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I've noticed the Orange Islands getting a bit dry lately, so I figured I'd put down this board to see if anyone will bite.
Whether it's the nostalgia factor of the first generation, or the jam-packed game carts of the newest releases, for many people, there's an edition they love more than any other. Whether it's the Gold version you got from your parents for Christmas, the Pearl version that brought you back to the franchise after a long hiatus, or the Emerald version that you stole from your cousin [COUGH], there's often that one game that just can't be beat. Let us know which one, and why you like it so much!
I'd like for this to be a nice, relaxed discussion, but I want one thing to be clear. Lay off the Gen Wars. Civil discussion and debate is fine - beasting on one-another and name-calling is not. Please don't do it.
[it'd probably be good if you don't use the term 'genwunner,' even if they are one]
for me, it's a really tough fight between leafgreen, emerald, and white 2.
emerald was my first ever pokemon game, so naturally that's worth something. i love the tropical feel of the region, and i love the designs of a lot of pokemon - gen 3 is my favourite overall for the designs. i like the layout of the region, and really don't mind some of the water [though the area from lilycove to mossdeep + sootopolis + ever grande city + pacifidlog town is annoying, but not the one from petalburg to slateport imo - that one's more guided and less... huge, and with more rest stops]
i also like how these games had a plot, and while it was a little odd, i did enjoy hunting down team magma and aqua.
[team magma totally has sexier outfits btw]
plus it had the battle frontier as endgame which is pretty sweet. contests + pokeblock making were fun, and i'd be lying if i said i didn't like tending to my berries and making my secret base.
leafgreen, on the other hand, is the game i got the most out of - it's the first one i beat. oh, gosh, i still remember my last 'mon venusaur surviving the rival's fire blast and koing with strength. what a fantastic feeling. it's also really colourful and the kanto 'mons are my second favourite overall. leafgreen had a better endgame with the sevii islands, and more pokes to catch. the catch is... well, i've played through kanto so often i'm now kinda sick of it. i've beaten yellow once, leafgreen at least three times, firered once, and have gone through it on soulsilver/heartgold 1.5 times [still working on it], so it's more or less started to bore the hell outta me, honestly. if not for that it'd probably be my fav - well, that and there's no real storyline, but whatever.
white 2 just has so much to do, though. so many pokemon, so many fun sidequests [i /love/ pokestar studios], and the graphics look really nice. the story is also really cool and engaging. the rival sucks, though. all he is is "GIVE ME BACK PURRLOIN" and "I'M GOING TO UNLEASH MY RAGE." so one-dimensional and boring. at victory road i actually said "not you again," when he appeared, and i have legitimately liked every other rival thus far [except bianca i guess but does she really count?]
sigh. plus while i don't hate them and there are some really cool ones gen 5 pokes are the ugliest overall [perhaps gen 4 ties with it idk]
i guess i pick:
just look at the fucks he gives.
honourable mention to heartgold/soulsilver for two regions + pokeathlon + cool things.
I haven't been playing for a long time but from what I've played, the best is either white2 or platinum.The old generations are also good but they lack lots features.Being able to use TM's only once is one of the drawbacks of the older generations.I like platinum because the starters are pretty good and that lot of powerful pokemon got evolved forms in the 4th generation.Nice pokemon where also introduced then.
Honesty all the Pokémon games are good. There hasn't been a bad one. I like them all in their own way; RBY for its amazing start to the series, GSC for its sheer amount of content, two regions is awesome and fighting Red is the best moment in the series, RSE for its great pokemon, especially the legendaries and its fun additions to the series such as double battles, abilities, contests, battle frontier, DPP for online WiFi battles and the physical special split, BW2 for its great region, lots of content, cool story (bro)
Though I have to say Emerald is my favorite. I can play it over and over and still have loads of fun. The region is really cool and has interesting places. The pokemon are really good and have great designs, how badass is Groudon? Team Aqua and Magma are so lovable- heck, all the trainers are lovable there's so many hilarious lines they say. I just get this really warm feeling when I play Emerald. My only complaint is May is the worst rival ever, you don't even see her starter when its fully evolved, halfway through she just says I'm done battling I'm gonna fill up my pokedex bye.
please anyone tell me i'm playing sacred gold and storm silver game my in game trades are not working after beating elite four.
should i d anything to avoid this?
This is extremely tough. I like all generations for different reasons. My personal favorites are Silver, Emerald, Platinum, SoulSilver, and White 2.
Silver is where I started my Pokemon adventure. I loved playing through Johto, blasting everything with my badass Typhlosion and Ampharos. Despite the hours of grinding I had to do, Silver is full of fond memories.
Emerald took the best parts of Ruby and Sapphire and added more awesome stuff to that. All of the starters were awesome and the region itself is beautiful. Hard to see what's not to like about Hoenn.
Sinnoh was interesting as well. Once again, the starters were all awesome. I liked how the VS Seeker was carried over from FRLG. I swear, this is the easiest game to grind preBW. The only thing I hated was Mt.Coronet. I swear, Hoenn's water routes were bad and Johto's lack of grinding is horrible, but this is atrocious. Ranting aside, Platinum is a great game (eat your heart out Diamond and Pearl). Oh, and Giratina is awesome.
White 2 exceeded all expectations. First, I'm glad that Unova Pokemon weren't the only mons I could use, which is why I didn't buy BW at first. Despite being so linear, Unova is pretty diverse, though not to the level of Hoenn. I loved PWT, the extensive post game, and AUDINO. I swear, if you played Johto for as long as I have, you'll know how much of a godsend Audino is. Also has one of the best themes ever. (Ghetsis and Colress themes are epic)
To me however, the best game is SoulSilver. While FRLG didn't offer too much as a remake other than updated graphics and RS mechanics, HGSS adds so many new stuff it could be its own game. Pokeathlon was fun, as was Johto Safari Zone (best in the series with no 500-600 step limit), and your own bros following behind you. Seriously, why has this been removed in later games (and not implemented in FRLG as a tribute to Yellow)? In addition to new content, SoulSilver brings back (and in some cases updates) the classic things I loved about Silver. Examples include Bug Catching Contest, Red, awesome music, the Pokegear (and Joey calling you every 5 minutes about his top percent Rattata), and Silver, the best rival ever (eat your heart out Blue motherfucking Oak) Sure it doesn't fix the leveling issues of the original game, and sure it's not the best game ever, but to me it comes pretty damn close.
I can only pick ONE?!? What kind of sorcery is this?!? :P But no, seriously, I don't even HAVE a favorite gen, I love them all. First gen started it all for me when I was 9, and I've been playing every game I can since, every time I get the chance. I'm 23, almost 24 now, and whether it's the nostalgia of the first gen, the exciting new types of second gen, the amazing region of the 3rd gen, the epic battles of 4th gen (screw you, Garchomp :P), or the exciting music and pace of the 5th gen (Alder is a major exception :P), I look back on each gen just as fondly as the ones that preceded or came after it. :D
Gen 3 without a doubt. It's how I started, and they came out with awesome games such as XD: gale of darkness, and you can't beat the darker side of pokemon. Emerald was a masterpiece, and gave you tons of stuff to do, like the battle frontier, which was beast.
Gen 4 is a close second, as it felt really put together as a game, especially with the mechanics that it gave, such as special and physical attacks, and a good amount of challenges. Both were enjoyable, and Platinum added some pretty cool stuff too.
I'm the only one so far that voted for 5th gen ? :(.
I like this gen because there are more pokemon with more moves so more variety. I also like the B&W1 story line (B&W2 not so much) and the added content of B2W2 like PWT or the black tower/white treehollow. I don't mind an ice cream, a gear or even a chandelier pokemon, I actually like them.
I still don't get the "it was my first game" thing. It doesn't make the game any better if you play it first or last.
Red was my first game and I feel anything special about it. I liked it but it's not my favourite pokemon game, I had more fun in other games.
Gen 3 without a doubt. It's how I started, and they came out with awesome games such as XD: gale of darkness, and you can't beat the darker side of pokemon. Emerald was a masterpiece, and gave you tons of stuff to do, like the battle frontier, which was beast.
I still don't get the "it was my first game" thing. It doesn't make the game any better if you play it first or last.
Red was my first game and I feel anything special about it. I liked it but it's not my favourite pokemon game, I had more fun in other games.
Gen 3 is by far my favorite, Emerald specifically. I loved how it redesigned the series to a more modern and unique setting. The region was a-fucking-mazing in design, the music was awesome, and the story was good too. I honestly wish I could fully express how much I love gen 3 best of them all.
In my opinion, while gen 1 and 2 may have started the Pokemon craze, gen 3 was when Pokemon started to become what it is today.
I really don't see what was so good about gen 3 region? Can someone explain it to me? In order mine are
Red/Blue/Yellow; FireRed/LeafGreen: You can't beat the original I was 7 at the time so it started it for me. They only got better one the sevii islands were introduced, it made the game massive.
Diamond/Pearl/Platnium: I feel like the story line was great, it had really unique starters which are my favorite, and intense battles, I also believe this is where they started to expand on new moves giving you a lot more variety.
Gold/Silver/Crystal; HeartGold/SoulSilver: I think this game is terrible in terms of mechanics. I've always battled every trainer and it just seems like they didn't adjust the levels accordingly. I believe the highest trainer you fight is low 40s and then after that its bam Elite four mid 50s. The starters sucked, and the pokemon you could catch were terrible. The only thing I liked about this series was Mt. Silver, and the fact is the only game to date where you can go to a previous region and fight nostalgic trainers.
Black2/White2: I rank these differently then their predecessors due to a few things. The story wasn't as linear. Hidden Grottos made the game really interesting. Team Plasma felt more of a threat then just some random group bent on wreaking havoc. The movies were fun and challenging, and you had access to a wider variety of pokemon.
Black/White: Take away everything I said about the previous and you have these games. Bland, predictable, poor story, and overall a waste of money.
I didn't always get the appeal of RSE. In fact I almost quit the franchise when they came out because there was no connectivity with prior gens. It's really the region that changed my mind. IMO Hoenn is the most beautiful region - a city on top of trees? a town on top of corsola? It would look amazing if it's ever remade in 3D. Can you imagine what the Kyogre / Groudon battle would look like? In comparison, Sinnoh and Unova, for all of their better graphics, are pretty dull.
My personal favorite series is HGSS because it made everything I loved about GSC even better. It also has a decently interesting postgame.
Pokemon Platinum. I will admit this mostly has to do with personal crap, but it just clings on to me. I love the starters, I love most of the Pokemon in the Sinnoh region (I feel like I'm one of the few who think that) and because of how fun it was to explore the area. It doesn't hurt that my Platinum playthrough was my most unpredictable and memorable playthroughs of all. Man I really wish I didn't sell it. So Dppt, since half of the stuff I mentioned is also in those other games.
I honestly wonder if all the votes for gen 3 are purely nostalgia. They are far and away the most unappealing clunky gen (bar vanilla dp). You could make an argument for rby being clunkier (which it is, but it has charm / memorable characters / a plotline that doesnt make you the chosen one with the power to stop everything bad). also the characters in gen 3 are lame and forgettable. can you give me 3 defining characteristics about brendan personality-wise? how about archoe/maxie? RBY has fuckin gary, Lt. Surge and Giovanni - all ridiculously memorable.
For me, it goes 2 > 1 > 3 > 4 > 5 for gens, which is what the OP asks for. But I don't think gen 5 has the individual worst games.
It's a little disheartening to see my favourite generation get so little votes. Gen 2 is enormous, it follows up on your favourite memories from Gen 1 but without the glitchiness, and of course it has the Red battle which to this day remains epic and intense. It definitely does have some flaws, but I see almost none mentioned in this thread (other than the weird level curve).
- Kanto is both a big boon and a big problem in this game. It's great because nostalgia, but then it's bad because it looks so extremely rushed and added on. They lead you on with the remixed Vermillion theme, but then Viridian, Pewter, Cerulean, Saffron AND Fushia all have the same boring theme that wasn't even in the original. =( And then all these things that were already in Johto in some way have been cut out (like the Safari Zone and the Bicycle shop), and they pretty much stopped caring at Cinnabar, Viridian Forest and Seafoam Islands. It's really, really disheartening, and I'm glad they did something about it in HGSS.
- The level curve is weird at several places. Starting from Ecruteak you basically face no challenge whatsoever other than vs gym leaders, until the Goldenrod Radio Tower debacle where you finally face decently leveled enemies again all the way up to Victory Road. Victory Road -> Elite Four transitions nicely levels-wise (I think the last trainer has like a 39/42 Rapidash, and then Elite Four goes from 40 to 50), and then from there...every generic trainer is weaker. Okay. The Kanto gym leaders don't make any sense levels-wise, with Janine being super weak while the others are around Elite Four level and Blue being above that.
But it has so much good stuff that I'm willing to forgive that. It introduced day and night, the pokegear, calling people, chasing legendary Pokemon (Suicune in Crystal!), berries and other held items...it's a game full of inventions. Also, second best rival in the series. Every single other one besides Gary and maybe Hugh is just a carbon copy of another one.
Gen 2 has both nostalgia and innovation. It came when the basic formula of Pokemon had not been repeated a thousand times over yet, and for half of the game you feel like you're on top of the world because you're the Johto champion. It's really lovely.
Gen 1 comes next, and I'm willing to admit this is mostly just nostalgia, which needs no explanation. The few things that do:
- It has memorable characters.
- It has a darker storyline than the rest.
Even with all its glitches, its weird sprites, outdated graphics, imbalanced type and move chart, or perhaps because of those things, I still play it almost every day.
Gen 3 is when things start to get old and repetitive, in my opinion. It has the first "reset" where they exclude a huge bunch of old Pokemon to draw attention to the new ones. It had a few cool gimmicks, like secret bases, and Emerald had the first real Pokemon cutscene as well as the Battle Frontier. Opinions on the Hoenn region tend to be very mixed, and I can definitely see both sides of the coin there.
But the plot is getting really stupid, and the rivals are easily the worst in the series. My concerns summed up in IRC logs:
[15:18:49] <%RODAN> rses story
[15:18:55] <%RODAN> its so good man
[15:18:55] <&Mekkah> let's flood the world
[15:18:58] <&Mekkah> what could possibly go wrong
[15:19:18] <&Mekkah> i like how putting a meteorite into a volcano does different, opposite things
[15:19:21] <&Mekkah> depending on what game you play
[15:19:27] <%RODAN> lol
[15:19:38] <%RODAN> im gonna get rid of all the ocean
[15:19:44] <%RODAN> i am a genius
[15:19:46] <&Mekkah> it either shuts it down, fills the volcarno with rainwater and floods the region (????)
[15:19:54] <&Mekkah> or...makes it erupt
[15:20:06] <&Mekkah> i dont even know how the former works
[15:20:50] <&Mekkah> it remidns me of when butters threatens to flood the world with a garden hose
[15:20:53] <&Mekkah> and everyone takes him seriously
[15:21:05] <%RODAN> lol
[15:21:23] <%RODAN> i like when
[15:21:29] <%RODAN> they summon groudon/kyogre
[15:21:33] <%RODAN> and they are like
[15:21:36] <%RODAN> WHAT HAVE I DONE
[15:21:40] <%RODAN> I FEEL REMORSE
[15:23:59] <&Mekkah> i also like how running away from groudon/kyogre saves the earth
[15:24:28] <&Mekkah> ...i also like how kyogre and groudon can jump
[15:24:29] <&Mekkah> out of a cave
[15:24:30] <&Mekkah> or fly
[15:24:32] <&Mekkah> or levitate
[15:24:33] <&Mekkah> i don't know
[15:24:56] <%RODAN> i like how groudon leaves a cave
[15:25:03] <%RODAN> to go back into another cave
[15:25:07] <&Mekkah> he does?
[15:25:09] <&Mekkah> oh yeah
[15:25:18] <&Mekkah> it's never really explained what the hell they were doing in there was it
[15:25:28] <&Mekkah> don't you already have the other orb when you find them
[15:25:31] <&Mekkah> why don't they fucking stay and fight
Now, keep in mind, Pokemon games almost cannot be bad. But these don't hold a candle to the first two gens imo.
This is also the first gen where we get remakes. In my opinion, FRLG completely rely on nostalgia and nothing else for their appeal. The games feel extremely bland, and just not the same as the old ones did back then. The few changes that were made are hardly memorable (who else spent hours looking up things on the Teachy TV? yeah me neither!). The Sevii islands quest feels like it's just been tacked on there, but it's basically just a long series of Oak's Parcel Take 2. The only nice things about it are extra Team Rocket, and a little bit of development for Lorelei. Emphasis on little.
Ugh Gen 4. I think most people know why DP and to a lesser extent Platinum are so unlikeable...most of it is just so forgetable. Let's go straight to HGSS. These games, first off, are adorable. It's almost like a Pokemon game marketed for girls. Pokemon walking with you was genius and talking to them even better. Plus, it fixed almost everything wrong with the originals: the level curve has, for a good amount, been fixed, Kanto has been spiced up, and a few outdated things like some gyms looking very linear and bland have been...updated.
But as likeable as HGSS is, it also has many, many additions that I really hate. I've ranted about these several times before, but I can't recall if I ever did it in a post, so I guess now is a good time to put it out there so I can link to it.
1) Your other "rival". It's always Lyra for me because she looks so stupid (meaning I don't want to look at her all game). She treats you like a baby, calling you with tips, talking about her stupid Marill (which evolves several times throughout her calls, but always seems to be a Marill in other calls). If HGSS was a game of its own, this would not be that big of a problem to me, but it isn't. In the originals, you did not need defending against the accusation of the guy that takes Elm's statement (he didn't make one, but I like to think that he would've been fine).
Why do we need this other person to bump into every other city? She doesn't even battle. She just talks. The male rival is obviously exactly the same, minus some superfluous jumping up and down. What exactly did they find so lacking about the originals that we needed this for?
2) The new treatment of the Kimono Girls, and consequently your character.
Let's think about Red for a second. The guy is a mute, but we all think of him as badass. Why? Because he did a lot of badass things, like stop Team Rocket (which is a lot more evil than some organisations in later generations - they killed things, see), defeat the entire Indigo league including his badass rival, face scary ghosts, and so on and so on. Of course, Red is a mute so that we can portray him as ourselves - we fill in the blanks. It's a really subtle way by the game designers of making yourself feel good. What adds to Red's (and our own) badassness is that we do everything all by ourselves. No one told us where to go or how to do things unless we asked.
Now, in a lot of ways, your main guy in GSC (Gold, I guess) is the same. He impresses several people enough so that they respect him and trust him to do things that are important to them. He gets the assignment to get the Egg from Elm. Mr. Pokemon is very impressed with you for it. Oak is so impressed he gives you the Pokedex. Later, Elm sends his assistant so you get the Egg again. Like Red, you are a badass on your own, going through mazes, defeating enemies, finding legendary Pokemon...it's a huge sense of accomplishment.
And then comes along HGSS, with its random mysterious, almost Mary Sue-like appearances of the Kimono Girls. They are everywhere. They're lost in forests, stuck to the ice, or simply making the infuriating reveal that they were arranging all of what you were doing all along. The egg passing? Yeah, they made that happen. Ho-oh and Lugia? That's their thing. I do not need your help, your watching and your arranging of things.
Between the Kimono Girls and Lyra, the whole feeling of being a strong, independent trainer is largely abandoned. How adventurous is this adventure if there's someone around every corner pulling strings or giving you tips? Why do I need Lyra to introduce me to the Day Care couple? Why do I need the Kimono Girls to let me meet Lugia? Why can't I just be by myself like Red and Gold?
That's why I don't enjoy these games as much, in an XL sized nutshell.
then there's gen 5 and it has gears and ice cream cones the end
Well, it goes a little further than that, but it's the same patterns as the above, repeated in a different way. The rivals are more bland than Blue and Silver, though the main problem with Hugh is just that he's repetitive. His entire character is based around one thing: he is angry because someone took his sister's Purrloin. That's all there is to it. Take a shot every time he says "rage" or "Purrloin", and you'll be as drunk as Jellicent in no time. There's not much else to rant about Gen 5: it has the same problem as gen 3/4 where you are just not being left alone.
Aw man I'm doing this on my phone right now and my big thumbs kept mashing the wrong option and my vote went to gen IV... But that's probably a good answer as I couldn't decide between III and V so I guess I'll just meet it half way
But seriously it's so hard to single out a generation, they're all so good in their right and hold such different memories as the age difference between games is so different. I enjoyed all of them immensely and look back at them with huge levels of fondness. I was so young when I played RBY, I remember constantly restarting my game, I must have finished the story hundreds of times. I used to spend heaps of time in the pokemon mansion because I was so interested in the mystery of Mew and Mewtwo. I remember when we first found out about the MissingNo glitch and spent our recess at school getting rare candies.
I still remember the tv commercials they played during cheeze tv (you Aussies know what I'm talking about!) for Gold and Silver, telling us to prepare for a new adventure, with brand new Pokemon to catch. I most distinctly remember Totodile from the ad, and picked it in my first play. I saved up for one of the game boy transfer pack things do I could play the game on Stadium 2. I even still have my original Crystal save file. My player was a girl called Sexy, gee I was funny back then
It took me ages to save up for Sapphire but it was well worth it. Looking back this is my favourite gen. I think it might just be because it was long enough ago to provide plenty of nostalgia, and I was old enough at the time to actually enjoy it properly. The region worked in a sort of figure-8 pattern which made me get lost many times. Although repeated encounters with countless Tentacool ad Wingull was tedious, I enjoyed adventuring the high seas. The whole region is easily the best for me. I loved the pokemon, music, characters, gym puzzles, the baddies, legendaries, just everything. Man I wanna go play it right now..
I took a bit of a hiatus before playing fourth gen, as I never had a DS, the tv show wasn't on any more, and just pretty much didn't know it existed. When I first took notice of it I had a bit of a 'genwunner' phase and though it looked stupid. My little sister ended up getting a ds so decided to jump back in with platinum. I felt like there was a huge learning curve for some reason. I had seen new Pokemon before in gen I and II but this felt different. I ended up thoroughly enjoying the story, the distortion world was crazy cool. It took me ages catch Giratina as I was underleveled and couldn't status him. It actually took me ages to just beat the game. This made it feel like a huge game, but after playing through other times since I realised I just sucked haha. It was definitely a cool game but I just never grew attached to it. I might have even stopped playing if it weren't for the gen II remakes. They were just everything I remembered from back in the day, but better. The simplest, but best part, was having your Pokemon walk with you. I don't understand what is so good about it but I just loved it. My Typhlosion was so over trained coz I just liked having it walk next to me so it was always out first. I wish they would bring it back.. Also, POKÉATHLON FOREVER!!!!
I've really enjoyed everything gen V has thrown at us so far. They just feel so complete and a little more grown up than the rest. You have this amazing story to complete, then when it's over you have a tonne to do to keep you from getting bored. B2W2 has the medal rally, PWT, Battle Subway, Black Tower / White Treehollow, Entralink, Funfests, Hidden Grottos, Dreamworld, Join Avenue.. Is that all? I don't care how 'linear' every says it is, the areas in it are stunning. I want to go on but I'm just making myself want to go start a new playthrough.
So anyway, ignore my vote for gen IV and give it to III and V!
I feel kinda weird saying that Generation IV was my favorite while having nothing to refute Mekkah's wall of text on why he dislikes it...but yeah...Gen IV.
I actually started with Gen III, but after playing the Gen II games, they became my favorite, at that point. After playing SoulSilver, which I felt really captured what I liked about Gen II while also improving on it technology-wise, I decided that was my favorite. Also, Lyra is the best :)
Mekkah said:
(who else spent hours looking up things on the Teachy TV? yeah me neither!)
