By Jeremy Sheer

Imagine you are having a Pokémon battle. You throw out Dialga. Your opponent throws out a tyranitar. ‘This should be an easy win for me,’ you think. You command Dialga to use Roar of Time. However, the move only cuts Tyranitar’s HP down by 5. ‘What in the world?’ you think to yourself. Tyranitar is then is commanded to use Crunch – only this time, Crunch knocks out your Dialga in one shot. How can this be?

Welcome to the world of hacking! ‘Hacking,’ in the world of Pokémon, is to manipulate or change certain parts of the game by using third-party software like Action Replay, Gameshark, Pokesav, which are not endorsed by Nintendo.

Hacking in Pokémon has been around since the start of the series. But when Diamond and Pearl allowed players to battle and trade pokémon online, the new online features lost some of their appeal because of hacking. Many trainers believe hacking is fine. “You’re not hurting anybody,” they say. In reality, hacking can ruin the enjoyment and replay value of the game.
Many hackers also claim that if you use an ‘über’ pokémon, they will have a fit or stop playing the game. Übers are more legitimate than hacked pokémon, since they are endorsed by Nintendo, but the company will not allow them in tournaments. Hacking has left many fans frustrated because they are beaten easily when their opponent doesn’t deserve to win. more…