Back in 2014, IGN, like many outlets, shared its review of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. While the vast majority showered the 3DS remakes with praise, IGN was slightly more critical, awarding them a 7.8/10 and noting that they have "too much water" (among other criticisms, naturally).

In case you haven't seen it memed to oblivion in the years since, it's fair to say that the water comment has become something of a running joke among the Pokémon community, with The Pokémon Company itself even referencing it in a tweet earlier this year.

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But, after a decade of ridicule, one fan has taken on the task of diving into the numbers and, it turns out, the statement is technically true: the 3DS remakes do contain "too much water" — at least, they contain noticeably more than the originals, you can make your own subjective opinion on whether it's "too much".

This is according to a recent video from Pokémon YouTuber ackolade. In it, he breaks down the two water-related complaints from the IGN review ("Hoenn is still imbalanced type-wise, heavily favoring water" and the surfing and diving sequences being "incredibly tedious in Alpha and Omega — an obvious example of how superfluous some HMs are") and turns to the cold, hard facts to test their legitimacy.

Get your red string at the ready, folks, because it's time to dive in. Starting with the first note on the game's Water Type imbalance, ackolade looks at the remake's wild encounter rate and Trainer possession numbers and, yes, the criticism, uhh... holds water.

Using the numbers from a Nuzlocke damage calculator, the YouTuber concludes Hoenn trainer battles are generally more reliant on Water Type Pokémon, with 38.4% of all Trainers in Ruby having at least one Water Type in their team, increasing to 43.9% in Sapphire (compared to the 23% of FireRed and LeafGreen). On top of that, the region is generally more favourable to Water Type attacks, with you being 171% more likely to find a Hoenn Trainer weak to Water than a Hoenn trainer that resists it.

What's more, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire increases the Water Type encounter rates on early game routes, with ackolade's analysis showing Wingull encounters increased from 10% to 20% on Route 103 and Marill's rose from 10% to 15% on Route 117 amongst others.

Still with us? Good. Now, onto those "incredibly tedious" surf and diving sequences and "superfluous HMs" (which, ackolade admits, is a more subjective opinion). Straight off the bat, yes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire does have a lot of HMs, especially when compared to its predecessor, X & Y. According to the analysis, 'ORAS' has seven different HMs, only five of which are required to beat the game, whereas X & Y has five, with only two being essential.

As for the complaint about the "tedious" nature of these sequences, ackolade's analysis suggests otherwise. While boredom is entirely subjective, the YouTube video demonstrates that water-based routes like 124 and 126 are, in fact, smaller in the remakes and the player character can surf through them faster. Naturally, if you found them boring in the original, the same will likely apply in the remake, but the data shows there was at least some improvement here.

So there you have it, quite possibly the most in-depth analysis of a review comment we have ever seen. And, would you believe it, the complaint seems to hold up... mostly. Ackolade's video goes into far more detail than we have here, accompanied by all sorts of fancy graphics, so it's well worth checking out the full explanation at the top of this post if you're interested.

We had a lot more fun with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire back in 2014, calling the games "a must-buy for any Poké-fan" — but we're sure those of you who have read this far will have picked them up already.

What do you make of this analysis? Has it brought you around to team "too much water"? Surf down to the comments and let us know.

[source youtube.com]