Huge thanks to @Meowpheel and @Tsurii for suggesting this idea, It's something I should've done from the beginning of my whole games ranking fiasco but nonetheless it's here now.
Instead of just making a new thread for ranking games within their series whenever the old topic starts to get quiet, I'm just gonna have one thread where I'll change the topic every now and again.
I'm open for suggestions on what the next game series to discuss should be, it certainly doesn't have to be a Nintendo series, but don't suggest anything too niche, I'd like to have as many people as possible involved and that's hard when no one knows the game series up for ranking.
If there's a series or game you'd love to talk about but there aren't many games in that series to rank, don't worry! Ranking things within a game is cool too. (e.g. ARMS characters, Tracks of a certain Mario Kart, Team Fortress 2 classes, ect.)
If there's a way to set up a poll to choose the next topic, that would be awesome, but as far as I know there's no way to do that on Nintendo Life. If that's the case I'll just use an external program and post the results here.
Right, the first set of games up for ranking from worst to best are the Mainline Pokemon Games. It would be best to rank them by generation, but X&Y and ORAS could be an exception, as there's enough differences to warrant separate rankings.
If you have the time please give reasoning for your rankings, you don't have to by any means as I know that could take some time, but it's easier to start a discussion the more reasoning you have.
Instead of ranking by generation, I'm just going to lump the remakes and the originals together. This is also coming from someone who hardly uses the online features at all, so that won't be affecting my ranking.
7. Pearl/Diamond/Platinum
This one is the least memorable in my opinion. I thought maybe because it's currently one of the least relevant since it came out a while ago and hasn't had a remake, but I played it recently and my opinion still stands. The Pokemon are among the least memorable in the series and the story is bland even for a Pokemon game. Rivals are also a huge part of the game in my opinion, and Barry is among the worst.
6. X/Y
X and Y were pretty decent games, and it was nice to have 3D models in the core series for the first time but it suffers from the same problems as Diamond and Pearl. It's just really forgettable. There were too many "rivals" so it was hard to become attached to any of them since the character development was spread out among each one, although their personalities were pretty shallow anyway to be honest. None of them really felt like rivals either. It gets points for having some interesting locations and a somewhat interesting plot near the end of the game, but altogether it wasn't that great.
5. Red/Blue/Yellow/FireRed/LeafGreen
Once you take off the nostalgia glasses, the original Pokemon game was pretty bland. Which makes sense, since it was the first game of the series, but judging all of the games together it just falls flat. Compared to any of the other games it doesn't hold up as well over time. I have a hard time placing it any lower since Pokemon Yellow was my first pokemon game, many of the Pokemon from the first game are still on my team today, and Gary is such a great rival (probably the second best).
4. Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/ORAS
This was the first game which had a noticeable difference between it's pair game. The 2 villain teams played a huge part of the game and it was really enjoyable overall. The main flaw is the amount of water in the game. Caves and water are 2 of the most annoying things in Pokemon games because of all the random encounters. Sure there's repels but I shouldn't be forced to use repels to enjoy the game. The part that the legendaries played in the game was really well done, the introduction of double battles was nice, and diving underwater was pretty interesting despite the encounters. The extra post-game story in ORAS was probably my favorite part of any Pokemon game, so it gains points for that too.
3. Black/White/Black 2/White 2
N is possibly my favorite character out of any Pokemon game. He didn't really work as a rival, but I love his personality and theme song. It also had one big cohesive story that was interesting from star to finish. The enemy team wasn't as typical as it usually is so it was a bit of a refreshing change too.
2. Sun/Moon
This game really changed up the formula, and for the most part it was all great changes. The typical "beat gyms then beat elite 4" was getting kinda old, so it was nice to see such a big change. The totem Pokemon fights were really interesting, I loved how they finally got rid of HMs, and it had an interesting story to boot. Unfortunately the story doesn't really kick in until about half way through the game so it's pretty slow initially. Some of the trials were a little too basic for me, and to be honest I wasn't too fond of the whole ultra beast thing, but overall I loved the game.
1. Silver/Gold/Crystal/SoulSiver/HeartGold
I hate to be cliche about this, but it really is an amazing game. You're essentially getting 2 games in 1. You get to beat the entire Jhoto and Kanto region, and the fight at the end versus Red is just so iconic. Silver is also my favorite rival in the entire series. He's enough of an arrogant megalomaniac that you feel compelled to constantly beat him, and you can see him slowly change throughout the game. This game also has one of the most memorable gym fights with Whitney's Miltank. Overall I had a blast with this game, and even going back to play SoulSilver today it holds up very well.
@Xaldin Not just the remakes; the original Gold, Silver and Crystal hold up pretty well too IMO.
Yeah I'm sure the originals do as well. There wasn't that many differences between the original and the remake. I'm just mentioning SoulSilver because the internal battery of my copy of Silver died a while ago so it's been quite some time since I've played it.
@Xaldin Pretty similar to my opinions really, I'll get them up in a bit as I'm a little tied up right now. Gold and Silver are fan favourites and I'm a big fan myself.
If I had any issues it'd be that while two regions was awesome I wasn't the biggest fan of Jotho itself and that while HGSS is fine in this regard, the Gen 2 meta sucks and isn't really fun to play considering how stall-based it is. That's only really an issue if you're a big Pokemon Showdown player like myself though.
Okay, before I begin, I'd like to say that Pokémon is one of my favorite videogame series, all of the mainline games are great and all-time classics. Also, I'd like to give a clear timeline of my relationship with the franchise to avoid getting anyone who reads this confused. I'm old enough to just have feint memories of the great Pokémon boom. The plush toys at Burger King, the anime, the trading cards and so on. However, and that is a big however, I was too young to really a. understand the battle system with types, levels and so on and b. to appreciate the games. I was a young, impatient brat (around 4 to 5 years old) to understand the concept of 'training, leveling up and so on' so I got stuck in Red rather quickly and had my dad play it for me (he fell in love with that game btw and still has fond memories of his Level 100 Wigglytuff that knew Psychic and was 'indestructible'). Sure, I liked the anime (though the Digimon anime was much better and more memorable imo) but the games weren't anything for me. Same with Crystal and Sapphire, which I ended up never playing.
It wasn't until I made one fateful spontaneous buy that everything changed: Blue Dragon (a masterpiece btw that you all should play) that would change my opinion of rpgs as a whole. Tales of Vesperia (another masterpiece that you all should play) would come and after it, my first real Pokémon game: Platinum. And afterwards, I was hooked to SoulSilver, White, Black 2, Y, OmegaRuby (a little less, never finished that one) and finally Moon. Starting with White, I'm used to training 60+ Pokemon to, in a way, compensate for never playing anything pre-Gen 4. This would cause me to take well over 200 hours to actually finish a game and with the Pokemon mainline releases coming closer and closer together, I had just finished the last game when the new one was released. And it became so tiring I never finished OmegaRuby and even Moon is yet unfinished. We will see what UltraSM holds but I'm not too much looking forward to it. With that finally out of the way, let's start my list from worse to best.
1. (Omega)Ruby, (Alpha)Sapphire, Emerald: I'm not too fond of Gameboy Advance games due to the requirement of a light source and the third gen being the 'I don't care about Pokémon' years, so I never played my copy of Sapphire. Even the remakes came when I simply needed a break from the franchise.
2. (Fire)Red, (Leaf)Green, Blue, Yellow: But ... but ... it's the originals that everyone loves. Well, no, I don't obviously. I hadn't played any of them up until the VC releases and even then they came when I needed my afromentioned break from Pokémon. And with my 3DS being long forgotten in favor of my beloved Switch, I doubt I'll be returning to them.
3. Sun/Moon: I really don't have a reason or serious criticism towards these two but they are somewhat the middle child in this ranking that isn't loved enough to be higher on the list but also liked enough to be above Gen 1 and 3.
4. X/Y: My relationship towards these two can be called a 'Love/Hate' relationship. On the one hand, Y has by far far far, the most hours put into it (807:04 to be exact, my dream is it to surpass that in Splatoon 2 or Overwatch). I became a shiny hunter once I was done with the game and would spent afternoons after afternoons cloning my Shinies via a now-patched out glitch and would trade the Shinies for new ones. It wasn't until I picked up an Action Replay (to get event-exclusive Pokémon) that my value for Shinies died from one day to the next. The hate side comes in with the game itself. I like most of the new Pokémon, especially the poor forgotten Megavolutions, but everything else about the region from its locations, to its inhabitants and especially its villaneous team and gym leaders was just bad, boring even. I also hate how there are a bazillion different Pokemon in the region. It seemed to me that with every new route, the Pokémon living there were completely different to the one from the last one (SM also has this problem but it's not that bad there). That's completely unnatural and ultimately destroyed Kalos for me. It felt to me like each route was a cage and none of the Pokémon could leave and spread throughout the region. It felt more organic when the Pokémon are slowly sorted out for new ones while some are just always there over the course of 2-3 routes.
5. (Heart)Gold, (Soul)Silver, Crystal: I've never played the original but I have very very fond memories for SoulSilver. I love that Kanto is included into the game but wished it be more story-involved than just post-maingame stuff. It was a little too easy for how much I tried my, at the time, small team.
6. Black, White, Black 2, White 2: To this day, my favorite Pokémon come from Gen 5 (come at me, gen wunners!). It was also the first game where I actively followed as more and more Pokémon got revealed. While Unova itself isn't my favorite region (that would be Sinnoh with Johto as a close second), the gym leaders and evil team are cool, the story is heartfelt and N ultimately sympathetic.
7. Diamond, Pearl, Platinum: And here's the great one, the nostalgia bomb itself, Platinum. So, what do I have to say about this one. Not much besides that my Torterra is a frickin tank. I've trained all my other Pokémon by giving them EXP Shares and let Torterra do all the work. Once I was done, it could withstand any Explosion or Self-Destruct easily. The region is awesome, the gyms and their leaders are awesome, the new Pokémon are awesome and the evil team is ... okay, rather forgettable if I'm honest.
@GoldenGamer88 Cor, your lists are always a treat to read, really the kind of stuff I'm glad to have here.
I'll finally get my list done, although my reasons for where I rank each game are fairly unorthodox. I'm a big fan of Pokemon Showdown and the battling aspect of Pokemon, so my enjoyment of each game is heavily affected by the 'meta' and mechanics of each generation. The main games play a huge part of course also, I can't count that out, Pokemon is still a childhood fave.
Also, I haven't played Sun and Moon, played loads on Showdown, and the meta is insanely fun, but I'll have to leave it out considering I haven't touched and of the story. I'll prolly get to it someday, my girlfriend has Sun so maybe I'll have a little look there.
7. Gen 6 (X&Y) - Mechanically, these games are brilliant, Megas were an awesome edition (with a few stinkers), the weather wars of Gen 5 were over, and Fairy type was a welcome edition. While there weren't many new Pokemon, the ones that were there were really solid in design. The game as a whole however, was a big step down from B&W2 for me. The regoin wasn't that intresting, the pacing was awful, a bad evil team and story, cool new ideas were underutilized, not many memorable characters, a dreadful postgame and no challenge whatsoever. The entire game was a cakewalk and felt pretty rushed as a whole. Not bad by any means, but not a game I'll revisit.
6. Gen 4 - Pearl was my first Pokemon game, and as much as I loved it, It hasn't stood the test of time for me. It has a few of the issues early gen 6 has, but has a lot more poor Pokemon designs, and the meta wasn't very fun. Spikes were cool, but Stealth Rock is just dumb, too much reward for very little effort. Besides that, the generation as a whole is pretty great. The physical/special split was a godsend, the game offered a good challenge, had a decent postgame, had awesome new evolutions for old Pokemon, and while Diamond and Pearl don't do much for me, HGSS is INCREDIBLE.
5. Gen 1 - I have no nostalgia for gen 1, the original games are very flawed and have aged poorly, and the game is really slow paced. However, gen 1 has one redeeming factor, the meta is BONKERS. Sure, status sucks, sure, there's like 15 viable Pokemon, but oh my god, competitive gen 1 is soooo much fun. It's anyone's game, you could be 4-1 down and suddenly get 5 crits in a row and win. It really saves Gen 1 for me and has to be seen to be believed.
4. Gen 2 - Gen 2 is kinda the opposite of Gen 1 for me, the games are so much more complete and enjoyable, but the meta is really boring. Rest+Sleep Talk is everywhere, Snorlax is everywhere, and my excitement is out the window. Still, there's no denying just how good the base games are, and the meta is a small price to pay for a real gem of a game.
3. Gen 5 - Similar situation to Gen 2, except instead of being awesome games with a bad meta, it had REALLY awesome games and a bareable meta. White 2 was one of my favourite games growing up, and with a good challenge, a cool story and a metric ton of things to do post game, Gen 5 holds a place in my heart. I've never played the original Black and White, but they don't seem as good to me, so that's a factor.
2. Gen 3 - The region of Hoenn alone sells Gen 3 for me, the games themselves were a joy to play though, with awesome locations, a decent evil team, a good challenge and some of my favourite Pokemon designs ever. The meta was really fun too, although not quite as good as Gen 6 or 7's to me. Also the Battle Frontier is just the icing on the cake for me, hours of fun to be had.
1. Gen 6 (ORAS) - They took my favorite region and made it even better, took my favorite meta and threw that in too, add in new Megas, the Delta Episode, Dexnav, and a more fleshed out story? Well this one just answers itself.
Okay we lost the Battle Frontier but overall it was worth it.
First of all, forgive the novel. Here are some notes before I get started on my own list:
I have yet to play Sun/Moon (just picked up Sun and hoping to start it this weekend! ), so for now I'll be skipping Gen 7. Thus far I've managed to avoid most story spoilers.
My first Pokemon game was a Gen 2 game (Gold), but I've played at least two versions of every generation since (barring Gen 6 and 7).
I'm counting remakes as part of their introductory generation, despite appearing in later gens. Said remakes likely affected their rankings in some way.
Incoming spoilers, obviously.
I will use the Pokemon introduced in each generation as a rating point as well. Please note, however, that there are Pokemon that I both like and dislike out of every generation.
Finally, it should be noted that I don't dislike any of the mainline Pokemon games. They're all excellent games in their own right, similar to how I feel about the Zelda series. If we were ranking spinoffs, however...hides chopping block
6. X/Y - I'm not gonna lie, there was a point early on in the game (the long drag before the second gym) where I almost stopped playing completely. This was unheard of for me before I played Y. Thankfully the story picked up a little after that, but X/Y was, overall, pretty bland in my opinion. The story in general was a snoozefest compared to Gen 5's storytelling, Lysandre's motives were about as deep as a a Lotad's leaf dish, and the character models...what was up with their heads?
There are some positives, however. I like most Mega Evolutions despite the general power creep that they introduced (not that I care much since I don't have the time or patience to battle competitively). Kalos has some wonderfully designed areas which pop even more when the 3D is used. Character customization was a huge plus for me, something I've been wanting for years. AZ was an interesting character, and his story and motivations were a high point for me. Last but not least, while I complained about Lysandre before, his final trump card (or his "watch everything burn" plan), is deliciously dark (in Y) if you read between the lines.
5. [Omega]Ruby/[Alpha]Sapphire/Emerald - I'll start with the original three first. In hindsight, overall, there are some things that I really appreciate about these games. The graphics overhaul was breathtaking compared to the GB/GBC titles, though my complaint about the heads of the sprites persists here. These games also introduced the concept of two teams instead of one, groups who were more eco-terrorists than straight-up mafia thugs. The story is better than X/Y's, but it could have been better. The Hoenn region, however, is home to my second least-favorite Pokedex. The fire types minus the Blaziken line were few and disappointing, whereas there were more water types (most of the designs of which I'm not fond of) than you could shake a stick at. [Warning: Petty complaint incoming] Surfing in the original three games...ugh. Ugh. Move three squares? Battle time! It's a common Wingull! Run or make it faint. Continue surfing on that bland ocean, five tiles later...Woo-hoo! Another annoying Luvdisc! Wash, rinse, repeat until you're beyond sick of the water routes. The only redemption here was the sheer rush of joy that I still get when using the Dive HM.
Emerald did improve on the story somewhat by putting you into conflict with both teams, and I loved that cutscene of Groudon and Kyogre fighting in Sootopolis. Conversely, though, there was the Battle Frontier. Now, I understand that Game Freak was trying something new here, and for the most part it worked. Some of the Battle facilities were an absolute joy, but it was so easy to get RNG-screwed in many of them. To date, the only symbol that I've ever earned is, ironically, the Luck Symbol. I'm still bitter about the last floor of the Battle Pyramid....
I felt that OR/AS fixed some of the problems of the originals (like the encounter rate while surfing, for example, and the story was cleaned and spiced up a bit), but overall I found some parts of the game to be rather bland like X/Y and made me think that some parts of these remakes were rushed. For one thing, many of the legendary encounters outside of the main story and Delta Episode seemed tacked on. The Delta Episode was a big improvement though, which almost made up for Emerald's absence in my book. Also, a special nod to those two grunts who were in love and eloped from their teams. XD
Also, while at the time I appreciated Brendan/May's friendliness as a nice change of pace when compared with Blue and Silver, it set an unfortunate trend for many of the rivals to come. Wally is superior to them, IMO. I feel that the remakes sugarcoated them even more.
4. [Fire]Red/[Leaf]Green/Blue/Yellow - Hah! Come at me, Genwunners! Honestly, these almost went higher on the list until I realized that a big chunk of my feelings relied on nostalgia. I still appreciate the difficulty and and limited non-linearity of the original games when compared with some of their successors. The regional Pokedex is still one of my favorites, though there are Pokemon out of it that I don't care for. Even though I have a lot of the story memorized by this point, it seems pretty barebones when compared with the games that followed. Some ridiculous things like Pokeballs missing their targets and the OP-ness of the Psychic type were remedied in later games.
Yellow was a slight improvement. The fact that Pikachu could follow you around and display emotions is still one of my favorite aspects of the game. You could obtain all three starters, and many of the sprites were cleaned up and improved.
FR/LG improved on the originals in a lot of ways. Not only did they give the games the Gen 3 graphics overhaul (and I like the character sprites here a lot better), but adding the Sevii Islands was a big game-changer for me. There were all these new areas that you could explore, and in a way these reminded me of the Orange Islands from the anime. To this day, FR/LG both contain one of my favorite post-game experiences.
3. Black/White 1/2 - These almost got ranked below the previous entry, but the well-written story in both sets of games (particularly B/W) won out. N is still one of my favorite characters in any Pokemon game and is, in his own way, as much of a hero in the game as the player. Watching him overcome the general brainwashing that he experienced under his adoptive father, Ghetsis, is something to see. The cutscene where N's castle virtually consumes the Pokemon League is still a "Wow" moment for me. In the sequels, it's interesting to see how Team Plasma was split into two factions: One clearly bent on helping Pokemon, and the other still set on "liberating" Pokemon for their own selfish gain. I felt that none of the other titles explored the antagonistic team's motives quite so well.
The games' 2.5D environments still stick out in my mind, and Castelia City's vastness helps bring that idea home. Nimbasa City is still my absolute favorite, though I'm quite biased towards theme parks. XD B/W 2's Join Avenue is still one of my favorite side activities in any of the games. Same goes for the movie-making studio north of Virbank City; it was interesting to see how the movies would turn out, and it was almost a game within a game to try to get the films to turn out just right.
My major complaint with these games is that the regional Pokedex was way too vast for its own good. I have my favorites out of it, but they're overshadowed by a ton of Pokemon that range (design-wise) from mediocre to just plain bad. I mean, who asked for three elemental monkey lines or things like Stunfisk or Reuniclus? Did we really need ANOTHER Fire/Fighting starter? (though Ganonpork Emboar was an improvement over Sir Methane Monkey, but neither compare to Blaziken....)
The rivals here weren't bad, though I prefer Cheren and Bianca to (meh, had to look up his name) Hugh.
2. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum - I think I can safely say that, until the Sun/Moon buzz, the original Diamond/Pearl games achieved my highest hype rating. I remember getting a hold of a demo unit and playing through the demo in a local store (something that doesn't happen often in Nowheresville, Midwest, USA). I was blown away by the 2.5D game engine and Jubilife City in general, and to this day Gen 4's graphics engine is still my favorite. The Sinnoh region is also my favorite region, not the least because (for some weird reason) I love Mt. Coronet and how most of the region is designed around that massive complex.
While I wouldn't say the story here is quite comparable to Gen 5, it definitely had its high points. The gym leaders were memorable to me, and Team Galactic (preferred them as Galaxy) had motives of rewriting the universe, not just the whole planet. Cyrus is one of my favorite team leaders after Ghetsis and Giovanni; there's a bit of a quiet megalomania to him. Dialga and Giratina are still two of my favorite draconic legendaries, and I was pleased (though not too surprised) that Platinum focused on the dimensional outcast. The focus on the Distortion World (still one of my favorite areas in any Pokemon game because it's, well, wonderfully crazy), and the slightly improved story make it one of my favorite sequel versions.
D/P/Pt aren't completely perfect, however. While the Dex here isn't as bad as in Gen 5, it could have used some improvement. There were too many legendary Pokemon in this generation (cool as some of them are), and all it took was one design that I really disliked to make this the first generation where I didn't start with a fire Pokemon. Some of the evolutionary "add-ons" such as Tangrowth and Magmortar seem kinda meh to me.
1. [Heart]Gold/[Soul]Silver/Crystal - A little of this entry may be based on nostalgia, but I feel that the Gen 2 games got so many things right. The story isn't anything too stellar, but I found a lot of the characters to be memorable. Silver is still my favorite rival, and how could he not be? It's interesting to watch him change from a cold, uncaring person (partially due to his upbringing) into someone who cares for and respects their Pokemon. These games also cemented Lance as one of my favorite characters due to his general awesomeness. And the Ruins of Alph....I still love that weird radio signal. Hunting down the roaming beasts could be a bit of a pain, but I enjoyed the challenge. There was quite a post-game in the form of a future Kanto region, and while it was a bit barebones in the original releases, we're quite lucky that we got it at all. The regional Pokedex is perhaps my favorite one. Also, the originals retained a form of non-linearity with some of the gyms.
Crystal was another slight improvement. The game introduced the Battle Tower, the added sub-story of Eusine and Suicune, and a few other little changes that I appreciated. One of the neatest things for me at the time was the introduction of Kris as a female character; this was a novelty for a girl who was used to playing as male characters, and Kris is still one of my favorite female avatar designs.
On their own, the original games don't hold up as well, but HG/SS improved on them in nearly every way I can imagine. The Johto AND Kanto regions received the Gen 4 aesthetic overhaul that I love so much, every Pokemon could follow you, and the story was improved upon in various ways. There were a lot of great changes that ranged from fanservice (like that device that let you hear the GB tunes from the originals) to general quality of life improvements. Add in a certain event Celebi with significant clout, and I would rate these two remakes as my favorite Pokemon games.
@GoldenGamer88 That was one I had in mind, I've never actually played Twilight Princess, my mate got the HD version and I don't think he talked about it once less than a few days after he got it.
@BigYellow Oh, it's just ugly to look at and dark for the sake of being dark (as a response to the fan outcry about Wind Waker). But that's just scratching the surface.
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@GoldenGamer88 Agreed on how it looks, the darker tone was an interesting change but the visual style is taking it too far, you'd find more colour in a Game Boy game. Also taking the 'just enhance the textures and put it in HD' route was lazy, it worked for Wind Waker, but not here. If you emulated the original on a PC in 1080p it would look almost identical.
I do wish I'd played some Pokemon back in the day. I never had a portable as a kid, and the whole Pokemon phenomenon completely passed me by.
I bought my first portable (N3DS) in 2015 and the first game I got was Pokemon Y as I had to see what the big deal was. Played it for 6 hours, beat the first gym, but hadn't found it especially engaging. I get that it evolves, but after 6 hours of play it wants to get a move on in my book.
You guys had me at blood and semen.
What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?
@gcunit Fair enough, Y is a rough one to start with, it really takes it's time getting anywhere. It also doesn't help the whole game is baby time in terms of difficulty.
I remember when my friend asked what Pokemon game to start with as a joke I told him to buy Pokemon Dash. But then we went to a game store and he actually picked it up.
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