form red to gold

.storing items such as healing items,Poké Balls, and key items in separate compartments

.updated battle screen showed how much experience points a Pokémon had until its next level and whether or not an encountered wild Pokémon's species has already been captured

.ability to hold items

.A time system was also introduced

.introduced the concept of evolution by methods other than leveling, using an evolutionary stone, or trading.

.Breeding

.gender

.Shiny Pokémon

.Pokérus

.2 new types

.splitting of the Special stat into Special Attack and Special Defense

gold to ruby

.Pokémon Contests

.A separate icon for each Pokémon

.Double battles

.Weather effects

ruby to pearl

.A new battle system is used for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. In this new battle system, attacks are declared either physical or special by how the attack itself operates


there have been some major changes in the game but the formula as the old ones how ever if you don't think there not fun any more that's ok

I totally agree with the OP and with student.

I couldn't even bother finishing Diamond, i stopped at 7 badges. Now let's hope Platinum is better at keeping my interest.

Wow who knew giving bullet seed to Scizor would change the metagame?

There is some kind of magic to the game that keeps me coming back for more. Except for Ruby and Sapphire they were just downright ugly. I find it to be a good formula. I am always eager to get my new starter. Trading with friends to get a trade bonus. Leveling up to great ready for the first gym. Traveling through to own everyone. To me the adventure is still fun. I just wish the post adventure was fun. To me at that point it is just a bunch of tedious work, EV training, breeding, team setup, movesets and so on.

I think Pokemon changes just enough to keep the game interesting. Not to mention the game appeals to competitive and casual side.

I'm going to put the next sentence in big letters.

Pokemon is not made for you.

Do you understand the meaning of that?  Not.  For.  You. 

Pokemon was magical when you first played it but guess what, today there are hundreds of children who are playing it for the first time.  To them, the latest Pokemon game might be the most amazing thing ever and give them hours of joy just like it did for you.

Nintendo isn't still making the games for the people who have played the last 7 of them and done the whole catch'em'all thing half a dozen times.  Nintendo is still making the games for the large piles of money they make with them... and the children who have yet to enjoy the series as you have.

I like your use of the word "hundreds" here, as an understatement it's so staggering it almost can't be intentional.

But yeah, Pokemon really is for two kinds of people: those who haven't played it, and those who know what to expect and don't mind a bit.

I liked Silver the best.

I beat FireRed...but never played any others after that.

The series just got boring and unnecessary to me, but I do have my eyes on that Platinum.......

For a start, they should start giving out the older "legendary" Pokemon (e.g. Mew) as downloads for Nintendo Points. It's a bit lame that for most people, there is a gap between No. 150 and No.152 even when we have nearly 500 Pokemon!

I know I'm chiming in a little late with this one, but...

I'm another one of those really long term pokemon players, who watched the series evolve from the good singleplayer but unbalanced multiplayer incarnation of the Red/Blue/Yellow generation (hell, I even remember when it was called the chromatic generation), to the unbalanced singleplayer but good multiplayer incarnation of the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. My concern with the series is, the team design just doesn't feel elegant anymore. I'm of the opinion that the elegance of team planning peaked with the second generation, when the overpowered psychics were balanced out by the special split and the introduction of dark types. After that, things just got needlessly complex. For example, one of the changes between the third and fourth generations was that every individual move can now be categorized as either physical or special, while they used to be categorized by their elemental type. At some points, the classifications feel pretty arbitrary, and I find you have to memorize too many possibilities, which leads to a general sense of frustration and information overload.

The best thing Nintendo could do with the Pokemon series, I feel, is to take the series down a tangent with the combat mechanics and try to build a simpler, more elegant system where you can focus on the big picture in team planning, where the strength of your overall strategy is more important than memorizing very specific tactics like electric baiting with a Gyarados and an Electivire.

Im a big Pokemon fan and have played nearly every Pokemon game out. I played Pokemon Yellow for the first time and it was the best thing I had ever played. But now it is getting old and I also have no interest in Platinum.

But I still enjoy the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.

Yeah, I've just about given up on Pokémon too. Back when Blue came out, I played the hell out that game, same with Yellow. Then Gold, that was sweet too, and I played that to death as well. Then, Sapphire. Never even got any of my Pokémon higher than Lv60 or something, and I stopped playing shortly after beating the Elite 4. Diamond I hesitated to buy, but I did eventually, last year. I have yet to finish it, I think I'm somewhere on the way to the Elite 4 or something.

I dunno, it just got old. There's an absolutely horrendously large amount of things to do, what with all the trading and berries and bows and contests en secret hideouts and mining and training and breeding Pokémon and all those other things... but to me, they just feel like useless wastes of time and effort, not worth pursuing. If you strip all that away, it's still the same game we got over a decade ago: You're a young trainer, start in a small town, get a pick of 3 Pokémon, always Fire/Water/Grass. Make your away throughout the land, beating Gym Leaders, collecting 8 badges, then march down the maze that is Victory Road and face the Elite 4, beat 'em and face your rival, who's the old friend from your hometown whom you've faced a few times during the game. There's an evil Team of bad guys. You collect HMs to get past obstacles. There are some very rare Pokémon, and 1 uber rare Pokémon that you'll catch with a Masterball. *Yawn* It's been done so many times now, it's tiring, really.

Also I think, for newcomers, the games may be overly complicated and confusing, there are so many little things (that don't really add much to the gameplay, but complicate things nevertheless). The berry growing and -mixing, the breeding (that could be a game in and of itself :s), the contests, the storing mechanisms, the fighting, battle strategies, puzzles, Pokédex, Poké Apps, all those different HMs and TMs and Pokéballs and all those other items, the Pokémon natures and characteristics, the Stat boosters like Iron and Zinc, the secret bases, the trading and linking, the mining... the list goes on. For players new to the series, who are most likely younger kids, I'm sure it's all rather overwhelming. I know it is for me, even I get confused sometimes when playing Diamond, and I've been playing Pokémon for hundreds of hours since the very beginning. I'd honestly rather Play Blue or Gold than Diamond or Pearl...

IMHO, it's high time Gamefreak made some changes. Some drastic ones, too. There are so many things that could've been changed for the better ages ago, yet with every new incarnation of the series, we end up with the same game with some added bells and whistles. It's kind of baffling, really.