I've basically been spending this whole year playing old Pokemon games in anticipation of BDSP and Legends and scratching my Pokemon itch until those come out ahaha. I really am that excited to revisit Sinnoh again. Anyways, here's what I've revisited so far
Sapphire: I played this again really early in the year and I found that it's pretty darn impressive for its time. Runs really smoothly, the region is wonderful, and the mons are fun. It's unfortunately quite tedious because of the need for excessive grinding and the game is pretty barebones in the grand scheme of things, sadly, which means I basically kinda just put it down and didn't look back afterwards.
Diamond: It's no Platinum but it's still pretty good. Aside from the notorious slow problems and lack of variety I found that the level curve is pretty jank compared to Platinum which is kind of a downside, needed a lot more grinding to deal with such a sloppy level curve. The game lacks polish in many areas but it's certainly not a bad game by any means, even if Platinum outclasses it (and BDSP probably will too)
Platinum: Still one of my favorites, and playing it now I still love it as much as ever. The level curve is solid, there's a strong variety of Pokemon to use, and it's a much more polished experience compared to Diamond. Sinnoh looks a lot more vivid and distinct in Platinum compared to Diamond, the Battle Zone's Battleground, Frontier, and the Villa offer tons of fun post-game stuff to do, and of course, there's Super Contests and whatnot! Plus a lot to explore and Gym Leader/E4 rematches make this a fun experience to play with. Not to mention Vs. Seeker rematches too which is a lot of fun. Still an absolutely fun game and even putting aside my own nostalgia for it I still absolutely enjoy it.
HeartGold: A game that is fun but also very tedious at the same time. The biggest flaw this game has aside from the asinine level curve is the incessant need for hours of grinding on end. That said, I still really, really like this game. Johto is really pretty in this game, and I love the little details like when you hear water flowing near bodies of water, or the sounds when the player moves, and even though following Pokemon is kind of a lacking feature it's a little but fun every now and then and I don't mind it. Pokeathlon is a fun minigame and playing it now reminds me a lot of DS minigames like this and the NSMB DS minigames which were a ton of fun back then. It has a lot of the things carried over from Platinum which still makes it fun. Not as good as Platinum, mind you, but a damn good game all the same. The biggest complaint about it is that I have to spend so much time grinding my ass off to train my mons, but the good things about it are things I still very much appreciate.
Black/White: I have both versions lmao. I replayed White earlier this year. It's a little too linear and the early game is boring as fuck but it picks up nicely afterwards. It's a nice game that had a neat narrative and just about anything is usable to some extent which helps with the game's playability. Playing Black rn at a slower pace and it's a really fun game. I decided to use a semi-rotating team for this game to make up for the middling early mons and the fact that the better mons are all late game: so I use stuff like Watchog and Simisear but box them for better mons later on. When I finish this game I might end up talking about the massive team I accumulated over the course of the playthrough.
That being said, I cannot get over how ugly this game is especially replaying it now. After recently replaying Platinum and HeartGold and seeing how pretty they look on the DS, it's very noticeable that Gen 5 is really hideous and awkward to look at compared to how nice Gen 4 looks in comparison.
Y: The more I replay this the more I appreciate this game and love it. It's such a fun yet charming game at the same time. The story may not be the best written but it has its moments, and more than anything it's just such a fun game to relax with. Kalos as a region is beautiful, the gameplay is excellent, and the mon variety is absolutely amazing. The starters are all great, the Kanto starters have strong Megas, and many of the new mons are fun to use while there's a lot of old mons to play with too. Not to mention Pokemon Amie is adorable, and the adventure was all around pretty fun and I really enjoyed my trek through Kalos. It's a brisk, yet simple game but one that is very nice to replay. I find it more replayable than Black because the railroading is no where near as bad as Gen 5 or Gen 7 that came after and it's a nice game to pick up and play. The charm of roller skates, riding Rhyhorn, Skiddo, Mamoswine, etc. is so much fun, and Lumiose City has soo soo much to do. This time I actually went and did the Battle Chateau and that's an excellent training spot, and rising up the ranks to the top created great incentive to keep going there. All in all it's a really solid and excellent game, and I've grown to appreciate it more and more and it might actually establish itself as one of my favorite Pokemon games, especially now that I appreciate it for what it is it's pretty fun. The replay value is immense because of the sheer variety of Pokemon you can use: if I ever feel like replaying this game again, I most certainly won't hesitate to do so. It's just that fun to replay.
Alpha Sapphire: I replayed this as part of the Pokemon Showdown! Pokemon Games community playthroughs, and I had a lot of fun revisiting Hoenn in this game. It may not have the magnitude of content that HGSS did but it more than makes up for it with an engaging story, more in that it fleshes out the characters very nicely in many ways. The game was incredibly enjoyable and it was nice to see Hoenn reimagined in greater detail: especially some particularly beautiful moments like one where I saw a Corsola underwater! What a sight to behold! And did I not mention soaring in the sky? Seeing Hoenn from a sky view is soo good! Finding the mirage islands and seeing Gen 5+ mons and legendaries helps with keeping me playing afterwards. Not to mention upgraded E4 matches, and some cool cinematics made this a pretty great experience in my book. Very fun game, even if it could've done a bit more.
Sun: I like the story but...I dunno, every time I try to replay this I just feel like I have to force myself to get to the finish line. I appreciate the challenge the game has but Alola is so linear and the story is so railroady that it feels like I have no agency in the story. Plus so many Gen 7 mons are either boring/single staged or very weak and bad, and so many are slow. And every island has the Hoenn water problem where it's Yungoos/Alolan Rattata/Wingull everywhere or their evolutions. This is spectacularly boring. I don't hate it, but I have a more fun time playing Gen 6 games than I do this. Lillie is a great character though, and Hau and Gladion certainly have a lot of great moments and there's a bunch of fun little sidequests here and there that make Alola feel alive, so there's a lot to love at the same time. Especially since many of said sidequests involve the Trial Captains. That being said, it has one of the worst cases of early game drag alongside BW1 which makes it an annoying game to replay.
That's basically what I've delved into thus far. I'm currently replaying Black and Ultra Sun and may revisit White 2 in the near future as well. You can maybe expect some updates when I do get to finish my US playthrough and get into revisiting White 2, a game I haven't played in ages oddly enough.
