Pokemon Fire Red/Emerald Comparison

Recently, I replayed Pokemon Fire Red for the GBA on my DS. It had been years since I last played it and it felt so good to do it all over again. Of course, it was not without a feeling of awkwardness. Black and White have been out for a while now and stepping back six years in both Pokemon and technology is indeed interesting. But once I finished it (I was so lucky to get past the league. God, I did not see that coming. I forgot what level they were at and ended up going up against a level 63 Venasaur with a level 53 Blastoise. Whoops) I felt satisfied with completing it again. So, I went to Pokemon Emerald straight away. Immediately, I noticed something was different. The graphics. I know emerald was made one year after Fire Red, but I saw noticeable dips in quality. In battle, the Pokemon look rough around the edges, literally. The look of the Pokemon in Fire Red was much more natural, almost cartoon like. A somewhat reasonable comparison would be to have a look at Twilight Princess to Skyward Sword. 

Emerald                                                                                              Fire Red




But as the game progresses, I did notice some other things. I liked the music much more than the music in Fire Red, which I hope everyone agrees with me on that. Emerald is more linear and structured and gives you better clues about where to go rather than giving you the general direction and a nudge. Some may not like this because they feel it may be too easy, I didn't mind too much. Emerald was also the first Pokemon game to have the Pokemon move. When they entered the battle, they would move around for a moment, saying: Look! We're moving! We are more than just pixels. Speaking of battles, I noticed that in Fire Red, opponents were more prone to have lots of weak Pokemon, where as in Emerald, they mostly have one or two Pokemon that are reasonably strong. This is liable to change however, since I only just beat the second gym. So far the only other thing I really have to say is that they got rid of the compulsory Pokemon catch. In Fire Red, there would be some items like the Exp Share which Professor Oak's aides would give to you, but only if you had caught a certain amount of Pokemon. I honestly hated this. I know that one of the goals is to "catch 'em all" but I don't like being goaded into doing unnecessary stuff. 
But, like most Pokemon games, they are not to different from each other. So I ask, which is better?