These games are really hard to rate because I love them so much. The only ones I can say are actually bad games are Gen 1, and that's only because they're so outdated and glitchy.
After making my way to, what I assume is, around half-way through Sun and Moon (I've just got to the third island), I'm already tempted to place it on top. The game has so much personality, a great selection of Pokemon, and I love the island trials. My main complaints would be that the game is needlessly text-heavy early on, and that it has been fairly linear (although very few Pokemon games haven't been, to be fair).
I am insanely glad my gen seven hype paid off. I had so much fun playing Sun that I am buying Moon and having both versions for the first time since gen three. Soul Silver is still my toppy tops but Sun is a lot of fun and does have my favorite moment/event from any of the games when Solgaleo makes its appearance.
Game(s) right now: Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon, World of Final Fantasy Maxima
@gizmoto Sun and Moon are ok, some people like them a lot, but others not as much. To me Sun and Moon are really lacking in a lot of areas that keep me playing Pokemon. I am more excited to return to Omega Ruby than I am to continue through Sun. I am forcing myself to finish Sun before I go back to OR.
People keep saying the Xbox One doesn't have Backwards Compatibility.
I don't think they know what Backwards Compatibility means...
@gizmoto Well.. there was Pokémon Stadium 1 and 2 along with Pokémon Snap. Are any of those the one you are thinking of?
Personally, I find Sun and Moon comparable with Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. I haven't beaten Sun yet, and it's been a while since I've played Black 2 (unfortunately), but I expect Sun and Moon to be either 3rd or 4th on my list.
"You feel it? Fawful is also feeling it! I am needing to feel it even more, though!" - The magnificent Fawful
I'm just going to pair up originals with their remakes to make it simple. I'm basing this list on their impact at the time of release and how they stand up currently.
BW are easily the worst main games in the series, indisputably. The story was hyped up to be something worthwhile, and it was still terrible, and it didn't add a whole of good things to the series (hidden abilities that had to be obtained through those awful computer games, generally not a great crop of Pokemon design-wise). They just generally felt pretty flat and uninspired. Also, gen V ruined online battling with the random Pokemon restrictions that it had set in place. Reusable TMs made up for that some, but not enough. The sequels, however, need to get a lot of credit for being the first games since Gen II to include Pokemon from previous generations available en mass before reaching the Elite Four. Having that kind of variety on story play throughs makes team building for the story really fun.
Gen III suffered a bit to me from just generally being pretty dull. I've replayed Emerald a ton, but something about Gen III just isn't all that exciting. ORAS fixed a ton of problems that the older games had, but the progression was a little off (you're freely GIVEN a Latio/as? midway through the game?). Removing the day/night mechanic was a pretty negative game changer at the time. Also, way too much water. The addition of abilities and natures cannot be understated though, and Gen III's Pokemon were some of the most prevalent in the competitive scene.
XY should get credit for getting basically everything right from the start. My only real complaint is that the number of new Pokemon was pretty low, especially with the addition of the new Fairy type (even with retroactive changes to older Pokemon, there could have been a couple more). My biggest problem with XY was mostly that the post-game might be the worst in the series outside of RBY, which is saying a lot. I also don't care for mega evolutions because of how they were handled. Many of the Pokemon that needed them didn't get enough of a boost to become viable, and the ones that got a mega often didn't need one in the first place. I liked the idea, but it had a pretty terrible implementation in terms of how much further competitive balancing was thrown out of place.
DPPt basically have a placeholder as a top 3 series release simply because of the addition of online play, and in getting it right the first time. The story/playthrough experience is arguably 2nd worst, obviously still better than BW but comparable to Gen III, which holds it back. Also, Gen IV's dex is poorly balanced for the story mode because of the terrible Pokemon variety pre-E4 and excessive emphasis on giving old Pokemon evolutions. Platinum also did very little as a remake to make it worth a purchase over either of DP. That said, the Poketech was fantastically useful and should have never gone away, and otherwise did so much else right to streamline the series to make online battling and trading easy to accomplish.
Gen I has to get credit for being the original. Sure, they're dated, glitchy, and have awful balancing but at least these games managed to actually have some personality. Those original sprites were just so grotesque and different, and while the designs were simple they were (mostly) excellent. Voltorb aside, the original collection is still one of the most varied and unique in the series (SM withstanding). Managing to exeggcute the concept that Pokemon was attempting to so effectively can't be ignored. These games started a phenomenon. The remakes are certainly more playable, even if the Sevii Island section isn't terribly fun, but I don't think they really added much to improve on one of Gen I's biggest flaws in the lack of post game stuff, especially since there's no online.
Gen II is just hands down the most complete. Pokemon variety, side quests, introduction of day/night/week cycles, the best story mode in the series with the longest post-game in the series... Gen II was easily the best at time of release of any set of games. The remakes managed to maintain the nostalgia of the old games while introducing the newer mechanics seamlessly into perhaps the definitive releases in the series (although I still prefer Crystal version). Gen II just introduced so many new mechanics while cleaning up basically every problem that Gen I had.
I didn't rank Sun and Moon because I haven't finished my playthrough yet, but I have to say that I'm really impressed. I've learned not to expect anything from a Pokemon story because these are kids games, so I don't factor the actual story quality unless it's both overly involving and terrible (like BW), so SM is safe there so far. Everything else though is excellent, from the new Pokemon, to the trials adding interesting twists to the normal story progression (although I really miss gyms...), there's a ton of things that SM is doing right. I'm tempted to put them above DPPt, but I'd have to see how the later half of the game goes. I don't care for Z moves (they're just another gimmick like mega-evos, and they make story playthroughs a little too easy). Alola versions of Pokemon are definitely cool, and I'm hoping this becomes a trend for future games for a ton of reasons, one being that you get extra Pokemon variety without having to extend the already massive Pokedex.
(As far as the main series games go) I'm probably going to tread on some toes and say Generations 4 and 5 were the peak of Pokemon, for me at least. Especially Gen 5.
I don't really know how to put it into words but there's something about the Unova games that feel special. People dislike a lot of the designs, and while they are some horrible ones (Those monkeys come to mind), some of my favorite Pokemon were also introduced. Maybe it's because bug Pokemon are my favorite, and Gen 5 gave that type a lot of love so I might be sort of biased in that department!
I'll probably write up a longer post one day explaining in depth why I like the music, story, characters and region from Gen 5 the best but for now I'll just leave it at that. I know and understand why a lot of people dislike them, especially BW, but I respectfully disagree when people say it's the worst. I think, for the time of their release, DP were far more flawed. And RBY doesn't have a lot to offer for the fans who didn't grow up with it nowadays.
@nf_2 as you can probably tell I don't share your opinions regarding Gen 5 but I definitely agree about Gen 3 being rather dull. It's weird because I've played through Emerald more than any other Pokemon game, and I'm starting to like Hoenn less and less as time goes on.
@PotatoTheGreat I agree, Gens 4 and 5 were the peak for me as well. Although I have never played Pokemon Black or White, I love HGSS and B2W2. Platinum isn't as good because the beginning is the worst part of any Pokemon game, in my opinion, but it gets a lot better after the 3rd gym.
"You feel it? Fawful is also feeling it! I am needing to feel it even more, though!" - The magnificent Fawful
@LegendOfPokemon HGSS and B2W2 are my favorite pokemon games =] gen 4 and 5 were just full of content and had a lot of charm in my opinion. I cant decide which one I prefer more, 4 or 5, but those 2 are at the top
@LegendOfPokemon Gen 5 is definitely my favorite past generation (as Gen 7 is my new favorite, but it's ongoing). BW and B2W2 are my 3rd and 2nd favorite Pokemon games, and I just love them to pieces. The Pokemon, the region, the fact that we actually got sequels, the music, Team Plasma, oh gosh Team Plasma, and just the story in general are all so good and just feel complete.
@LegendOfPokemon Yeah, definitely my favorite. Strangely, I seem to be one of the only people who enjoyed Team Flare, at least, a little. Team Rocket (don't kill me) is my least favorite team, just below Flare.
@PotatoTheGreat I'll agree to disagree about Gen 5. And yeah, I mostly ranked Gen 4 where I did because of the proper and generally well-executed inclusion of online trading and the poketech in game. Otherwise I thought Gen 4's replay value is terrible, and I honestly don't think I could tell anything about the campaign. The metagame balancing was pretty poor and I think the Pokemon design got a little bit of leeway due to having so many evolutions to older Pokemon.
I'm in the same boat about Emerald though. I think I've replayed Emerald more than any other game, including Gen 1 (and that's a lot of replays there), but in general Gen 3 is just... bland. I really can't identify what about Emerald makes it so much more enjoyable to play through, but I can't deny that is one of the more enjoyable ways to play Pokemon solo.
@Nintendoer The only reason why I prefer Team Rocket over basically all of the other teams is just because Team Rocket is at least believable. The other teams have some spin on world domination/destruction based on manipulating what is basically the equivalent of a god in the form of a legendary Pokemon. Team Rocket simply wants to steal Pokemon and make money. The "you lose and the world is destroyed" story line isn't as fun to me since it's that so far removed from reality. I get that complaining about that in a video game with this type of setting is a bit of a contradiction, but I like some some sort of realism there.
@nf_2 That's just your preference, and while it's fine, I happen to like the high stakes plans, the ones that make you go "These guys are insane". I dunno, might just be me.
@LegendOfPokemon That and they just don't seem to have any distinctive personality or goal. They just want general havoc, kind of like Team Skull, but Sun and Moon also had another team of villians, so it doesn't matter as much.
But yeah, their plan in Gen 2 was terribly boring, and since those were my first games, that might be why I dislike them.
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Topic: Ranking the Pokemon Games!!!
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