Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Ethan remembers a time when he flew too close to the sun...
This is the power fantasy eight-year-old me dreamed of when I slotted an Action Replay into my Nintendo DS for the very first time. As a young kid with hundreds of hours dumped into my copy of Pokémon Diamond, the idea of having a device to let me input cheat codes and do whatever my heart desired was quite the compelling prospect. Unfortunately, hacking my way to Pokémon mastery would end up leaving me with nothing but regret — and a few glitchy Bad Eggs burning a hole in my PC boxes.
In those early years of playing games, there was no series I loved more than Pokémon. As with many fans, much of that appreciation stemmed from the games’ core loop of battling, training, and collecting colorful monsters. Still, there was more to it than that. Each game presented an entire world that felt genuinely lived in. Pokémon Diamond exemplified this quality more than most other titles in the franchise, boasting a region filled with stories of ancient, world-creating deities, mysterious areas like the haunted Old Chateau, and other fascinating tidbits of historical lore hidden away in library bookshelves and optional NPC dialogue.
It was a rush, but a fleeting one.
I treasured that sense of intrigue. Coupled with the myriad schoolyard rumors and internet hoaxes that swirled around the Gen 4 titles, it felt like the game had an endless abundance of secrets to discover, even beyond what might be accessible to the average player. What would happen if I talked to the Pachirisu NPC sitting within the fenced-in area of the Pokémon Day Care? What if I could Surf my way into the open waters past the boulder barriers on Route 223?
I wanted answers to these burning questions. And I wanted super-cool, super-strong Pokémon. I got both.
The first cheat I entered with my Action Replay maxed out every member of my party’s stats. After turning Torterra and friends into beasts that could reasonably dethrone Arceus itself, I then set about filling my bag with 999 Master Balls, 999 Rare Candies, 999 Exp Shares, and so on, no doubt obliterating Sinnoh’s economy in the process. I also needed something to use all those super-strong items on, so I spawned in shiny variants of Deoxys, Celebi, and every other rare ‘Mon I could think of, catching them all without breaking a sweat.
I set about filling my bag with 999 Master Balls, 999 Rare Candies, 999 Exp Shares, and so on, no doubt obliterating Sinnoh’s economy in the process
It was a rush, but a fleeting one. Like a kid finally allowed to eat candy for every meal of the day, I grew sick of the instant gratification pretty quickly. I turned my thoughts to exploration.
After selecting a cheat to allow my character to walk through walls, barrelling through the treeline barrier of Route 214 was an easy feat. In hindsight, I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting to find out there. A hidden area, perhaps, or a yet undiscovered Legendary Pokémon waiting for someone to find it. A single secret item, even. Anything.
Instead, what I discovered was a greater revelation than my childish mind could have ever anticipated. There, lying just beyond the normally-viewable foliage was…nothing. A black, empty out-of-bounds void. I took a step past the trees and out into the inky ether, and the game promptly froze. Rebooting my DS and trying the same thing in a few other locales yielded similar results. That was that.
To many video game enthusiasts, cracking open their favorite video game and seeing the seams holding it all together can be just as entertaining as playing the game itself. It’s a major reason why online creators like Boundary Break, who devote their content to demystifying the things normally just out-of-sight in games, have captivated such a wide audience. But for a child who treasured immersion and escapism more than anything else in these experiences, pulling back that veil was nothing short of deflating. It became the linchpin for my inevitable — yet no less unsavory — realization that, at the end of the day, a game is just a game.
Only a few masterpieces have managed to recapture my imagination with that facade of limitless potential.
What could I do now? As a Pokémon Trainer, I had everything I could ever want. Why bother battling if I knew my ‘Mons were the strongest they could ever possibly be? Why try to complete the Pokédex when it was as simple as pressing a few buttons to get the creatures I didn’t have yet? Exploration was a no-go, too. I knew what was out there — or what wasn’t. No sense in trekking around when I’ve seen everything there is to see. I wouldn’t know it until later, but those last couple hours spent listlessly idling around the game’s world would be the last that I ever spend on that once-cherished save file.
It took a long time to fully rebuild my passion for Pokémon following my hacking experience, but it did come back eventually. Today, I regularly replay the old games with nostalgic reverence. I love to grumble about the controversial new titles on Switch as well, being too prideful to admit that, yes, I’m still having fun despite the flaws. However, I’ve rarely been able to replicate that unique feeling I had with Pokémon — or any game, for that matter — before I hacked my way into seeing its skeleton. Only a few masterpieces, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, have managed to recapture my imagination with that facade of limitless potential.
In a sense, I have the Action Replay to thank for showing me what I truly love most about games, and for teaching me that there’s no fun in cheating my way to the top. If I could go back, though, I wouldn’t hesitate to chuck that little hunk of third-party plastic out my bedroom window and enjoy the excitement of an endlessly vast Pokémon world for just a little longer.
Comments 84
Meh, you can practically breed the perfect Pokémon now anyways. It’s actually pretty simple.
I am showing my age when I say this was just the evolution of the Game Genie/Shark.
The Action Replay made me realize that cheating isn't fun
I cheated myself some Masterballs and then caught some shiny Pokemon like a Rayquaza or a Flygon and then thought "Wait, that's not fun getting shinies that way" and released them
The first Pokemon game that I actually use a Game Shark for was Pokemon Red which I only use it for getting multiple Master Balls so I could catch those hard to catch legendary Pokemon such as Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Pikachu, and Mewtwo.
I loved using my action replay to make all the pokemon appearing in game be their shiny counterpart. It was a ton of fun to play my copy of Pearl in that way seeing all of the fun colors. Luckily all my time spent with the AR in Pokemon didn't end in corruptible failure, unlike my attempts with it in Phantom Hourglass in the later hours of the game.
Literally the only thing I have used Action Replay for personally is rescuing my Chrono Trigger save file.
There's a bug in Chrono Trigger (in both SNES and DS versions) where, if you bring up the save screen while moving, the game saves your coordinates slightly incorrectly, which can cause you to reload inside of a wall, which completely softlocks your file. There's no teleportation magic or anything like that in that game.
So I got myself Action Replay for DS and used a walk through walls code. Then I loaded the game, saved in the save point properly, and then promptly stopped using Action Replay, and have never used it since.
I don't like using these devices personally since I value the designed game experience so much. However the tools are very good to have regardless. Hacking perfect Pokémon for competitive purposes, for example, is a massive timesaver, as long as you're not trying to apply to any "official" The Pokémon Company run tournaments, I say go nuts. Breeding and training Pokémon the legit way is such a complete waste of time.
I used an Action Replay for a couple things.
For Pokemon, mainly to get my favorite to replace my starter; Pokemon isn't hard, but the appeal for me has always been in the journey alongside my favorite Pokemon Vulpix. If I don't get that, the experience is far lesser for it.
The only other notable use I can remember is for Dragon Quest IX. After pouring 400+ hours into the story, endgame and dungeon map content... I didn't want to continue a long and tedious 2% drop rate grind for the ultimate gear. So I just sharked it in, and was all the happier for it.
The ultimate gear didn't make whatever endgame content remained easier; it just allowed me to focus on the actual strategizing rather than killing myself trying to get alchemical miracles to trigger.
Even today, I don't think there's anything wrong with using "cheats" if they're built into the game in some way. Like the current Pixel Remaster releases; I'm running those games with double EXP and quadruple gil turned on. Why? Because it saves me time when playing. It hurts no one and keeps the pace of the game flowing.
Action replay let me experience events in Pokemon that I missed, sure I messed around and did max stats and 100% shiny rate. Most of the time I didn't save those things because even then I knew it wasn't as special. Still saved a few shinies though.
@Browny There's never been anything wrong with cheating in games. People who try to apply some moral to it is baffling.
If you cheat on a test, then yes it can impact your life.
You turn on unlimited ammo? You wake up tomorrow just fine.
This is a great article. Anyone who liked Pokemon in this Era 100% went through this and regretted it instantly, using an AR literally sucked everything that was good about the games away. Not only that once you'd used it, it was kinda tarnished forever and you could never play it the same way again cause why bother when you can have 999 of everything and infinte shinies.
That being said I had a lousy partner in high school that would just ignore me and play WOW every time I went round his house, and I spent all that time Action replaying what you would call a 'living dex' these days of shinies. My idiot brain thought it was a good thing to do back then... Hey I didn't play any other games back then and I'd already spent hundreds of legit hours with these games.
Funny enough, about 20 years ago, Pokemon ruined my Gameshark
Made it blow up by battling Professor Oak
What you do expect when you don't play the game as intended? Might as well as have an auto play button as well.
I see it more as you ruined Poek'mon for you.
an Action Replay purchase was made by you, independently of the Poke'mon game. It wasn't included in it.
Well as they say Cheaters never win.
I loved my Action Replay back then. Using it in Mario Kart DS and NSMB was a blast.
ARP for some games made it more fun but I never used it for any Pokémon games.
I admit using Action Replay back in the GBA days. Cause I only had one for GBA. Used it on Pokemon Emerald.
But after awhile the novelty of using Action Replay for GBA just...wore off. What good is it when you can blast your through & not feel you actually earned that progress. Now I did use AR for Sonic Advance 2 though to unlock...well...everything. But with Pokemon...that's different.
I did the same thing to myself in Diablo 2 many years ago. After hundreds and hundreds of hours farming drops, I decided to use a character editor to get the set pieces that would never drop for me. Maxed out my sorceress while I was at it. Played less than a handful of hours after that.
Willy Wonka was wrong.
There will always be a reason for a Game Shark/Action Replay/Powersave to exist for Pokemon specifically because no matter how hard they try and make it less painful, the process of breeding and training Pokemon is beyond tedious. Even now where you can buy all the Items to make a perfect Pokemon, you still need to grind a ton to get the money to afford those items. Every aspect of it is inherently not fun and gatekeeps so many people from even attempting anything outside of Battling friends.
I feel like you would enjoy Anodyne if you haven't already played it.
I didn't know there was an Action Replay for NDS. I thought it was only for PlayStation games.
@Diogmites
I genuinely had to double take there what the actual fudge or should I say maple? xD
@Diogmites I’m both confused and amused. 😆
This article resonated with me. I used an action replay to get a million bells and all fossils or something in Animal Crossing on GC for some reason. Didn't play it too much after that. Thankfully never used for Pokemon! However, I loved my Game Genie for my NES. That made it more fun. C'mon. Nes games were very hard for the most part! Plus, they always had mad things like Moon Jump. I would read the manuel over and over for Games I knew nothing about, had never seen images of, but picking out what 3 codes I would choose if I had them! (Think it was 3 max codes allowed).
I listen to a lot of gaming podcasts and I’m always surprised how cheating is just part of the experience for most people. Personally I think it more often that not ruins the experience unless it’s cosmetic changes.
Funny enough, I never really used it to spawn pokemon but more for master ball and money cheats.
Cheating itself? When playing the Genesis with a game genie, some games actually became fun when cheating because they were impossibly hard (Atomic Robokid). Or stopping time to fully explore a level without time running out.
Cheating in single player video games can break a gaming experience, but if done right, can add a whole new level fun.
Every time I play the original Doom games (except doom 3), it IDDQD (god mode) and IDKFA (all items) on the keyboard because I play Doom for the violent mayhem. That and the camera makes me dizzy after a while of running around trying to solve puzzles.
Or, I’ll beat a game and the cheat the second time around because it will feel like I’m playing a new game plus.
Mind you, I said single player games. Cheating in multiplayer or bringing out your ‘roided shinny pokemon with the best personality, moves and impossibly high stats to a competition is going to ruin it for everyone.
It’s part of the reason I no longer play FPS in an online setting. It’s fun at the lower levels but once the ai adjust the matcaking criteria based on your record, that is when the experience goes downhill for me.
@Anti-Matter also a GBA version. I have them both GBA/DS Game Sharks. I just get rare berries, TM's, free money! But learned what was 'safe' or 'not safe'.
Disclaimer: I don't like hacked Pokemon examples Pokemon which have hacked moves, abilities, types.
Just like Mario Kart with a Star ⭐ each time! Online yet...
@Diogmites Bravo, you did just that. We all need a little randomness every once in awhile.
I dabbled with things like actions replays on a few different systems but very rarely on games that I put countless hours into a save file like on a Pokemon game.
That being said I did use one on my N64 regularly on the WWF games from THQ as there were some pretty good ways to mod arenas and textures for outfits by swapping different ones around and even make new match types. Was a very time consuming process to say the least.
I discovered hexadecimal system by cheating in Pokémon when I was 10. I believe it was my cousin who showed me how to cheat in Pokémon Gold & Silver using GameShark.
There was this hex string that replaced the value in RAM that defined the opposing Pokémon, be it wild or trainer Pokémon. I still remember it for some reason. It was 01XXEDD0 where you'd replace the X with a value of your choosing. I started out just replacing it with random values and taking notes what would spawn when. At some point, I figured out that the numbers had some correlation with national dex numbering and soon afterwards it clicked when I discovered that going from 09 to 0A continued the dex numbering.
I was smart for my age. Or at least had the required problem solving skills to learn new stuff on my own. I learned to read at age of 5 and to write a year later. I also figured out how multiplication worked a year or two before it was taught at school by messing with a calculator on my free time. I must have reached my limit at some point. Nowadays I just feel stupid all the time.
As for the actual cheating, I had fun for a while catching some Pokémon I'd never caught before, like Celebi, but it didn't take me long to go back to playing the game like normal. It was neat but it wasn't the way I wanted to play.
@Diogmites Alexa, how do I delete someone else's comment
I had the exact opposite reaction. I used my Action Replay, opened up my game, and had the time of my life. I still have DS, GBA, Xbox, and PS2 Action Replays. And as someone who had to rent a lot of their games, being guaranteed to beat it in the allotted time because I could cheat let me enjoy way more games than I could have otherwise.
I want an Action Replay DS just for 2 reasons:
1. Unlock the EBA Mode in Ouendan 2, which back in the day was only possible via the now defunct DS Stations.
2. Unlock the inaccessible Lip's Stage in Planet Puzzle League. It can be unlocked in the Japanese version, Panel de Pon DS, by essentially completing the game. The western version still has that stage but cannot be unlocked since the Panel de Pon fairies were still neglected in the west back then.
Not on DS but i used codebreaker and gameshark on my PS2 extensively. Being able to skip grinding in jrpgs made me enjoy some games a lot more than i would if i played normally.
@Nanami_Ataraxia speak for yourself, I cheated on diamond a lot with my AR to the point I went though 2 of them & needed a lot. zero regrets lol
Only cheated on diamond and a few other games mind you, all my other mainline pokemon stayed legit. by the time B/W came around I quit using it 100%
I mucked about with an AR on Mario 64 and Goldeneye, all sorts of weird fun to be had there making random changes to things. But never used it for for cheating. Never needed to - I’d done everything already.
More recently used an AR to unlock Events in the DS Pokégames - those bits of the experience you can’t legitimately access any more. But I played them straight, no cheating once the Event was unlocked.
All I did with this for leaf green was fast level up. I did do things like max stats bit didn't save the game. It made it too easy.
Action Replay was very cool for moments. Later on after getting everything I wanted I realized similarly that nothing beneficial would come out of owning the game. Satisfaction of doing anything was gone. Nothing was earned.
For me it made Pokémon games more fun, because we never got any of the event Pokémon here until the 3ds era.
But I understand why for some it could take away the fun.
Fun to read. …I forgot these cheat systems were a thing. 😅
Never used it personally but I don't think it ruined Pokèmon I think Competitive did. Not the game going Competitive I mean, well not really more like certain Players like Verlisify who take it incredibly seriously where if you disagree with him well you know what happens. Him and others like him have ruined Pokèmon along with their kiddy followers.
Strictly speaking for solo playing, never used them online:
some cheats has made me enjoy a couple of games even more, but, in general, yes, they ruin the fun.
Back on pokemon blue, I used whichever cheating device was available to replay the game several times with different starters.
One time I started with a clefairy, once a hitmonchan, and definitely once a dratini.
THAT was a lot of fun.
I wish pokemon had modes like that these days (or a completely random starter mode)
I wish they still made the Action Replay. It was bloody great for games that were too hard.
I had one for the PS1 and PS2. Being able to just cheat your way out of the bloody licences on Gran Turismo or having level 99 characters on your replay of FFVII made life a lot easier.
its weird that we even are calling it "cheating." the device is changing the rules of the game.
now, if you are doing it secretively, in a competitive setting with other humans, yeah that's cheating. 👍
i miss the hacking/modding days of nintendo, modding the wii was so easy & fun , especially mario kart wii 😂. sometimes the race would start off subtle then people would notice a hacker then they started using their hacks and then another started spamming giant mushroom and star & then the race just became a mess lol . no online bans or anything because of nintendos archaic infrastructure
good times
Action Replay was/is a spiteful device and ruined a lot of my love of playing multiplayer. I never owned one but a brother picked one up and would often load in instant victory or other cheats and then play multiplayer games with me that I had no hope of victory because of that device. I of course wouldn't know till I got handed a loss I couldn't even try to prevent. My games files would be damaged in post of it too at times forcing me to put up with broken files and glitchy bits or start anew.
@Nanami_Ataraxia I can safely say I would be much less interested in pokemon now if I hadn't used action replay with pokemon platinum as a kid
Sorry you had poor self control. Even as a small child I knew it would ruin the game.
Now Game Freak leeches all the fun out of the game so you don't have to.
I have an Acton Replay for the DS, and I've found that it would cause my games to glitch out and crash. They would work fine at first, but then problems would start popping up.
In fact, I'm pretty sure it's permanently corrupted my copy of Star Fox Command, as the characters no longer "talk" during the cutscenes between missions, and their mouths don't move either.
So honestly, it was probably not worth it to get the thing.
As kids we don’t realize that game workds are just limited to what the programmers decided to make. We look at it like the real world, so those things off in the distance actually are just as “real” and the places the game lets you explore. It does make the games feel more real and infinite, and it’s a nice piece of childhood innocence/wonder.
Incidently, this is why I hate the new Link’s Awakening letting you see over the walls into different areas. It breaks the immersion and reveals how artificial and compact the world is.
Good news, everyone, cheating is optional.
I had a Game Genie for my NES, mainly to see how Zelda II ended
@-wc- We're probably calling it cheating because of cheat codes, increasing our numbers of Pokeballs, cheat codes to walk through walls, to deal more damage to bosses, etc.
Growing up doing alot of thigns like GAme Genie and Gameshark, yes I had fun. I remember breaking FFVI with the instant rare items trick and I had fun. Heck, on Genesis, you couldn't even save games when you used Game Genie so that fun with JRPGs was limited.
However, once it hit the Playstation generation and using gameshark, I think i started ot not get the same fulfillment when I ended up beating games like Parasite Eve. Later on revisiting these games, I ended up getting that sense of fulfillment.
As far as Pokemon goes, I remember using Game Genie and gameshark to just get the pokemon that were not in my version. I actually remember going to a Band Competition while on the bus and having a list of all the codes to get the pokemon I needed. And i did eventually max out my pokemon. Though after that, I stopped with the cheating devices.
I never got into Action Replay, but i remember my nephew doing it and definitely breaking his pokemon game...and I guess i never really saw the point at that point. Thats just me though. Some of the stuff goes too far.
Action replays were part of the joy for me personally.
While I never took to online using them (which is the negative part cause you could use hackmons online back then), it was definitely fun breaking the game open and seeing the world beyond its borders, as well as doing fun movesets you wouldn't otherwise see even if I only used them ingame (I had a ninjask with the legendary trio + arceus signature moves.). I did ruin one of my playthroughs however, losing everything, and this was when I decided to go pretty far through walks while inside a building.. when I returned to the game later the building assets never loaded cause i was technically in a different area, and I couldn't find the escape and basically soft locked the game.
As for its importance, there is some wrong doing with action replay for online, however action replay did make it possible to actually play the game online with more than one team and use pokemon you would have 1 in a billion odds of getting the optimal stats with, we didn't have bottle caps until gen 7 so our legendaries are literally useless without pokegen or action replay prior to that point. We would not have a competitive scene without it, or pokegen later on, it takes far too long to grind levels, rare candies, and ESPECIALLY tms which were limited supply. Now we have much better methods that still require grinding but you can salvage your pokemon for competitive decent fast, but action replay is what kept any kind of serious play alive. Frankly, if you played through pokemon games once, there's not much to miss and completing the dex is a herculean task back in the day when you needed multiple versions of the game to catch unavailable pokemon and trade them over, realistically getting regigigas was painful and mythical legendaries are still difficult to get without cheating, even the arceus hall of origin was flat out inaccessible besides cheating and is frankly one of the best moments of the game they for some reason scrapped (and yet also remade in the remakes).
I think TPC came a long way making everything easier to lessen the need for powersaves/action replays. There is still a lot more room to go (changing pokeballs primarily, as well as getting a way to reduce or specify IVs instead of only 31 from bottle caps.), but they did expose the flaws of the games that players needed to break through to fully enjoy game.
I loved Action Replay but I get your point if you use it that way. The exciting stuff like playing as Giga Bowser in Melee was the sh** though!
I never owned any cheating devices like this. I think this is mainly because I grew up with PC gaming and cheats there were usually just console inputs and they ruined every game. Sure it was fun turning on God-mode in Doom and Duke Nukem 3D, or no clipping, but it also ruined what made those games fun, because they removed all the challenge. That's why I quit cheating in games (mostly). The only times I cheat nowadays are usually glitches/exploits and only because it makes life a little bit more convenient.
Having said that, using the random trade options in Sword/Shield will yield a ton of Master Balls from bots, so it's basically the same as using a Game Genie
It really depends on how you use "cheat" codes because while they can break games they can also improve them and/or give them (further) replayability, for example I used to have so much fun using them in Mario 64 on emulator, even slightly editing them to better suit what I wanted to do!
Plus, like others mentioned you can use them to unlock things inaccessible to you because they were region exclusive, limited-time events etc. which is invaluable!
On the other hand, using them to actually cheat in multiplayer is the worst.
I wouldn't say that these things ruined pokemon or any game, unless that is connected to online play of course. But it did make me not trust any pokemon that didn't have my trainer name, any I got from trading I would breed off it and let it go.
It seems to me it's just individual choice if you liked these things or not. I only used a disc that came free with a magazine, it let you play US games on the UK gamecube. So I imported a copy of animal crossing.
I've never done this. The closest I've come in Pokémon is messing around with the the Fly HM glitch to trigger encounters with random Pokémon.
I reckon that must have happened to many kids who got an action replay. Perhaps its heyday was earlier in history, when games were cruel and unforgiving. You'd get 3 or 4 lives to finish the game and that was it. I remember as a 10 year old, having played little more than Alex Kidd and Double Dragon, imagining what my dream game would be, and it was "five lives, plus a zero life. And continues!"
By the time I started seeing cracked trainers on emulated copies of FF7, offering max stats from the get go etc, luckily I was old enough to guess how that would hollow out the soul of it, even though I started my JRPG career treating battles as a complete nuisance.
Then... don't use Action Replay anymore?
I think you mean improved. Everyone in my school had an Action Replay, specifically to make Pokemon a better/more interesting game.
This is one of the reasons why Nintendo and some other companies were pushing back against these cheat devices. They can literally ruin your game experience, if you don't know what you are doing.
As a kid I really wanted one of these since somebody at the local Pokemon league place had one (he used it to make his perfect competitive team), but my mom always said no and that cheating will just make the game less fun. At the time I was all upset about it, but nowadays I can see that she was right, so I'm glad she put her foot down.
I remember using the DSI version on my digimon world DS game. (I think that’s what it’s called) and I don’t think I can get on it again. I think I just flat out broke it with the AR. :/
@JohnnyMind I agree it's how you use it. I remember playing GTA Vice City with cheat codes to drive off the cops, bring them back, or just have an awesome ride drop from the heavens. An absolutely joyful experience I still have fond memories of.
There's one cheat code I still remember off the top of my head - Big Bang Attack. The cops screaming towards you with sirens blaring, the old man just turning the corner, everything in a vehicle would simply go BOOM!!!! Epic.
For me, the fun in Action Replay was never the mundane "give me unlimited or maximum resources" shtick. Previous experiences with games like Animal Crossing on GameCube or Pokémon on the Game Boy Color had taught me that well.
It was all about tinkering with the engine, discovering the cobwebs.
Action Replay DS allowed me to discover things like the debug rooms in Super Mario 64 DS, which was fascinating to see and explore.
Prior to Action Replay DS, there was Action Replay MAX, which was a cheat engine for GBA games but had a slot for backing up and restoring DS save games.
This development lead to rampant hacking of Animal Crossing Wild World town maps and player inventories, and players making use of developer "seed" items to play town fixtures wherever they pleased.
I really enjoyed playing around with the save game editor provided by Aibohack back then, making illegal towns that had no border cliffs, discovering all the strange items the player wasn't supposed to own, etc.
I played the games normally to completion first then had my way with action replay!
Its like we are playing the modern pokémon games with Action Replay. Everything is dumbed down and easy for the sake of being accessible. The series took a nosedive in quality with Sun&Moon. That awesome feeling of accomplishment that got me into the games is gone, and Ill always go back to older games when I feel like playing again.
Never used one of these, any Pokèmon I raised I did the normal way but I never had a problem with people who did use these devices as they only speed up what was a very boring and tedious process. Today building Teams with perfect Stats and Natures is so easy there's simply no need to use these anymore.
@Justaguest Apart from the obvious issues that persist in Scarlet and Violet I beg to differ. Not having random encounters and making building perfect Teams easier is an absolute Godsend. As an adult in his mid 40s I no longer have the luxury of being able to waste hours of my day Breeding Pokèmons along with EV training them. I welcome this accessibility with open arms.
@Zach777
True. And because of that that is so sad to see a lot of north-american players cheating and trying to justify using genned pokémon in official tournaments.
I loved the replay! Never had a problem with mine.
Honestly, I agree. Cheats in games are fun and all, but it really does make the whole thing boring. I only ever use that kind of stuff in postgame.
I used an AR for Pokemon Pearl back when my brother and I were into competitive Pokemon breeding. I mainly used it to check IVs of eggs. I messed with other hacks (all shiny, infinite items), but I made sure to never save over my other data. I also used it to experience events in-game that I would never otherwise have the opportunity to do.
Speed hacks in Phantom Hourglass were pretty fun though.
@Justaguest It’s a kids game. It’s insane that EVs are still not really explained in the game and impossible to learn unless you read stuff online and whole EV system is archaic. At least EV and IV training is much easier now.
You should try EA games. Apparently their games provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
You cheated not only the game, but yourself. You didn't grow. You didn't improve. You took a shortcut and gained nothing. You experienced a hollow victory. Nothing was risked and nothing was gained. It's sad that you don't know the difference.
...sorry.
@Lightsiyd Those are some really fun codes, another great example of how you can use them to enhance your experience of games instead of ruining it!
I had a cheat cartridge for the original Game Boy which ended in disaster a few times, totally corrupting my save files. I do miss that naïve sense of wanderlust in gaming though, like wondering what was past the grass at the edge of Pallet Town or behind Bill's Cottage (spoiler: nothing.) The infamous "Glitch City" trick had a similar effect on imaginative young minds but was just a mess of coding and assets at the end of the day.
I still have an Action Replay for the GBA and what I find fun with it these days is to spawn a team of six Pokémon at low levels and play through LeafGreen or Sapphire with ones you'd never normally see in the early stages (if at all.)
for me, using the game genie gave some of my genesis games a new lease on life. Atomic Robokid was unbeatable. games with time constraints allowed me to explore more of the levels.
So, for me it was more of “get the game, beat the game (or try to), then cheat”
Some games that were insufferable became fun when the difficulty was toned down. Or exploration that was not possible such as taking Tails branches in levels that Sonic had no access to through moon jump. Or going through Sonic branches as Knuckles because he can jump just that bit higher.
Hackers lying about their shinies to fleece you out of your legit ones is the main reason why I don't like hackers, pirates, etc. I stopped trading with people online during the Gen 4 days because of it.
I mean when I was a kid I used the action replay to cheat my cleared save files to hell and back, then I would erase the file and start over clean. I don't see the game-ruining experience here. If anything it enhances it, because in Diamond/Pearl there's no other way to get Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus.
I remember when I was a kid I was always curious about that little island on the map across from Full Moon Island, so I used the action replay to no clip through the ocean to it and my freaking jaw dropped when I saw it was an island with a pokemon that I'd never seen before. That's a core memory now lol, almost nothing in any other pokemon (D/P included) can match it. And in 2020, when I played the game again with my friends, we all used my action replay to grab Spiritomb without grinding, my friend kept it on his team too.
I tried out Manaphy for the first time (replaced it with a Craniados pretty early on) and when I got to Canalave City I decided to grab Darkrai so I could actually use him throughout the game and he makes for an excellent glass cannon!
It's not just pokemon either, Dragon Quest IX has an entire postgame that's just inaccessible to you nowadays, but with an action replay, you can get all the quests, party members, maps, items, and equipment you couldn't have otherwise, plus you can skip the metal slime grind and go straight to the meat and potatoes of the postgame if you so desire (I would always do it anyways).
It added so much to my DS as a kid, and the stuff I did only scratched the surface of what the action replay can actually do. Idk man, this guy's experience sounds a little too dramatic, and to be fair it is almost certainly overblown for the sake of the article, I get that. But I seriously can not understand where the harm would be in using cheats in a game you've already played and enjoyed as intended, and I certainly can't understand how if you loved the game so much, you wouldn't be able to restart on a clean save file.
But, like you said, you were eight at the time, so can't blame a kid for feeling any sort of way about anything as weird as it is lol.
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