not as good as i thought
the graphics and color of all areas such as just towns, caves, and even water are a lot better then the old red, blue, silver, gold etc. series. with ruby, not only are there many other ways of battling such as 2v2 or battling on TV, or even battling a second time with the same player, this enabled leveling to become more interesting instead of mindless pressing a and choosing attacks
also, now with many other "side games", u can attend a pokemon beauty, cool, cute, etc. contest, by doing moves in front of a judge, the judge judges ur attack and gives u a certain amount of stars, after the tournament is over, if u win ur pokemon gets a ribbon!
also, making pokeblocks is also very fun, by pressing a at the right time when the arrow spins to ur point, u gain different points for ur time's accuracy, if u are fast enough, and gain enough points, u win a pokeblock, these can b made to enhance ur pokemon's beauty, coolness, cuteness, etc. or to lure pokemon in the safari zone
last but not least, my favorite of all, making a secret base, u can make tiles to jump on, water balloons to step on, doors to break, and dolls to decorate! this enables players to keep on playing the game even after beating the game since making a new secret base is always very fun
tho these are all great things about it, there are many bad parts about this game for example the music, it gets so boring that u dont bother to listen to it anymore, and the elite four, though they are easy to some players, but to many of my friends they are waaaaaayyyyyy too overleved, their pokemon levels can b levels around 50 while urs are only 45.