Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire Versions/Connectivity

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire continued the tradition allowing players to trade Pokémon between two cartridges, this time via the Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable. They are not compatible with the wireless adapter. Unlike, Ruby and Sapphire were not backward compatible with Generations and. This prompted remakes of the original games,. Trading between these games,, and and the third Hoenn-based game, , is possible. These games are also the first to support linking between different language versions for trading and battling without risk of losing their saved games. If one person is trading with FireRed, LeafGreen or Emerald, the sprite is changed to either 's or 's depending on the gender; this was changed in Emerald where a different sprite is used depending of the version being exchanged. However, some limitations still existed, and they would not be removed until much later in Generation IV with for the Nintendo DS.

While Generation III cannot trade directly with the Generation IV, Generation V or Generation VI games, a player's Pokémon may be permanently transferred to Generation IV via Pal Park, and some can be found using the dual-slot mode. Pokémon from Generation III games can be transferred to Generation V via Poké Transfer by going through a Generation IV game. Pokémon from Generation III games can be transferred to Generation VI via the Poké Transporter and Pokémon Bank by going through a Generation IV game and a Generation V game.