Pokemon’s 30th anniversary was this year, just a month after my 31st birthday, and I’m really getting into it. Shining Pearl is one of the worst-received titles in the franchise, but let me tell you why I think it is perfect.
Reuniting 🔗
I found my GameBoy in my Mom’s basement last summer, acquired a copy of Emerald, and have been playing some form of Pokemon for the past year. The simple game I remembered has expanded into an exciting challenge to learn and master after I started competing in the Battle Frontier of Emerald’s post-game. That opened my mind to the world of competetive Pokemon: training, team-building, and battling.
I had tried to catch as much of the Pokedex as I could during my playthrough, so I was able to select some top-tier mons for my Battle Frontier attempt. I learned about strategies on the Smogon Gen III Battle Frontier Thread. Unfortunately my Battle Frontier saves kept getting corrupted due to aging hardware; I tried playing on an emulator, but the experience was not what I enjoyed. Luckily, the Pokemon Company had a solution right around the corner.
Re-release the Remakes 🔗
In February 2026, for the 30th Anniversy, Pokemon re-released FireRed and LeafGreen (staples of my childhood) on the Nintendo Switch. This encouraged me to pick up two Switches on FaceBook Marketplace and a copy of each title.
I played through FireRed myself and enjoyed LeafGreen with my wife at her pace. While there is very little competitive gameplay in these, I discovered shiny hunting. This is a method of playing to attempt to encounter a very rare (1/8092) variant of a Pokemon.
I was able to get a shiny Abra through the LeafGreen Game Corner in just a few hours, but I spent over 70 hours hunting Gastly in the Lavender Town Tower. I’m currently resetting for Eevee and awaiting Pokemon Home connectivity to save my shinies; I don’t know if shiny hunting is for me, but getting a full-odds shiny in Gen III is extremely rewarding.
VGC for Everyone 🔗
Just a couple of months after releasing FRLG on Switch, a totally new Pokemon game was released - Pokemon Champions. Champions is entirely focused on competitive play, skipping the adventure, catching, and training entirely. I got hooked on this instantly.
I recruited a team with some familiar faces and some newer Pokemon I had never heard of. I battled with the skills I picked up in the Battle Frontier and they helped me reach the top tier in the first week the game was released. I grinded for ELO a bit, but kind of lost interest when some pay-to-play Pokemon started dominating the meta.
Mega Floette and Mega Delphox - two of the most-powerful competitive Pokemon - are only obtainable if you own the latest, Gen IX games. I’m not really interested in the latest games. I grew up on Gen III and stopped playing after Gen IV, so the Pokedex from Gen V and beyond isn’t as appealing to me.
Shining Pearl 🔗
Bringing together a Gen IV Pokedex, post-game Battle Tower, and Pokemon Home connectivity was what originally inspired me to purchase Shining Pearl. It’s a faithful remake of Pokemon Pearl with quality of life improvements from Gen VIII. Despite its poor reception by both fans and critics, it’s perfect for me.
I rushed through the main storyline to get to the postgame. The newly introduced Pokemon in Gen IV (Sinnoh Pokedex) aren’t my favorite, but Weavile, Garchomp, and Mismagius are really cool. I was content to use my Gen III Pokemon in the Battle Tower, and I did enjoy it a lot - especially with the post-Gen-IV abilities, moves, and typing that I had gotten used to in Pokemon Champions.
Shiny hunting in Shining Pearl is also more appealing to me. Instead of grinding encounters at a constant 1/8092, you can use a method which relies on some skill and luck to decrease the odds to around 1/1000 or even 1/100. I used this method to add some flare to my team in Champions. Check out that blue Gardevoir and Pink Weavile!
I’m currently working on adding Slaking (a Gen III monster) to my Battle Tower squad, and Shining Pearl has a neat mechanic for that, too. Slaking is one of about 10 Pokemon that are only available in daily swarms with a 1/28 chance of appearing each day. I’ll continue checking until I have Slaking, train him up, and try for a Tower record by synergizing him with Weezing’s Neutralizing Gas ability.
If you enjoy the older Pokedex, Pokemon Champions, shiny hunting, and Battle Tower, I think you might enjoy Shining Pearl, too!