Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC resurrects the best bit from my favorite game in the series

The second chapter of the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC is next week on December 14, offering new story content, the return of multiple Legendary Pokemon from previous games, and a slightly terrifying mind-control device called the Synchro Machine. But for me, the highlight change is the reintroduction of a feature that first reared its head nearly a decade ago.

Pokemon Sapphire was the first actual game that was really mine, and as such Gen 3 will always remain first in my heart. Because of that, I didn't hesitate to spend £200 of my student loans on a Nintendo 3DS when the Gen 6 remakes of Sapphire and Ruby came around. While those games could never have matched the idea of the originals that my nostalgia goggles had imprinted on my mind, I thought they were really good, adding new narrative and features alongside the 3D coat of paint.

At the end of those games, once you'd caught one of the legendary Latias or Latios, you'd get to do something that the Pokemon series has never really done before or since. You could hop on the Pokemon's back, and use them to fly around a simplified open-world variation of Hoenn. You couldn't land literally anywhere you wanted, but you could arrive at individual routes or unique locations far from the Pokemon centres that the HM Fly is limited to. It didn't quite turn the game into an open-world experience, but it came pretty close considering the hardware that Game Freak was working with at the time.

Now, with a proper open world to work with in the form of Scarlet and Violet, that idea has finally returned. Depending on your choice of game, Koraidon or Miraidon will gain the ability to fly. According to a press release, you'll only be able to get around the sky temporarily at first, but eventually it'll become a permanent feature which will let you fly anywhere you want.

Quite how the not-always-excellent performance of Scarlet and Violet will hold up against your ability to fly everywhere at will remains to be seen, but it's a nice idea that I'm surprised the Pokemon series hasn't made more of. Given the open-world efforts it's been making in its Nintendo Switch era, it's odd to remember that its only real effort to let you explore its world more broadly is from a nine-year-old 3DS remake.

Gen 3 is my favourite, but where does yours lie on our list of the best Pokemon games?