tark- yeah, its true. although you can catch some pokemon from the previous games. but not many. but you can always get them with codes
actually, saphire/ ruby is way different than red/blue. to get certain pokemon, you have to solve hard puzzles or get through hard towers to get there. plus it has TONS of secret areas and places. the dumb part is, i think you have to get ALL the other pokemon before you can get latias or latios.