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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - With Gen 8 around the corner, Rank all the mainline Pokemon games/generations!

Pokemon generation 8 for Switch is right around the corner, and is likely to be revealed in the coming weeks, for a holiday rele

Now that gen 7 is drawing to a close, Rank all the mainline pokemon titles/generations and explain why.

edit: I accidently hit submit without completing the OP, but whatever now. I'll put my list up in some time.




Bet with Intrinsic:

The Switch will outsell 3DS (based on VGchartz numbers), according to me, while Intrinsic thinks the opposite will hold true. One month avatar control for the loser's avatar.

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From Top to Bottom:

Gen 5 - Black/White; Black/White 2
Gen 2 - Gold/Silver; Crystal
Gen 7 - Sun/Moon; Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon; Let’s Go
Gen 6 - X/Y; OR/AS
Gen 3 - Ruby/Sapphire; Emerald; FR/LG
Gen 4 - Diamond/Pearl; Platinum; HG/SS
Gen 1 - Red/Blue; Yellow

Last edited by PAOerfulone - on 18 February 2019

Black/White
Gold/Silver
Diamond/Pearl
Sun/Moon
Red/Blue
X/Y
Ruby/Sapphire

FireRed/LeafGreen 
HeartGold/SoulSilver
Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire




Gen 5 - If you don't agree you really don't have taste
Gen 4 - Especially for SS/HG
Gen 3 - nothing to say, was great.
Gen 7 - Liked it at first but felt lazy after a while
Gen 2 - Great but overrated from nostalgia
Gen 1 - Great but also overrated.
Gen 6 - Only thing i liked was the outfits rest needs to go to trash



1. Black / White
After Gen 4 allowed GameFreak to become familiar with the Nintendo DS, Gen V entered the scene and delivered a near flawless Pokemon experience. More new pokemon were introduced in these games than any other while no previous pokemon returned, and this was also the first generation to not have any references to previous regions, giving it a stronger sense of identity. So many areas of the game's overworld have unique and memorable visuals, and each area feels alive and full of life. Your rivals in addition to N also made for some of the most well written characters weve had in the series. and you can not deny that Black / White had the best story of any generation. It supposedly took them two years just to write the dialog script for these games, and it shows. but my overall favorite feature was the Entralink, and being able to send your character to your friend's game and interact with them. It was overlooked by many, and ironically is a feature a lot of people seem to beg for in the recent entries.

2. X / Y
These games felt more like a series reboot than anything else, and I was okay with that. These games just seemed to take a step back, bring a new dimension to the pokemon series, and focus on just making the game accessible to all players old and new. The introduction of the Fairy type and some changes to the type chart also brought a lot of much needed balance to the games. Mega evolution was fun until they decided to try and forget it existed. And not to mention it also brought the introduction of the Pokemon Timeline, and canonized that some games take place in a universe where Mega evolution never existed, while others do.

3. Sun / Moon
These games just took the entire Pokemon formula, threw out half of it, and did who-knows-what to fill in the gaps. We got the introduction of Ultra Beasts, being creatures that arent even pokemon but still behave as them. Z-Moves were introduced as a simplified form of Mega evolution, which i was not a fan of. This game also had a pretty good story to it, with the whole mystery of the Aether Foundation and the main villain team being nothing more than a group of thugs. There were also no gyms, and instead had island trials, which were a bit lackluster to me, but still an appreciated change of pace.

4. Diamond / Pearl
these games were so sloooooow. These are the only games to be limited to 30 fps while all the others run at a smooth 60, not to mention the animations take up about thrice the time as other entries. These games also had more HMs than any other games, and was the only one where I felt obligated to have an HM slave just to make progressing a bit easier. But one thing I really did like were the starter pokemon. Empoleon and Torterra both have some of the best designs to date and both have exclusive type combos. Infernape on the other hand did not, but it is still a cool design.

5. Gold / Silver
These games suffer fro ma serious case of bad pacing. Everything runs smooth up until you get your fourth badge, and then from the 5th onward its just rapid fire badge collecting until you have them all. I have heard the argument that a lot of main flaws of the game only exist today because they were designed for connecting with your friends, which was only prominent when the games were first released. Thats fine, but it still doesnt help me enjoy the game. I love that the entire Kanto region is also available after beating the Elite Four, making this the best post game content in any game. But a weak story on top of bad pacing, and reaching the initial end of game around level 45 just isnt my cup of tea.

6. Sapphire / Ruby
I just wasnt a fan of these, and thats no ones fault but my own. I just cant get into the region, or find any real sentimental value in the story of characters. It also doesnt help that with ORAS, the games were dumbed down and removed a lot of the personality of the games, meaning there will never really be a definite version of these games. But really thats all I have to say. By no means are these bad, but they simply did not resonate with me.

7. Red / Blue
There are so many features that just were not introduced in the first games that it almost makes them unplayable. sure, its enjoyable to see how different it was, and that Gen 1 music is some of the best, but these games simply did not age well.



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From Best to Worst:

Gen III - Magnificence in video game form
Gen II - Great
Gen V - So unique and so underrated
Gen I - Great but really hard to go back to.
Gen IV - Slow and overrated, but still good
Gen VI - Disappointing overall, but I love ORAS so...
Gen VII - Very disappointing overall

Needless to say, considering my views on the last two gens I'm not very excited for Gen VIII



Overall:

Base games:
B2W2>Ruby/Sapphire>Gold/Silver>Black/White>Red/Blue>Diamond/Pearl>X/Y>S/M

Third games:
Emerald>Crystal>Platinum>Yellow>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>USUM

Remakes:

HGSS>ORAS>FRLG>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Let's Go

Spin offs:
Mystery Dungeon Explorers>Colosseum>Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team>XD>Conquest>Snap>Pinball

Soundtrack:
Gen 3>4>5>1>2>>6>>>>>7

Art style
Gen 3>5>4>2>1>6>>>7

Pokemon themselves:
Gen 3>7>2>1>5>>6>>>4(I still love you though Chatot, Shinx line, Starly line, Bidoof and Palkia)

As a whole:
Gen 3>5>4>2>1>>>>>>>>6>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>7

Gen 3/5 are by far the best, I enjoy 1/2/4, but 6/7 have been disappointment after disappointment. I hope 4 gets a good remake, I love the aesthetic, the music and the region, but the engine it ran on was awful and really ruins a great game imo.

Last edited by RingoGaSuki - on 19 February 2019

Gen 5 - Black/White/Black2/White 2
Great pokemon variety, great stories and characters, great gameplay, great region... While it's not very innovative, it perfected the previous elements that made Pokemon great. The only bad thing is that they started taking features from the games from this game forward.

Gen 2 - Gold/Silver/Crystal
The best jump forward the series has ever had. The updated GS game (HG/SS) is still objectively the best game of the series. No real bad things other than its age making the features it lacks obvious.

Gen 3 - Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
A classic in all senses of the word, it's basically the standard all other generations should measure themselves with. It pushed the gameplay forward the most with so many additions.

Gen 6 -X/Y
Great, solid games with not that many things added to them. Megaevolutions are nice, but the story and characters are weak. At least streamlined the combat and added fairy typing to solve the dragon metagame, and also ended the weather wars. And Pokemon Amie is always nice to tinker around.

Gen 1 - Red/Blue/Yellow
The original titles, they've aged quite poorly, but they are still solid games on their own. You just need a good pair of nostalgia googles and you're good to go. And if you want something better, play the Gen 3 remakes. Ignore Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, those solve nothing.

Gen 4 - Diamond/Pearl/Platinum
Weak region and new designs, a confusing region and a story that needed the Platinum update to streamline and make sense of. The slowest games of the series up until that point. At least it had a decent level of challenge, it has the best Elite 4 to date.

Gen 7 - Sun/Moon/US/UM
The amount of handholding this games bring to the series has become an incredibly sore point for me, and that combined with the really small region with little to no thing to explore, a ridiculously low level of diffiulty and features that should really be there at this point, makes this games a chore. And the updated re-releases fixed nothing! For all the faults of Gen 4, Platinum fixed a lot of stuff, US and UM did nothing. Regional variants and mega attacks are not going to cut it when so much has been left to the side.



You know it deserves the GOTY.

Come join The 2018 Obscure Game Monthly Review Thread.

Edit - Double Post



1 - Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow/Fire Red/Leaf Green/Let's Go

2 - Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

3 - Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire

4 - Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal/Heart Gold/Soul Silver

5 - Pokemon Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon

6 - Pokemon X/Y

7 - Pokemon Black/White/Black 2/White 2

 

 

To be fair though, there really isn't any Pokemon game I haven't liked. I just liked some better than others.