post in a week or so!

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4,158 thoughts on “Road to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: Pokémon Contests”

  1. Phantom gate is actually a thing, so this must mean that gf is sticking to their trade marks. Maybe delta emerald is a possibility now?

    Reasons:
    -out of all speculated names they only picked delta emerald
    -the fan reaction to a 3d rayquaza scene would be amazing
    -they would make a lot of money

    Reply

  4. Iwata is undergoing surgery D:

    Also, I am very disappoint that Phantom Gate is a TCG pack, rather than a Hoopa related Mystery Dungeon q.q

    Reply

  5. I can’t wait for Halloween! I shall announce my love for anime!!! Has anyone ever been a Pokemon trainer for the holiday?

    Reply

  6. hey do you think Aerodactyl’s ability will matter if i’m just going to Mega the first turn?
    Rock Head Useless and Pressure….

    Reply

  7. According to online resources, the Delta symbol represents “change” and thus coincides with Rayquaza’s ability as it changes or alters the state of Kyogre and Groudon (stopping the almost inevitable fight between the two legends). The symbol, a triangle also represents “The All Seeing Eye” or “Eye of Providence,” a symbol commonly used to refer to God and thus coincides with the status of Rayquaza and because of it’s origins, it can be seen as the God. The lowercase version of Delta however is of a snake with a lower body representing, “O” and that’s where the theory of “Z” comes in.

    Reply

  8. I think my choice has been finalized
    I will choose Brendan because I like the female rival encounter theme better than the male’s

    Reply

  16. Time to start MM for Mudkip!
    …but first I have to get 4000 steps count on the 3DS for faster Hatching O power recharge time…

    Reply

  20. Ok guys I haven’t done Mansion time in a while! With ORAS just around the corner I feel like I shall ask questions based on the original games! I am not sure if I want to do it everyday or every so often. These questions test you Hoenn knowledge!!!! So with that:
    It’s Mansion Time!!!!
    Today’s question is where can you obtain a beldum in RSE???
    (Btw I will try to get progressively more difficult with the questions. I have played emerald too much to fail in that)

    Reply

  21. Gardevoir used Moonblast!
    The opposing Greninja lost 62% of its health!
    The opposing Greninja’s Special Attack fell!
    The opposing Greninja restored its status using its White Herb!

    White Herb Greninja…new metagame

    Reply

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