I think it's one of those series that gets better with each instalment personally. But if I had to pick one: Pokemon Yellow. I really enjoyed having Pikachu follow me everywhere.

While I agree Ru/S was a decent game, I just can't put it ahead of R/B/G/Y. In my experience, I just didn't enjoy it as much as the originals. I did like the improved graphics, abilities, and the berries, but other than that, it really didn't do anything for me.

I completely forgot about Battle Revolution! i absolutely loooooved that game. It's not comparable to the gameboy games though, and I wouldn't know how to rate them against the gameboy games anyway.

Admittedly I've never played Gale of Darkness. Is it any good?

I just can't stand some of the pokemon that they came up with for the 3rd and 4th seasons. I didn't even really like what I saw for gold and silver, but some grew on me. but it's like I liked 100% of the R/B/G/Y pokemon, I liked about 75% of the G/S/C pokemon, 50% of the R/S/E pokemon and only 25% of the D/P/P set.
I personally would have preferred that they have about half the number of new pokemon with each release, and bring back more of the older pokemon to fill in the spaces.

And the worst part is how closely they follow the same formula. Every pokemon series has to have it's own Mew, it's own Mewtwo, it's own Legendary birds, it's own Gyrados. It's own 3 starter set which is ALWAYS FIRE, WATER, GRASS (could we PLEASE get some OTHER rock paper scissors variant?) It's own ratata, pidgeoto, aerodactle, kabutops, omastar, and dragonite, and its own set of eevees.

When it was Red and Blue, it still felt like a fresh game with some sort of purpose, now the series just feels like a grind heavy collection game, with a few trick ponies and some better graphics to set it above its predecessor. That's why I say blue is the best. (everyone had red, only the cool kids had blue)

So u really enjoy pikachu sniffing ur butt all the time xD

I agree with everything that you've said, especially the bolded part. 

Here's my ranking for the handheld Pokemon games, along with reasons for placement:

8)Emerald-- Too much retread, not enough changes...

7)Yellow-- See reasons for Emerald...

6)Ruby/Sapphire-- A lousy start to a lousy generation of Pokemon games...

5)FireRed/LeafGreen-- It felt just fresh enough not to make the bottom of the barrel...

4)Red/Blue-- Only because the original HAS to rank higher than the remakes...

3)Crystal-- Not as good as my number 1, but it kept things fresh...

2)Diamond/Pearl-- Impossible level of fan service and breakthrough features, but none of it would be possible without...

1)Gold/Silver-- What can I say, the Rival character was so deliciously conflicted that his monologue is the only one whose localization would need no ridiculous man hours to update if a remake is to be made...

Gold/Silver did have the best rival. He freaking stole his starter.. that's badass. Also he's Giovanni's son. Also if you consider Wally your rival in R/S, I just found him obnoxious and depressing at times and I'm sure that D/P's had ADHD.. If you consider May/Brendan your rival, I didn't like the fact that you couldn't battle her/him with using full evolved Pokemon. The last battle seemed too early.

"Gary" is cool but what I did like about him was that he seemed to inappropriately outclass you in everything(he caught more Pokemon than you even though you couldn't possibly catch that many at the point in the game).. he was even the Champion.. Also he was smug as hell but I guess that comes with "being the best."

Also at Grey Acuman.. how could you like 100% of the Pokemon in R/B.. I personally hated Vileplume, Seel, Weepinbell, and Mankey..

yellow

Yeah, I agree with most of what you said, except for the part about Wally being "obnoxious", although I'll admit his use of Ralts as a "starter" seems pretty lame... I mean, have you tried battling with a freshly caught Ralts in your opening salvo in R/S/E... Bait-and-switch is pretty much all you can do...

And may I extrapolate (sp?) on the subject of Silver? (yeah, I'm one of those people who calls the player character of G/S "Gold" and his rival "Silver", problem?) There was no rival as complex as he was before or since. The boy was one you either felt incredibly sorry for, or simply loved to hate... Where do I stand on the issue? He certainly had my pity from day one... The guy constantly lashed out at the world he lived in. Which reminds me: you mentioned that you thought that Barry had ADHD... Well, personally I think all the rivals had some sort of complex...

In chronological order in terms of storyline (or what I believe is the storyline, you may certainly try to correct me):

May/Brendan: Social Awkwardness.

Wally: Victim Complex.

Gary/Blue: Blatantly Monomaniacal.

Barry: ADHD, like you said.

Silver/???: Anger Issues, like I implied.

Any response to that?

pokemon RED, i lost friends over that game!