I grew up playing Gen 1-4 as they came out. But I think Gen 3/Emerald is my favorite and honestly I think it’s where Pokemon peaked. I loved Gen 4, but that and the later gens never “clicked” with me.

Anyways, if anyone is looking for a replay of Emerald I would highly recommend the ROM hack “Modern Emerald”. It’s Emerald with Gen 1-3 Pokemon all being available(with like 5 Pokemon from Gen8&9) and some QOL updates and other content stuff. It’s probably the best Gen 3 experience out there at the moment(well from a vanilla perspective).

Or if you want a twist, Pokemon Emerald Rogue is another great hack for Gen 3 that makes the game into a Rogue lite genre game.

And a shout-out to PokeMMO if anyone wants a MMO experience.

My kids are still a bit young…but my oldest is about to turn two years old and I bought them a Anbernic RG35XXSP and I’m going to put Pokemon Red or Blue or Yellow on it and have them play. I remember playing Pokemon Blue at 3 years old on my Gameboy Color and I genuinely believe it helped me with reading comprehension before I started school.