Happy Birthday Pokémon ΩRαS!

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Happy first Birthday, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire versions! And Happy thirteenth Birthday to you too, Ruby and Sapphire versions!

Thirteen years ago today, the Pokémon-training world began a journey through Hoenn, a fresh and new region unconnected to any place we've met Pokémon before, and with so much more to offer than their predecessors did, as amazing as they were. Full color environments and Pokémon sprites, non-combat training for the purpose of Contests, and the first realized trend in the social aspect of Pokémon gaming in the form of Secret Bases! Hoenn is where Pokémon became something more than raising a team for fighting and for dominating the arena, but instead demonstrated in so many ways that the goal of raising Pokémon isn't battling, but building friendships, not only with your Pokémon but with you fellow trainers.

And so, after twelve years of patience, one year ago today, the entire Pokémon-training world was re-introduced to Hoenn, and how she's grown! We had full color, now we have glorious 3D and full animation! We had Contests, now we have Spectaculars and Pokémon-Amie! We had bases we could exchange through link cables, now we have StreetPass exchange and effortlessly have access to dozens of friends' bases easy, plus an online community accessible in-game! Everything we loved about Ruby and Sapphire has, if you'll excuse the phrase, evolved. Mega-evolved, even!

The world as a whole seemed astounded at this new release, and for good reason! After years waiting and months of seeing so many "Hoenn Confirmed" memes; ranging from the plausible to the tangential to the downright absurd; our patience paid off, and boy was it worth it! Has the shock worn down at all? Was ΩRαS everything you hoped it would be? Can you even believe it's been almost thirteen years since we first adventured to Hoenn?

One more time: Happy Birthday, Hoenn! Here's to the nostalgia and the reunion, and to meeting more of your siblings in the years to come!

 

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... /facepalm

Me know how count numbers and months of year.

That correction is true. Anyhow, good on you for catching onto something I didn't notice for the couple of hours (spread out) I spent making this thing, nor did the various unspecified people who knew I was doing this ahead of time. Maybe I just got too eager for an awesome subject matter for my first article. My next planned endeavors for articles are all either things that aren't time-specific or are news as it happens so hopefully I can avoid this kind of admittedly embarrassing misstep in the future.

(I'm a site writer, not a Kindergarten teacher or some other kind of super-genius who knows their months of the year! How can they expect me to keep track of all this stuff? I'm only one man!)