Topic: Sun/moon vs ultra sun/moon for first time?

Hope some experts can help. Buying poke ball 2ds for 9 year old son on Xmas. First time he’ll play pokemon on Nintendo platform. Would you recommend sun/moon or ultra sun/ moon for his first experience?

I haven't yet played Ultra, but I imagine that it would be a more challenging experience than the originals. For a 9 year old (and a first timer) I would recommend the original Sun/Moon to ease him into the series.

The Ultras are all around better games. But they are also a little bit harder than old vanilla sun and moon.

But let's take into consideration that 7-9 years olds approach games differently than adults with previous experience, they will usually try and try and try again, and end up going through the game eventually on pure brute force anyway. Or just get bored after the first try and go back to their tablet.

If you think your kid can take losing a battle without wanting to throw the game at the wall, them by all means go for an Ultra.

@Cz681 Go with Sun/Moon then he shouldn't find it too difficult and he'll have the option to get the ultra version in the future.

@Cz681
Ultra Sun / Moon.
Despite of harder than Sun / Moon, there is always a way to beat Tough Pokemons.
Teach your son to be patient, analyse first before choosing Attacks, drilling Pokemons' Level high enough to beat High level Pokemons, accept loses no matter how hard it is.

Just going to add in, that despite Ultra Sun / Moon's increased difficulty compared to Sun / Moon, they are by no means difficult games in the grand scheme of things, still well suited for someone's first RPG. Either could be a good choice though.

Thanks all for your input. By consensus I will try sun/moon. But will work with him to be patient on battles as he hasn’t had much experience with this style of game play.

Ultra Sun/Moon are superior games compared to Sun/Moon that are worth picking for a start (since they're third versions that expanded with new and existing aspects such as post-game quality, multiplayer, brand new exclusive Pokemon etc.) but as aforementioned their difficulty is slightly higher than those titles.

Ultra Sun and Moon are better. They are an expanded version of regular Sun and Moon, so the Ultra games have more content. The Ultra games are only very slightly more difficult, but Pokemon games are never that hard anyway.

Only slightly higher? I've read that certain boss battles are an absolute pain, even with overlevelled Pokemon! How true is that?

The complaints I've read come from people making the game harder by turning off the exp share and sruff.

They're practically the same game, Ultra just has more bells and whistles. Get Ultra, you won't miss much from SM.

I find Ultra Sun a lot harder and I have Exp Share on. And I’ve played Pokémon since the beginning. Sun and Moon is definitely better for a newcomer to the series.

They are 80% the same game. Effectively they have different endings and post game stories. Functionally USUM have a couple more mini games and support for competitive play (if your son is interested in that). Really, for the same price having not played either, USUM are better.