The closest games to Pokemon Emerald are Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Platinum. Below, 9 picks with the reason for each — what carries over from Pokemon Emerald, and what does not.
Emerald is the Hoenn generation at its most complete: both legendaries, the Battle Frontier, double battles as a real part of the design, and abilities that made team building matter for the first time. The Battle Frontier in particular is content nothing since has matched.
Pokemon Emerald released on the Game Boy Advance. The list below is not restricted to that console — a recommendation is only useful if you can actually play it, so it spans generations and platforms.
The same generation's engine applied to the original 151.
The biggest structural change the series has made, and the most fun.
The next generation's definitive version, and the better story.
The best non-Pokemon monster collector, with a genuinely clever type system.
Collecting plus a team-building puzzle with real strategy.
A faithful classic-style monster RPG with modern quality of life.
If the Battle Frontier was your favourite part, this is a thousand hours of it.
Straightforward, funny, and full of creatures to catch.
The Game Boy alternative, and the breeding system is deeper.
Several of these have their own page here: games like Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, games like Pokemon Legends: Arceus, games like Siralim Ultimate, games like Dragon Warrior Monsters.
The 4 of these picks that have a page here, and the console each is catalogued under. Most are on more platforms than one — remasters and back catalogues move constantly — so treat this as where to start looking rather than a complete availability list.
| Game | Catalogued under |
|---|---|
| Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen | GBA |
| Pokemon Legends: Arceus | Switch |
| Siralim Ultimate | PC |
| Dragon Warrior Monsters | Game Boy |
Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen. The same generation's engine applied to the original 151.
Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Platinum are the closest. The full list of Pokemon Emerald similar games is on this page — 9 of them, each with the reason it is here rather than a genre tag that happens to match.
Yes — Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen is catalogued on the GBA here. The GBA list further down has more from that library.
Because the thing you liked about Pokemon Emerald is not a property of the hardware. Restricting the list to one console would drop most of the good answers, so the picks above span platforms and eras. If you specifically want more from that library, the GBA list further down is the place to start.
By hand, one game at a time, on what the source game actually does — its pacing, its movement, its difficulty, its tone. Genre tags alone put Pokemon Emerald next to games that feel nothing like it, so they are not the basis for this list. Each pick carries the reason it is here so you can judge it yourself.
No. The whole list is on this page, free, with no sign-in and no email. We earn a small affiliate commission if you buy through a retailer link, which is what pays for the site.
If you already know what kind of answer you want, these are the same list cut by genre — and each one says what it leaves out as well as what it includes:
More from the Game Boy Advance library, each with its own recommendations page: