Ranking the Pokemon Games (generation 1-6)
Unless youve been hiding under a rock, you probibly know Pokemon Sun and Moon release this Friday, starting the 7th generation of the Pokemon Franchise.
So this seems like a great time to see which of the other games did great and which flopped.
So with that in mind I'm ranking all the pokemon games from worst to best....well most of them anyways.
I've never played Black 2 and White 2, or the Japanese Red and Green, so they wont be included. Also "3rd versions" such as Emerald, Platinum and Crystal are so similar to their original paired games, they will be including in those games rankings. However Yellow is different enough from the american Red and Blue as to get its own spot, especially as it played on a different system (GB color as opposed to original Gameboy)
Lastly I chose to do this list by paired games and not by generations because it seemed to be the only fair way to handle the remakes, since they tend to get improvements over the earlier games of their generation and the positives (and sometimes negatives) of the game they are remaking, so they artificially inflate or deflate the ranking of the generations original games.
So with that out of the way here we go
10) Diamond/Pearl/Platinum
So lets get this out of the way upfront. The biggest, most game altering, most important change that massively improved and diversified the game in its entire history debuted in this generation, with the Physical/Special split. No longer would moves be placed as a physical or special move based on their type....but based on the more logical "do you physically touch the other pokemon" idea. This allowed pokemon like Kingler (who had a great attack....but only access to the previously special only water) to actually be usable.
Also, the Sinnoh Starters are too date, the only group in which I actually really like all 3 of them, and think all 3 are useable (though I like what ive seen so far of all the Gen VII starters)
But thats pretty much it for the "upside" of these games, though to be fair the fact that there are no longer really any morning/night exclusive pokemon was a nice improvement to the day/night cycle mechanic since your no longer obligated to play at a specific time to get a specific monster.
The downsides of these 3 games are tremendous though. For starters most of the new pokemon are all kinds of bland and forgettable. In fact for me at least when I think of memorable pokemon in this generation they are all evolutions to existing lines (Leafeon, Magnezone, Togekiss, Weaville being the coolest) or starters (Torterra and Empoleon) with one single exception (Drapion).
Now as starters are supposed to be cool. and the other benefit from the popularity/history of their preevolved forms, this basically means all the "freshly created" pokemon for this generation suck.
And at some level, I think GameFreak kinda knew that. Just under a 1/3 of all the pokemon created for this generation are members of an existing evolutionary line Then there was the expansion of the Sinnoh dex added in Platinum...which mostly seemed designed to add less boring pokemon to the game.....yet it should be noted 18 of the 28 additions to existing pokemon (including 3 of the 4 I mentioned) were added here, and in fact except for Rotom and Giratina, all 46 added pokemon already existed/were preevolutions to the newly introduced forms.
Also, the type distribution sucked ass in this game too. Your fire types were limited to 1 pokemon, Ponyta, if you didnt pick the fire starter. Thats right, 1 single freaking pokemon.....for an established type....so yea hope you really like infernape if you want a fire type. I mean I get that has happened before, with dragon and ghost....but that was back in Gen 1, now their really isnt an excuse for that shit.
And oh yea, this is also the generation where GameFreak went a bit crazy on the legendaries/mthyical pokemon...having 14 of them added in this generation. In fact 40% of all legendaries that existed at the end of Generation 4 were introduced IN this gen.
Look I like Legendaries as much as the next person....but part of the idea is that these are super rare powerful pokemon....when you literally have more than enough to fill 2 different teams of pokemon, that means that they arnt that rare anymore.
And thats before we get to Arceus, AKA Pokemon God. Thats right you could in theory capture God a pokeball and have him fight for you....I may be an atheist, but even I think thats a stupid ass idea. Now at least to its credit Arceus WAS the most powerful pokemon at the time it was released...but still it was a stupid ass idea.
As far as plot goes.....team galactic was kinda forgettable. In platinum at least they were pretty menacing, mostly because they had backup plans after you foil their main plan but otherwise they were kinda forgettable. Though I did like the fact their plan kinda worked and the detonation of the bombs in the lakes was a nice touch. Though at the end of the day they were a bit hurt by the fact the idea of harnessing pokemon energy never really seemed to click with the "redesigning the world" idea at least to me.
Also worth noting it was this generation that introduced "location based" evolution. Now I get they need to explain why all these old pokemon couldn't evolve this way before, but this is pretty stupid. Mostly because in order for the new evolution's to be in later games, those later games are going to have to feature similar "randomly magic areas" for no reason other than to allow for these pokemon, even if they dont thematically fit. (for example Nosepass would totally fit the theme and style of the Alola region....given that its based on a Polynesian statue, but the barren desert like caves used thematically for the spot where Nosepass evolves into Probopass really dont seem very tropical). The other new form of evolution, evolve by knowing a move, avoids this pitfall but then creates problem in logic when the pokemon in question could have learned that move in prior generations.
Its worth noting too that despite Gen V and VI having to force in these environments or keep the pokemon knowing that given move, that ALL but 1 the pokemon who need to fit one of these criteria to evolve originated in Gen 4. (the one exception is Slyveon). So yea I bet if Nintendo could take "one idea back" from pokemon it would be these new ways to evolve, as they dont seem to want to expand on them at all.
However the worst critism of the game has to be that I spent more hours choosing to play the underground mini games than the game itself....so thats a fail of a game.
9) Red/Blue
I gotta call it like I see it....these games suck. Dont get me wrong, at the time they came out there were clearly good games....just look at how they sold and the franchise they kicked off, but that doesnt change a ton of underlying problems. First the game was glitched to hell, I think there are literally near 100 well known glitches in Gen 1, such as Missingno, the Mew Glitch, statue fishing ect. Then there is the TON of sprites that dont look like the pokemon is supposed to. For example: Koffing.
8) Yellow
The only "4th Game" ever released by the company, yellow has a bit of a unique place here. It had a different and unique story than Red and Blue, and many many pokemon location changes, and even a couple new game mechanics as well. So it gets rated in its own spot.
Now some of these changes were pretty minor....for example actually allowing a pokemon to learn the move Kinesis which in red and blue was accidentally unlearnable by ANYONE. But others had (to me at least) a much bigger impact.....for example, actually (finally) getting the front sprites correct with the official artwork (Not so much the back ones though) so that mixed with the addition of color made the game much much more immersive. Plus hell as a kid who loved the anime, seeing the game kinda reflect that was pretty cool. And it introduced the rough framework of the friendship mechanic, which was kinda cool.
Course it wasnt all good. The same switch to basing on the anime hurt the game a bit too......you got stuck with a starter pokemon that couldnt evolve....how fucking useless. They also didnt help the games balance issue by removing Beedrill (the only pokemon who could use one of the 3 offensive bug moves, and the only one other than Jolteon (whos redudant to pikachu) who could use another.
Also on a personal note, Raichu and Beedrill were at the time two of my favorite pokemon...as was Koffing, who was also removed from the game....so yea, that didnt help the game win me over.
In short, this game gets higher marks than the originals because of the better immerision due to the sprite changes....but as it also still suffers all its predecessors weaknesses I cant put it any higher.
7) X/Y
Though it wasnt all bad. First off the obvious....the game looked freaking fantastic when compared to the ones that came before. Hell even counting the console games like Stadium and Coliseum, this is the best Pokemon have ever looked.
Also the Horde mode was a nice attempt to put a fresh coat of paint on the almost unchanged pokemon finding and battling mechanics. And the massive cut back of legendaries, to basically 1 in a game was appreciated by me at least, as the number of legendaries especially in the last two generations had gotten really freaking out of hand. Yes Mewtwo and Zygarde are easily obtainable....but at least they are post game. Also trainer customization was a cool idea that I hope returns in Sun and Moon.
Finally the fairy type was a welcome introduction, weakening the dominance of dragon while giving Poison types a reason to exist....its just a shame so many of the designs for new fairy type pokemon suck. And not to mention, one of the few actual fairy types, Slyveon has one of the most complicated criteria for evolving (from eevee) to date, though much of that is more a side effect it it being an eeveeoultion than a fairy type, but given that Slyveon seems to be intended as the poster child for the type having it be that difficult to get seems odd.
6) Black/White
To date, the only generation in the series in which I have yet to finish the game.....and honestly a lot of that is due to the fact Unova kinda sucks. I cant put my finger on exactly what it is, but the region seems a bit dull and boring. Also 2 of the 3 starters are in my opinion atrocious (Serperior for its insanely limited movepool, even by the standards of grass starters, and Samurott for being one of the ulgest starter final forms ever) and the final one Emboar being a way overdone type.....even if he is pretty cool to play and I actually prefer him to the other 2 fire/fighting starters. But yea, this region and its starters are so bad, I'm already technically on my second play through (with tepig) having quit the first time out after Snivy bored me to death. And thats actually kinda a problem though out, most of the new pokemon just kinda bored me (looking at you Stoutland, Unfezant and Basculin as well as all the ones on my least favorite pokemon list ) or came across as cheap knockoffs of existing pokemon put it only because the original one couldnt be used due to the "all new" gimmick (IE Swoobat/Crobat, Conkeldurr/Machamp, Gigalith/Golem, Musharna/Hypno Liepard/Mightyena ect) or even a couple that were clearly intended as evolutions to preexisting pokemon (Alomomola/Lovdisc, Bouffalant/Tauros). Oh and also, naming the main bad guy "N". WORST FREAKING NAME EVER, no inspiration or hidden meaning at all, bring back names like Giovanni, Archie, Cyrus ect. And just like the Generation before it, too damn many legendaries. Also why no rematches? Seriously this had been a feature in the last 3 gen's and it made the game fun and made leveling up a bit easier and less grindy. But for some reason it was removed, and not seen again until OR/AS
Though thats not to say it was all bad....most of the things this Gen innovated, it did well, making TM's reusable for example was a huge and welcome change....even for someone like me who doesnt play competitively. I was also a fan of the Dark Grass and Phenomenon gimmicks, which finally added some variety to the stale pokemon catching mechanic. Also, while many of the this gen's pokemon sucked, the ones that didnt were usually spectacular and with unique(ish) types, like Volcarona, Galvantula, Chandelure, Ferrothorn , Golurk, being some of my favorites.
And the whole having the Gym leaders actually exist in the outside world and trying to stop team Plasma thing was actually pretty cool, as were the Gym designs which finally became more that sightly different looking square rooms in this generation. Also appreciated was the elimination of the Pokemart as a stand alone building, making healing and resupply much easier, and I personally liked the new rotation battles as well.....I thought triples suck, but hey giving us more options is never a bad thing (espeically since I own black so I never have to do triples).
All in all, Pokemon Black and White dont really appeal to me.....but they arnt inherently "bad" games unlike the ones before it on this list, as most of its flaws are only things that I didnt like, not things that make it a poor game. So for me at least, having it center of the list seems like perfect placement.
One final note. To me Generation 5 actually looks worse graphically than Gen 4, the images are much more pixelated due the slight change in the zoom perspective. And to be honest that may be one of my major issues with this gen as well. It just doesnt look nice. However I didnt actually "grade" it on this criteria, as I play on a 3DS XL and the game was designed for the much smaller DS screen, and ive seen pcitures online where it doesnt look as bad, pictures I assume are taken on the original 3DS or DS screens. And it didnt seem fair to mark the game down for issues it has on a platform it wasnt designed for. That said, I do question why these games have this problem and the Gen 4 four game (soul silver) I've played on 3DS (as opposed to an emulator) does not. Now if it turns out I'm wrong about this, and B/W look worse than D/P/P on DS, then consider B/W and X/Y spots reversed. Cause yes I will downgrade a game for looking graphically worse for no discernible reason.
5) Gold/Silver/Crystal
Now that said Gen II make some big breakthroughs as well, mostly with the innovations of breeding and genders. It also has the greatest post game of any generation to date, with basically the entire original game available. And the day and night cycle and days of the week being introduced really seemed cool at the time.......though it did become a bit of a hassle when pokemon were only catchable at certain times of the day, luckily later generations removed that flaw. Also this was the generation that got the special split and even the first moving sprites with Crystal. It also formally introduced friendship/happyness evolution which I always though was pretty cool. Ditto with pokemon that evolve when traded....but only with items. It makes just a bit more sense than random traded evolution.
And unlike its Gen 1 predecessors the pokemon looked the way they were supposed to. In my mind this makes Gen 2 the first proper pokemon games, with Gen 1 serving more as a proof of concept.
4) Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
3) Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire
2) Fire Red/Leaf Green
Also, the VS finder in this game has to be the best the series ever had. No flying around to routes to find training who will fight you again (like OR/AS/R/S/E) no waiting for phone calls (like HG/SS/G/S/C) . You just walked around, saw some trainers...hit a button and boom either rematch or no rematch (in which case, walk 100 steps and try again) easy and fun.
And honestly theres not that much more to say about these games. They didnt add anything new to Pokemon that wasnt added by R/S/E. All they were was the perfected version of the original game, finally as great as out nostalgia googles had made it.
The only real flaw...the limited Kanto Dex. It was just a bit ridiculous that pokemon that had evolutions introduced in later generations, like Golbat, Onxy, Slowpoke, ect couldnt evolve into those new forms till after you beat the game.
In fact, following the success of Pokemon Go, if Nintendo were to make one more rerelease of these games, with the Physical/Special split in place....I think they would be the best pokemon game of all times.
But as it stands, they just barely arnt....that honor goes to our final game pair
1) Heart Gold/Soul Silver
It added to that a featuring missing since the days of Pokemon Yellow, and yet to be seen again, having ANY pokemon you want follow you around on the map. Which looks freaking amazing, and due to the new graphical style and ever expanding list of pokemon whos forms would have to be programmed into the games, seems unlikely to ever return.
And in an improvement over the previous remakes. the Johto Dex was expanded so most pokemon that picked up an evolution in a later game could actually evolve into that pokemon before beating the elite 4. (eevee's new glaceon and leafeon forms being a notable exception....probably because Gamefreak didnt want to try to retcon in areas that could have a Moss/Ice rock...stupid gen 4 evolution ideas). Also the expanded Pokedex meant while running around Kanto in the post game, youd fight trainers with Gen III or Sinnoh pokemon that you couldnt capture in the wild. Which meant you had to prep for pokemon you might be unfamilar with, and gave the game a "connected" feeling to the rest of the games (at the time) without making the game feel super crowed by trying to fit/retcon all 400 or so pokemon that existed into the wilds of Johto and Kanto.
And to be honest, even compared to the new 3d models...HG/SS graphics and sprites still hold up pretty well, I dont notice the "downgrade" when I play those games after a Gen 6 game....unlike Gen 5.
Now I dont believe in giving any game a perfect review....so ive been replaying my copy of SS looking for a few flaws......and well lets just say the only ones I've found is that you still cant fly from Johto to Kanto (or vice versa) without stopping at victory road, and you cant see the actual time without going off the default lower screen menu, which is kinda aggravating when your playing the game to kill time until a specific point in time. I dont like having to either change menus or keep my phone out to watch the time.
But yea, other than those two very minor flaws, its an amazing game, and if youve never played Pokemon before, this is the one you should play.
So there you have it folks....all the pokemon games expect Black 2 and White 2, laid out from best to worst, and just in time for Sun and Moon....and the future will see where they land on this list (though given how much they are departing from Pokemon's norms, standards, mechanics and traditions they seem destined for the top or bottom of most peoples lists depending on how the like the changes)
So this seems like a great time to see which of the other games did great and which flopped.
So with that in mind I'm ranking all the pokemon games from worst to best....well most of them anyways.
I've never played Black 2 and White 2, or the Japanese Red and Green, so they wont be included. Also "3rd versions" such as Emerald, Platinum and Crystal are so similar to their original paired games, they will be including in those games rankings. However Yellow is different enough from the american Red and Blue as to get its own spot, especially as it played on a different system (GB color as opposed to original Gameboy)
Lastly I chose to do this list by paired games and not by generations because it seemed to be the only fair way to handle the remakes, since they tend to get improvements over the earlier games of their generation and the positives (and sometimes negatives) of the game they are remaking, so they artificially inflate or deflate the ranking of the generations original games.
So with that out of the way here we go
10) Diamond/Pearl/Platinum
Also, the Sinnoh Starters are too date, the only group in which I actually really like all 3 of them, and think all 3 are useable (though I like what ive seen so far of all the Gen VII starters)
But thats pretty much it for the "upside" of these games, though to be fair the fact that there are no longer really any morning/night exclusive pokemon was a nice improvement to the day/night cycle mechanic since your no longer obligated to play at a specific time to get a specific monster.
The downsides of these 3 games are tremendous though. For starters most of the new pokemon are all kinds of bland and forgettable. In fact for me at least when I think of memorable pokemon in this generation they are all evolutions to existing lines (Leafeon, Magnezone, Togekiss, Weaville being the coolest) or starters (Torterra and Empoleon) with one single exception (Drapion).
Now as starters are supposed to be cool. and the other benefit from the popularity/history of their preevolved forms, this basically means all the "freshly created" pokemon for this generation suck.
And at some level, I think GameFreak kinda knew that. Just under a 1/3 of all the pokemon created for this generation are members of an existing evolutionary line Then there was the expansion of the Sinnoh dex added in Platinum...which mostly seemed designed to add less boring pokemon to the game.....yet it should be noted 18 of the 28 additions to existing pokemon (including 3 of the 4 I mentioned) were added here, and in fact except for Rotom and Giratina, all 46 added pokemon already existed/were preevolutions to the newly introduced forms.
Also, the type distribution sucked ass in this game too. Your fire types were limited to 1 pokemon, Ponyta, if you didnt pick the fire starter. Thats right, 1 single freaking pokemon.....for an established type....so yea hope you really like infernape if you want a fire type. I mean I get that has happened before, with dragon and ghost....but that was back in Gen 1, now their really isnt an excuse for that shit.
And oh yea, this is also the generation where GameFreak went a bit crazy on the legendaries/mthyical pokemon...having 14 of them added in this generation. In fact 40% of all legendaries that existed at the end of Generation 4 were introduced IN this gen.
Look I like Legendaries as much as the next person....but part of the idea is that these are super rare powerful pokemon....when you literally have more than enough to fill 2 different teams of pokemon, that means that they arnt that rare anymore.
And thats before we get to Arceus, AKA Pokemon God. Thats right you could in theory capture God a pokeball and have him fight for you....I may be an atheist, but even I think thats a stupid ass idea. Now at least to its credit Arceus WAS the most powerful pokemon at the time it was released...but still it was a stupid ass idea.
As far as plot goes.....team galactic was kinda forgettable. In platinum at least they were pretty menacing, mostly because they had backup plans after you foil their main plan but otherwise they were kinda forgettable. Though I did like the fact their plan kinda worked and the detonation of the bombs in the lakes was a nice touch. Though at the end of the day they were a bit hurt by the fact the idea of harnessing pokemon energy never really seemed to click with the "redesigning the world" idea at least to me.
Also worth noting it was this generation that introduced "location based" evolution. Now I get they need to explain why all these old pokemon couldn't evolve this way before, but this is pretty stupid. Mostly because in order for the new evolution's to be in later games, those later games are going to have to feature similar "randomly magic areas" for no reason other than to allow for these pokemon, even if they dont thematically fit. (for example Nosepass would totally fit the theme and style of the Alola region....given that its based on a Polynesian statue, but the barren desert like caves used thematically for the spot where Nosepass evolves into Probopass really dont seem very tropical). The other new form of evolution, evolve by knowing a move, avoids this pitfall but then creates problem in logic when the pokemon in question could have learned that move in prior generations.
Its worth noting too that despite Gen V and VI having to force in these environments or keep the pokemon knowing that given move, that ALL but 1 the pokemon who need to fit one of these criteria to evolve originated in Gen 4. (the one exception is Slyveon). So yea I bet if Nintendo could take "one idea back" from pokemon it would be these new ways to evolve, as they dont seem to want to expand on them at all.
However the worst critism of the game has to be that I spent more hours choosing to play the underground mini games than the game itself....so thats a fail of a game.
9) Red/Blue
equally bad was Exeggecutes oversized egg, Cloysters shell on wrong, or even stuff like Charmanders back spike...and thats just 4 of a ton of examples.
Furthermore the game mechanics were horrible.....a lot of moves were glitched...for example "Focus energy" decreased your chances for Critical hits (supposed to increase)....others were massive overpowered (Fire spin, Bind, Wrap, Clamp for example made it impossible for the trapped pokemon to attack for 2-5 turns) or just made no damn sense at all (Karate Chop and Gust were normal type moves). Then there was the whole massively overpowered psychic thing.....given that instead of being weak to ghost types as they have been in every generation since....not to mention the anime....they were immune to Ghost types, leaving Bug as the psychic types only weakness...and there were only 3 bug type damaging moves in the game....2 of which could only be learned by Beedrill (whose poison type made him weak to psychics) or Jolteon....in fact half the bug types learned NO bug moves at all.
Oh and yea, let us not forget that back then, Special Attack and Special Defense were the same stat....meaning Pokemon with a high special were both offensive and defensive powerhouses.
Or the fact that critical hits and ohko's were speed based...meaning faster pokemon did massive damage.....and honestly I'm still just scratching the surface here as to things that were horribly bad (especially in hindsight) about these games. Also consider that the Red and Blue that made their way's to america, were the "upgraded" and "improved" versions based on the Japanese Blue Version (which in Japan was the 3rd game that fixed problems in the original green and red)...and they STILL had this many problems
So yea, look they may have started the franchise....but damn they were ugly horrible glitchy wreck.
8) Yellow
Now some of these changes were pretty minor....for example actually allowing a pokemon to learn the move Kinesis which in red and blue was accidentally unlearnable by ANYONE. But others had (to me at least) a much bigger impact.....for example, actually (finally) getting the front sprites correct with the official artwork (Not so much the back ones though) so that mixed with the addition of color made the game much much more immersive. Plus hell as a kid who loved the anime, seeing the game kinda reflect that was pretty cool. And it introduced the rough framework of the friendship mechanic, which was kinda cool.
Course it wasnt all good. The same switch to basing on the anime hurt the game a bit too......you got stuck with a starter pokemon that couldnt evolve....how fucking useless. They also didnt help the games balance issue by removing Beedrill (the only pokemon who could use one of the 3 offensive bug moves, and the only one other than Jolteon (whos redudant to pikachu) who could use another.
Also on a personal note, Raichu and Beedrill were at the time two of my favorite pokemon...as was Koffing, who was also removed from the game....so yea, that didnt help the game win me over.
In short, this game gets higher marks than the originals because of the better immerision due to the sprite changes....but as it also still suffers all its predecessors weaknesses I cant put it any higher.
7) X/Y
Team Flare is for those who found Team Galactic too memorable......these guys are the most forgettable villains ever. It doesnt help that the Grunts and Admins are all "Being stylish and cool" as their main modivation and yet Lysandre is all "hey lets wipe out reality". The disconnect between those goals is kinda painful to play through and makes the team look like they have no real purpose other than to fill the need for a villain team in the game. It doesnt help that Elite Four member Malva is a member of team flare....or was, but that fact has literally no impact on game play or plot at all. Not to mention its a huge step back from Gen 5's active and participating in the world style gym leaders, to then having a member of the Elite Four being a member of a group that just tried to end existence as we know it.....and apparently no one has a problem with that. Like seriously how does that NOT get you bounced out of the elite four? And then as a personal pet peeve, as much as like the Kanto starters having one basically handed to you for no reason after beating the first gym was just stupid and reeked of fan service. Yes I realize older gen starters have been handed out before....but at the end of the game, when it actually felt like an accomplishment. (And even worse, had you chosen to participate in the XY Torchic event, you could have gotten basically 3 starters, 2 of them with mega stones, right at the beginning of the game. Admittedly as I hate Blaziken I didnt do this personally but still, that is WAY TOO MUCH fan service). Also they changed the XP share to make it way way way way way way too powerful seriously use the thing for like an hour and your team will be overleveled, and there is no way to switch it back...so if you do have a single underleveled pokemon, you either have to try to level it up the hard way (especially difficult near the end of the game) or OP everyone else.
Though it wasnt all bad. First off the obvious....the game looked freaking fantastic when compared to the ones that came before. Hell even counting the console games like Stadium and Coliseum, this is the best Pokemon have ever looked.
Also the Horde mode was a nice attempt to put a fresh coat of paint on the almost unchanged pokemon finding and battling mechanics. And the massive cut back of legendaries, to basically 1 in a game was appreciated by me at least, as the number of legendaries especially in the last two generations had gotten really freaking out of hand. Yes Mewtwo and Zygarde are easily obtainable....but at least they are post game. Also trainer customization was a cool idea that I hope returns in Sun and Moon.
Finally the fairy type was a welcome introduction, weakening the dominance of dragon while giving Poison types a reason to exist....its just a shame so many of the designs for new fairy type pokemon suck. And not to mention, one of the few actual fairy types, Slyveon has one of the most complicated criteria for evolving (from eevee) to date, though much of that is more a side effect it it being an eeveeoultion than a fairy type, but given that Slyveon seems to be intended as the poster child for the type having it be that difficult to get seems odd.
Though thats not to say it was all bad....most of the things this Gen innovated, it did well, making TM's reusable for example was a huge and welcome change....even for someone like me who doesnt play competitively. I was also a fan of the Dark Grass and Phenomenon gimmicks, which finally added some variety to the stale pokemon catching mechanic. Also, while many of the this gen's pokemon sucked, the ones that didnt were usually spectacular and with unique(ish) types, like Volcarona, Galvantula, Chandelure, Ferrothorn , Golurk, being some of my favorites.
And the whole having the Gym leaders actually exist in the outside world and trying to stop team Plasma thing was actually pretty cool, as were the Gym designs which finally became more that sightly different looking square rooms in this generation. Also appreciated was the elimination of the Pokemart as a stand alone building, making healing and resupply much easier, and I personally liked the new rotation battles as well.....I thought triples suck, but hey giving us more options is never a bad thing (espeically since I own black so I never have to do triples).
All in all, Pokemon Black and White dont really appeal to me.....but they arnt inherently "bad" games unlike the ones before it on this list, as most of its flaws are only things that I didnt like, not things that make it a poor game. So for me at least, having it center of the list seems like perfect placement.
One final note. To me Generation 5 actually looks worse graphically than Gen 4, the images are much more pixelated due the slight change in the zoom perspective. And to be honest that may be one of my major issues with this gen as well. It just doesnt look nice. However I didnt actually "grade" it on this criteria, as I play on a 3DS XL and the game was designed for the much smaller DS screen, and ive seen pcitures online where it doesnt look as bad, pictures I assume are taken on the original 3DS or DS screens. And it didnt seem fair to mark the game down for issues it has on a platform it wasnt designed for. That said, I do question why these games have this problem and the Gen 4 four game (soul silver) I've played on 3DS (as opposed to an emulator) does not. Now if it turns out I'm wrong about this, and B/W look worse than D/P/P on DS, then consider B/W and X/Y spots reversed. Cause yes I will downgrade a game for looking graphically worse for no discernible reason.
5) Gold/Silver/Crystal
The first real generation with color,, and with a ton of new pokemon, which at the time was a new concept, these games were pretty awesome. However like the Gen 1 games, they are held down a lot by their mechanics, the whole Male/Female thing being tied into strength IV with a lower strength needed for the pokemon to appear female for example. And while the game introduced 2 new types, with the exception of Ubreon none of the dark types were available until the post game.....and given that Dark was introduced to balance out the OP psychic this hurt the game a bit.
Now that said Gen II make some big breakthroughs as well, mostly with the innovations of breeding and genders. It also has the greatest post game of any generation to date, with basically the entire original game available. And the day and night cycle and days of the week being introduced really seemed cool at the time.......though it did become a bit of a hassle when pokemon were only catchable at certain times of the day, luckily later generations removed that flaw. Also this was the generation that got the special split and even the first moving sprites with Crystal. It also formally introduced friendship/happyness evolution which I always though was pretty cool. Ditto with pokemon that evolve when traded....but only with items. It makes just a bit more sense than random traded evolution.
And unlike its Gen 1 predecessors the pokemon looked the way they were supposed to. In my mind this makes Gen 2 the first proper pokemon games, with Gen 1 serving more as a proof of concept.
Its funny when these first came out, these were the games that "proved pokemon jumped the shark" but I actually believe over time they became seen as some of the best. First the graphical step up from Gen's 1 and 2 was impressive, and to me on par with the step up between gen's 5 and 6 as far as making the game look much better.
Second the story was actually pretty solid, and features the one villainous team I would actually be tempted to join, in Team Magma (I mean more land would seem like a solution to rising sea levels caused by climate change amirite?). Also personally I really liked the design of Hoenn, especially all the water routes. By originally providing you a boat to get past the early ones, then only giving you surf later, it gave just a bit of a non liner feel to the game since it was up to you when exactly to come back and get all the stuff and battles there. Also Watson to me is the only electric type gym leader who actually seems a threat, due to the fact they kept most of the ground types inaccessable till just after his gym....a nice switch from the usual "well we are approaching a water gym, so heres areas full of grass and electric types" thing that normally happens in pokemon.
Speaking of the gyms, they were the first that actually seemed to have some life with actual puzzles you had to solve, not just pathway mazes. I still remember brawly's gym and trying to get the lights on. And oh yea, the dual battle with the pair of gym leaders in the 7th gym was great. So even if, like me, you went into that gym with a dark type.....your other Pokemon would still take a pounding if you hadnt prepared more of them to fight that type. Great way to add strategy. That is something pokemon needs to do again, if for no other reason than to mix up the "boss battles" a bit.
Also having the different games have their own villainous team (even with basically the same goal) was a nice way to make each game feel unique. And given that Team Magma's goal actually makes some logical sense that also helped make the games feel different. (I dont think Team aquas did cause pretty sure less land and more water is bad for human....but they had the much cooler and better look)
In fact the only real downsides I see to these games is that they wound up existing before the physical special split made the game much more versatile and deeper.
And spoiler alert (though not really if youve been paying attention) these are the highest non remade games on the list.
Second the story was actually pretty solid, and features the one villainous team I would actually be tempted to join, in Team Magma (I mean more land would seem like a solution to rising sea levels caused by climate change amirite?). Also personally I really liked the design of Hoenn, especially all the water routes. By originally providing you a boat to get past the early ones, then only giving you surf later, it gave just a bit of a non liner feel to the game since it was up to you when exactly to come back and get all the stuff and battles there. Also Watson to me is the only electric type gym leader who actually seems a threat, due to the fact they kept most of the ground types inaccessable till just after his gym....a nice switch from the usual "well we are approaching a water gym, so heres areas full of grass and electric types" thing that normally happens in pokemon.
Speaking of the gyms, they were the first that actually seemed to have some life with actual puzzles you had to solve, not just pathway mazes. I still remember brawly's gym and trying to get the lights on. And oh yea, the dual battle with the pair of gym leaders in the 7th gym was great. So even if, like me, you went into that gym with a dark type.....your other Pokemon would still take a pounding if you hadnt prepared more of them to fight that type. Great way to add strategy. That is something pokemon needs to do again, if for no other reason than to mix up the "boss battles" a bit.
Also having the different games have their own villainous team (even with basically the same goal) was a nice way to make each game feel unique. And given that Team Magma's goal actually makes some logical sense that also helped make the games feel different. (I dont think Team aquas did cause pretty sure less land and more water is bad for human....but they had the much cooler and better look)
In fact the only real downsides I see to these games is that they wound up existing before the physical special split made the game much more versatile and deeper.
And spoiler alert (though not really if youve been paying attention) these are the highest non remade games on the list.
Now the review above feeds in real nicely to the next entry, the Generation 3 remakes. Cause they fixed that one major downside I mentioned. They also introduced the new sneaking mechanic, used to catch russling pokemen (AKA the phenomenon mechanic from gen 5), except this time the more times you encounter a pokemon the more information you'll get before battling it, including seeing it if has good IVs or even is hidden ability or special egg moves. And then of course it reworked the flying mechanic with the mirage islands....which also means you can land anywhere and dont need a pokemon with fly in your party anymore. Also the new underwater trainer classes were cool. And then Delta Episode is fun and a nice "post game" second only to Gold/Silver. So yea, take all those, add it to everything good I said about their originals, and the massively improved graphics of Gen 6 and you have a game with great upside.s
However, the remakes do suffer from one problem their predecessors didn't. it's part of Gen 6, which means its part of the fan service generation (how I think of Gen 6), so your going to get handed a lot of really powerful and rare things really easily. This time out you dont get a second starter handed to you just cause......not this time, pretty early on, you get a legendary. And a Mega Stone for that legendary, just cause. And you also get the Mega bracelet needed to use that Mega Stone. And if youve been paying attention, you probably have a few other Mega stones by now And thats the other problem....with the new mega forms and stones introduced, its kinda overused right now. In my first run of X I had 1 Pokemon that I could mega evolve.....in Omega Ruby, I have 4. And i could have a full team of 6 with just replacing a few team members with pokemon I already have, and already have the stones for.
So yea, I kinda liked mega evolution when it was first introduced in X and Y, but I think after how common it became in ORAS, I'm over it. Though at least ORAS improved on the early giveaway by making it Glalie this time and not a starter.....though I still think the demo giveways hurt the game overall by making them too easy.
However, the remakes do suffer from one problem their predecessors didn't. it's part of Gen 6, which means its part of the fan service generation (how I think of Gen 6), so your going to get handed a lot of really powerful and rare things really easily. This time out you dont get a second starter handed to you just cause......not this time, pretty early on, you get a legendary. And a Mega Stone for that legendary, just cause. And you also get the Mega bracelet needed to use that Mega Stone. And if youve been paying attention, you probably have a few other Mega stones by now And thats the other problem....with the new mega forms and stones introduced, its kinda overused right now. In my first run of X I had 1 Pokemon that I could mega evolve.....in Omega Ruby, I have 4. And i could have a full team of 6 with just replacing a few team members with pokemon I already have, and already have the stones for.
So yea, I kinda liked mega evolution when it was first introduced in X and Y, but I think after how common it became in ORAS, I'm over it. Though at least ORAS improved on the early giveaway by making it Glalie this time and not a starter.....though I still think the demo giveways hurt the game overall by making them too easy.
Now you may have noticed when I was talking about the original Red/Blue I basically listed them as low as I did because of the mechanical/graphical issues. Well by the time Gen 3 rolled around, pretty much all of those had been fixed. So to my mind, this is the definitive version of Kanto, and this is the game we all wanted to be playing when we were playing Red or Blue back in the day.
Also, the VS finder in this game has to be the best the series ever had. No flying around to routes to find training who will fight you again (like OR/AS/R/S/E) no waiting for phone calls (like HG/SS/G/S/C) . You just walked around, saw some trainers...hit a button and boom either rematch or no rematch (in which case, walk 100 steps and try again) easy and fun.
And honestly theres not that much more to say about these games. They didnt add anything new to Pokemon that wasnt added by R/S/E. All they were was the perfected version of the original game, finally as great as out nostalgia googles had made it.
The only real flaw...the limited Kanto Dex. It was just a bit ridiculous that pokemon that had evolutions introduced in later generations, like Golbat, Onxy, Slowpoke, ect couldnt evolve into those new forms till after you beat the game.
In fact, following the success of Pokemon Go, if Nintendo were to make one more rerelease of these games, with the Physical/Special split in place....I think they would be the best pokemon game of all times.
But as it stands, they just barely arnt....that honor goes to our final game pair
So yea, the greatest pokemon games of all time...by far. Basically these games took everything Generation II did right, including the Kanto post game, AND everything Gen IV did right, including the more unique looking gyms, the Physical Special split, and a more balanced day/night cycle, and of course improved graphics.
It added to that a featuring missing since the days of Pokemon Yellow, and yet to be seen again, having ANY pokemon you want follow you around on the map. Which looks freaking amazing, and due to the new graphical style and ever expanding list of pokemon whos forms would have to be programmed into the games, seems unlikely to ever return.
And in an improvement over the previous remakes. the Johto Dex was expanded so most pokemon that picked up an evolution in a later game could actually evolve into that pokemon before beating the elite 4. (eevee's new glaceon and leafeon forms being a notable exception....probably because Gamefreak didnt want to try to retcon in areas that could have a Moss/Ice rock...stupid gen 4 evolution ideas). Also the expanded Pokedex meant while running around Kanto in the post game, youd fight trainers with Gen III or Sinnoh pokemon that you couldnt capture in the wild. Which meant you had to prep for pokemon you might be unfamilar with, and gave the game a "connected" feeling to the rest of the games (at the time) without making the game feel super crowed by trying to fit/retcon all 400 or so pokemon that existed into the wilds of Johto and Kanto.
And to be honest, even compared to the new 3d models...HG/SS graphics and sprites still hold up pretty well, I dont notice the "downgrade" when I play those games after a Gen 6 game....unlike Gen 5.
Now I dont believe in giving any game a perfect review....so ive been replaying my copy of SS looking for a few flaws......and well lets just say the only ones I've found is that you still cant fly from Johto to Kanto (or vice versa) without stopping at victory road, and you cant see the actual time without going off the default lower screen menu, which is kinda aggravating when your playing the game to kill time until a specific point in time. I dont like having to either change menus or keep my phone out to watch the time.
But yea, other than those two very minor flaws, its an amazing game, and if youve never played Pokemon before, this is the one you should play.
So there you have it folks....all the pokemon games expect Black 2 and White 2, laid out from best to worst, and just in time for Sun and Moon....and the future will see where they land on this list (though given how much they are departing from Pokemon's norms, standards, mechanics and traditions they seem destined for the top or bottom of most peoples lists depending on how the like the changes)
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