Pokémon Burning Ruby is a solid GBA romhack that takes the original Ruby version and cranks up the difficulty—wild Pokémon hit harder, gym leaders actually use strategy, and you’ll need to think twice before spamming Tackle. At first I thought it was just another reskin, but the tweaked type matchups and new evolutions caught me off guard (who knew a Fire/Dark Houndoom would wreck my team so hard?).

The overworld’s still Hoenn, but trainers have better teams, and some routes force you to grind a little. Not gonna lie, I wiped to the first gym a couple times before swapping out my starter for something that could take a hit. If you’ve played the original to death and want something that doesn’t let you coast, this one’s got teeth.