Poll: Which is the Best Pokémon Game?

Yellow will always be my game.

ORAS for da win!

I don't know why, but I just have the fondest memories of Diamond / Pearl.

The Pokétch being something that really should return is only a small part of the reason.

I have to go old school here and say Gold/Silver. I just found it to improve on Red/Blue in almost every way. My mind nearly exploded when I found out there was a day/night mechanic. Plus it was home to some of my favorite pokemon, like Umbreon. I was even a late bloomer to the game, but I don't recall how long it had been out by the time I played. I think ruby and sapphire was already out, but there I was, playing it on my old game boy color. I was instantly hooked the second I gave it a chance.

There is none, that is all.

Gold / Silver.

Black/White: it was the only Pokėmon game with a story worth paying attention to in my opinion.

Heart Gold, because it took everything I loved from gen 2 and just added more Pokemon and content to it. I love each game for a different reason, but Heart Gold comes out on top.

@BLPs
That one is my least favorite...

@BLPs

I'm going to be honest with you. That was the only Pokemon game I was disappointed with.

Red and Blue just for nostalgia purpose! The games made me a fan.

A lot of people are voting based off nostalgia perhaps or have not played the majority of the titles. I chose X&Y although it's really close with a lot of them. Soul Silver was amazing, but I don't see how it's winning.

I find 4th generation the best. It features Kanto, Johoto, and Sinnoh. My favourites. Wish 4th generation games can be grouped together 'cause i fluctuate between them all.

How can gold and silver be better than heart gold and soul silver!?

Was expecting a lot more people to be voting nostalgiawise for early games. I voted b2w2 but its almost a tie with xy

Ack! I can't decide on this one

Emerald.... no wait.... maybe Heart Gold/Soul Silver....
I voted for Emerald, simply because the amount of times I've played through it over the years.

HGSS, easily and handily.

The upgrades from the previous version are excellent, the story is great, the amount of content is superb and even overwhelming, the follower mechanic is nice, the visuals are amazing... It's the superior version of GS.

I just can't decide. Most of the games are special in their own ways.
Pearl has nostalgia, Alpha Sapphire/Sapphire has a great adventure and soundtrack, Soul Silver was the one I've played the most, X has an amazing online, Black/Black 2 had great stories and had a great feel to them. To be honest, the only pokemon games I don't like were the original Red and Blue. Sorry, but without the nostalgia factor they really don't hold up at all for me.

Gotta go with Gold and Silver. Never get tired of heaing the Ice Path theme either. Good memories with those games.

I voted heartgold. My ranking
1) heartgold/soulsilver
2)yellow/red/blue
3) and on in order by the newest

I picked HG/SS because it's a great remake, but it could have been G/S too. My favorite generation by far. It's like two games in one <3

@BLPs
I was super hyped for it after I really enjoyed Black and White. But the game felt more like pricey DLC for the original rather than it's own game.

For me it's Emerald. I have a lot of reasons: it was my first pokèmon game, I loved its story, its activties, the f***ing music, I love Hoenn as a region more than I do for any other of the regions, it has some of my favourite pokémons and yeah, those are my main reasons. I loved Diamond, and it introduced my favorite pokémon of all time, Lucario, but I don't know, I just liked Emerald more. Didn't play Gen5, and Gen6 was good, but... I don't know. The postgame was poor and for this and other reasons, Gen6 never managed to made me want to go back and play it again after I finished it. I played Y twice, though. Also, I played all the remakes eccept for ORAS, wich I'll buy next year, but Emerald is still my favourite.

X and Y for me.

This i had jo definite answer to but why aren't the side games here to vote on as well?

I voted Platinum (Gen IV forever) but B2W2 and ORAS are tied for close second. To be fair, I like them all, but Platinum was just amazing. Even if Diamond and Pearl were cool, Platinum made Diamond and Pearl obsolete, in my opinion. I dunno why I love Platinum so much, but I think it's because of nostalgia, even though my first game was Sapphire. I just have the most fond memories with Platinum really.

I voted for the originals. Mainly because it's the only one I've played.

The additional region, Battle Frontier, and the best NPC battle in the whole series with Red makes Heart Gold/Soul Silver the Pokemon game with the most amount of content.

I chose Pokemon Black and White 2. Out of all the pokemon games I played, it had the best story, characters, region, and even the pokemon were pretty cool (despite what others may say).
Pokemon Emerald has always been my childhood favourite though, and while Pokemon X and Y was cool and all with it's graphics and features, I don't think it tried to be as awesome as Pokemon Black and White 2.

It's Ruby and Sapphire. Sorry.

@BLPs

"Okay, we all have fair opinions. I gave my reasons, what are yours?"

Haha of course we do, and no one is saying that opinion is wrong.

To me Black and White was fantastic. It was one of the most exceptional Pokemon stories out there, along with new interesting Pokemon. But B2 and W2 just never caught on with me. It was cool that certain elements tied into your version of B and W, but nothing that really made me say, "That was totally worth it and amazing." I think it was in part because nothing could match the original's story.

The battle with Black Kyurem or White Kyurem was a mixture of both disappointment and wtf. I appreciate that Game Freak tried to do something different, but as a whole, after the amazing Black and White, I was left struggling to finish this one. It just simply didn't connect with me, and was the first Pokemon game I actually set down and forgot about. Then when X and Y was announced, I said, "Oh yeah, I never finished this game." I did finally finish it, but I didn't feel any better about it when the credits rolled.

My first game of Pokemon that I owned is Sapphire, but it'd come in 3rd.
And while Emerald is better than Sapphire, Sapphire is just a tinge closer to me.

Diamond is my second because of how many fond memories I have of it.
Even though Platnium blows the originals out of the water (that online, though), I just have a stronger connection to Diamond.

SoulSilver had the most content that was worth coming back to. Best remake, even superior to the great LeafGreen and Alpha Sapphire.

Note that I love all the Pokemon games and that I'm just listing my first/main versions of the 2s that are listed.

@Spoony_Tech You must be fun at parties

@SphericalCrusher

"A lot of people are voting based off nostalgia perhaps..."

Is it that difficult to believe that people will vote for something that made their heads explode with excitement back in the day?? Just because it's old does not mean it wasn't progressive.

"...or have not played the majority of the titles."

Those people should not be voting.

I like the the bw games for its music and Emerald for how cinimetic the three legendaries were.

Either Gold or Pearl.

I can't decide. It's silly to pick just one. All of them are wonderful.

My top five are-
5.X and Y
4.Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (Have not beaten OR since I got it for Christmas so I still have no idea if it is better than the originals though so far it is amazing.)
3.Black and White
2.Heartgold and Soulsilver
1.Black 2 and White 2- This game had the most content out of any pokemon game while also having Black and White's story and region making it the best one for me. Really fifth generation as a whole is really underrated.

@MoonKnight7 Hahaha, but the point remains that they do my friend.

Anyway, ORAS is the best to me. It has dynamics and a better story than any other title available besides B/W.

Although I would choose B2/W2 simply because of that one place where you could make your own mall... it gave me a reason to play after I did all of the other stuff in the game and I wish more Pokemon games had things like that. XD

@BLPs

Sure, I can understand that. X and Y was not a perfect game by any means. There are other reasons why X and Y was great, but it's story and pacing certainly wasn't it's strongest parts. In particular, I had to laugh at the absurdity of the dialogue from citizens after destruction of Geosenge Town from the final battle with Team Flare.

@BlatantlyHeroic

Haha, yes I know. I'm just pointing out it is improper to do so.

Heartgold used to be my favorite. But Alpha Sapphire changed that. Though both games are fantastic.

Platinum. It was a near perfect game in every way. What really stood out about the game was the amount of content there was in the game. The region was very large and there was plenty to explore. There were plenty of extra features and a lot of replay value in general, more than any other game I think. It really felt like you were exploring a vast world.

As far as the others, the earlier games were flawed by their poor variety in the regional dex, the later games flawed by their lower difficulty, and none of them beat Platinum in replay value.

It was a tough decision between Heart Gold and Soul Silver and X&Y, but I went with X&Y because it's the pokemon game that had me the most addicted and coming back to play more then any other game in the series. Any one of the pokemon games is a classic, though

HeartGold & SoulSilver, easily. It's pretty much everything that Gold, Silver and even Crystal had to offer. Those were never really topped until they were remade with all the new features brought in by two additional generations of Pokémon plus a whole host of new features not yet seen before. The PokéWalker was a nice little freebie, too. Put a Pokémon on it and level your Pokémon while walking the dog or going out to town for lunch. It was genius.

Simply put, the best Pokémon games, but made even better. Fantastic game!

I thought this was going to be such a hard call, but when I looked at the list I realized it's Soul Silver all the way! =)

The original Gold and Silver will forever be my favorite. Back when Pokemon was arguably in its most popular state, these games bring back so many memories. The remakes are amazing too, wish I could select 2!

It's totally Soulsilver. The poke walker was cool and it was just a better game as a whole. X and Y was good hec they all are good but sometimes I play one and it feels like it is to much of the same. Will I i get the next one. Of course I will.

I feel like the answer to "What is the best Pokémon game" is "whichever one is currently the newest".

I can't decide between LeafGreen, Platinum, and Y.
LeafGreen: First Pokemon Game.
Platinum: Most play time.
Y: Complete National Dex with all 719 pokemon.

My least favorite was black and white 2 . I found myself not wanting to beat it or read the dialog. I just followed the format and I got through it.

Personally black 2 was the game that got me into pokemon again after a 3 year pause. (I even skipped the first black and white) I rather liked the slightly more mature themes and post game content. It was pretty much the culmination of all the 2D work that Gamefreak had been honing for over 15 years. The sprite art was awesome, and the variety of pokemon to catch was extensive to make teams. Polestar studios most people hate but honestly, I thought it was fun. It should have been more reliable and consistent in how to make movies, but I really liked again the stories that made in it. Both the romance movies and the unova defense force arcs were incredible. It made me feel more of a hero than the story did.
The PWT was probably the best competitive training area second only to the emerald battle frontier. All these great remixes of the battle themes, they were legitimately challenging. The remixed Steven battle theme and the hoenn leader theme, I felt, was better than the alpha sapphire versions. And the pokemon designs, I know vanillite and garbodor exist, but have you seen hydreigon? And black tower or white tree hollow, my goodness. My most favorite postgaje challenge ever. They were actually hard. No items, multiple floors, one use of a pokemon center each floor. If anyone bothered to complete it, you got some of the greatest rewards possible: Shiny pokemon.

I understand the like of the other gens. I personally believe alpha sapphire as pokemon x and y the good edition. I just want to say that black 2 is underrated for all the wrong reasons. It has what I've wanted for ages. Older protagonists, slightly more mature and darker plots, extensive post game content, connectivity with games that came before, difficulty settings (they should not have required the use of another ds and game) and actual rewards for your efforts. You get a shiny haxorus just for seeing every unova pokemon. I can only hope that Gamefreak goes back to the 5th gen style. As much as I like ORAS, I can't stand the chibi-esque designs of the characters.
I love almost every pokemon game (except for pearl, it's a bit slow so I only really like), but I respectfully put my case as to why I like black 2, and I hope you guys will also respectfully put your opinions.

@BLPs

Haha I'm not defending X and Y in any way, just in case you got that impression. My vote went to the original Gold and Silver. The day/night mechanic blew my mind back in the day, and was home to some of my favorite Pokemon ever, as you can see if you look left, haha.

But I absolutely agree with what you said about the megas. Game Freak said they based them off of popularity. So rather than giving a mega evolution to poor farfetch'd (wouldn't that be both awesome and badass?!), it's given to sudo legendary pokemon like metagross and garchomp.

This is like making me try to pick my favorite child. ;-;

Either Leafgreen, Emerald, X, or Diamond… I had to choose "I can't decide".

I've played Hoenn so many times that ORAS is fun, but not amazing. I have the fondest memories from X, but I don't think it was the best game. And I have the most hours in Diamond, beating X by a HUNDRED. So yeah… I can't decide.

Nostalgia always takes the cake for these Pokemon polls. Everyone always chooses Gold/Silver for it's good memories, or HeartGold/SoulSilver for it's sparking up of good memories. If you chose either of these because you legitimately think it's the best game, please do tell me. I'll be surprised.

@dadajo I must say, I quite enjoyed White 2. The whole idea of a SEQUEL to a Pokemon game absolutely fascinated me. Plus, there was tons of side content and things to do. After a 6 month break or so from Pokemon, it was this game that got me back into it.

@Bolt_Strike I think that the Sinnoh region is the first and only region to give a sense that it was huge, vibrant, and waiting to be explored. There was weather, tunnels, mountains, bridges, cliffs, waterfalls, everything. Nintendo says that the Hoenn region was the region supposed to give off these feelings, but honestly, Sinnoh did a much better job of it.

oh God, hard decision even if I only played 1st, 2nd and jumped straight to 6th generation... I think out of those 3 games I enjoyed Gold the most so gonna vote on that one. But Yellow and X are really really close.

Hell, all the games are the same, how can there be 'best' out of the same?!

@MoonKnight7
While I don't think every weak pokemon needs a mega, I can say that the balance they have of popular vs weak megas is acceptable. Beedrill went from zero to hero literally overnight. Pidgeot became distinct from his other early bird (no pun intended) cousins, pinsir not just an inferior heracross. I do agree that less fan favorites needed megas. 2 mewtwo and charizard forms? Unecessary. But then again, they do look super awesome. And actually, meta gross had been waning in strength ever since it gained weakness to dark and ghost in gen 6.

I kind of wish though that they'd gives some super super weak pokemon (like noctowl or farfetchd) first an evolution, and then a mega. Imagine the porygon family. Porygon 2 with eviolite has incredible defenses, but porygon z is a generic, underpowered, slowish special attacker. If that got a mega, we'd see use for both forms.

I never cared for Gen 3, even the remakes bored me. I voted Red and Blue, but G/S/HG/SS and X/Y were all great.

Mechanically, and graphically, Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
Story wise, Pokemon Black and White, The sequel kinda drops the stlry if you ask me, but since then, they have put a lot more effort when it comes to the plot and giving the NCPs more character and personality, makes me excited for whatever story they tell in the next game.

Imagine if they make an x and y sequel. They should call it x^2 and y^2.
(Nerd alert for me and anyone else that gets it (I'm proud of knowing it))

I voted can't decide because I have never played a single Pokémon game! I am afraid I will get sucked into them and lose 100s of hours of my life I don't have to spare!

Hey wait, they forgot pokemon coliseum and pokemon xd gale of darkness

@JubilifeRival

I chose Gold/Silver because it improved upon the original game in almost every way. The day/night mechanic had me playing during all hours of the day because of it.

It also finally brought the introduction of dark type pokemon (and steel type too of course). I couldn't tell you how many of my friends had excessive amounts of the overly powerful, psychic type pokemon. Dark types finally balanced that.

Not to mention that it was the first time pokemon could hold items, and the first time we could breed pokemon.

I would say Pokemon X & Y just because it brought character customization into the game.

Gold/Silver and Black/White 2 are my favourites.

Honestly, for me it's hard to decide between HeartGold and Y... I only have 3 Pokemon games to date (with my first being Pearl; I didn't get into Pokemon until early high school haha) but those two were the best imo. I voted for HeartGold, mainly because while I never beat the game, it was a lot more fast-paced than Pearl and the Pokewalker addition made it so I could train individual Pokemon without bringing my DS to school. As much as I enjoyed Y with its excellent graphics and battle scenes, I felt like HeartGold overall had more heart and character poured into the game.

man, i really wanted to vote for diamond and pearl, then i wanted to say gold and silver....but they're all good, voted " i can't decide". i will say, Diamond and pearl had the best music IMO.

Silver has always been my favorite, if my avatar didn't make that obvious. It had a ton of content (16 badges? Two regions?), a lot of my favorite Pokemon (Totodile's evolution line, Umbreon, Tyranitar, Houndoom, etc.), my personal favorite region, and my favorite battle in the series (Gold vs Red). Nothing's topped it yet for me, although OR/AS might take second place once I finish those.

As for the remakes, as much as I enjoyed them, they just didn't have the same charm. I'm not a fan of Gen IV's slow engine, and I feel like a lot of the changes and added features were just unnecessary. I'll admit that some nostalgia might be involved since Silver was my first Pokemon game (And proper RPG at that), but the remakes will never beat the originals for me.

I gave the vote to Crystal for how it refined the Johto region and story into something that still feels near-perfect for me while also adding new features that I thought fit very well into what they already had; nothing Crystal added felt tacked on to me. The game does have issues with grinding spots (wild Pokémon levels don't scale very well compared to trainers' Pokémon, so grinding can become a real chore), and the Kanto trainers' levels are surprisingly low, but for me the other factors I mentioned and the overall feel of the game outweigh those issues by enough to keep the game as my favorite of the series, though not by a large margin.

I'd give second place to X&Y because they had me more immersed in a Pokémon world than I'd ever been before. I loved the new features and how they were presented, and the story and characters suited my strange interests (when it comes to Pokémon, at least) surprisingly well. They could have had more postgame content, yes, but they had enough for me, as well as enough other recurring elements that kept me coming back to do side activities (such as working at the hotel in Lumiose City or having a rematch with Serena every day) for some time. Even after playing through ORAS, Kalos is still the region I most want to revisit. That's just how it goes for me.

I will lose faith in the standards of Nintendo fans if R/B/G/Y wins.

B2W2 had the most content. You can't disagree with that.

I love the recent ones, I really do. But I had to go for Firered/Leafgreen. I was hooked hours on that thing.
In order of preference:
1. Firered
2. Black 2
3. ..... just forget it! I can't decide lol X(

B2W2 easily.

People just pick the other for nostalgia.

Content wise, B2W2 are better and they include tons of pokemons.

Second would be HGSS. They too have nice content plus the areas that were missing in GSC from kanto.

@Bolt_Strike Finally. Someone who knows the truth about Pokemon Platinum.

Platinum being the runner-up, I couldn't help but give the vote to B2/W2. I've devoted so many hours into this game, all the while getting my Mon' to level 100 in White Treehollow. In the end, content rules all.

Platinum being the runner-up, I couldn't help but give the vote to B2/W2. I've devoted so many hours into this game, all the while getting my Mon' to level 100 in White Treehollow. In the end, content rules all.

Oops, accidently sent that twice.

@BLPs

"Plus, with Super Training, Pokémon Amie and Customisation in XY....I forgot they existed. They got heavily advertised but when the game came out...yeah....nothing. It feels rushed to pander to the competitive crowd, but most of those...words I wont use here...don't even play using the games anyway."

Really the main goal of X and Y was to try and pander to children a little more than usual. Game Freak found out and confirmed that older people in their 20s and 30s were the ones buying the games. This is why you have more things like pokemon amie, pss and super training. It's also the reason why there was such a large graphics jump. I don't think we should be overly critical when Game Freak is just looking out for their future.

Agreed about the annoying PSS in X and Y though. Even if I had my 3DS plugged in, it still yelled at me saying my battery was low.

@Gridatttack
Thank you for being the other voice of reason besides me

@Geonjaha
Very well, for that I am sorry. However, I will not stand for when people curse at me. At least I am not profane. And besides that other thing was insulting me as well.

Lets try and cut out the fighting now, lest someone gets themselves banned. No one wants to get banned over Pokémon of all things!

My favourite is HeartGold/SoulSilver because I started off with gen 2 and it was great to re-visit it. Really liked how the pokemon followed you, has a lot of my favourite pokemon and its basically 2 games in one since you can visit Kanto as well.

@BaffleBlend I couldn't agree with you anymore. The nostalgic feeling from DP is amazing

Normally, I'd go with the latest versions, but I don't own AS or OR. Part of that has to do with being burned out by X/Y, as they brought light to the competitive side of this game with IVs/EVs, whatever Super Training deals with. My favorite is the last simpler Pokémon game I've played: Pokémon Black.

Pokémon Black was like a fresh start, with the main game focusing on Pokémon from Generation 5. Design-wise, Pokémon were really weird in that generation, but they're also some of my favorites. Even generic objects, like Vanillite, Trubbish and Litwick, have the benefit of being humorous to me, so I've come to like them too. What I really like about Black though are its battle animations. Artistically, I'm more fond of those moving sprites than I am the 3D models the series currently has. Battles were really fast too, so everything felt really fluid in this entry. While OR/AS are hot now, I think I'd much rather get my hands on Black 2 at this point to re-experience what Gen. 5 brought in a new adventure.

I chose Diamond/Pearl, with Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire coming a VERY close second in my mind. I love everything about DP. Literally everything.

If we're interested in worst, then Black 2/White 2 for me. I found the whole of Gen. V to be incredible bland, and to me, B2W2 took the remaining good bits of BW (good story, Reshiram and Zekrom on their own) and made it even more dull. Sorry Game Freak. Sorry internet.

As someone who has been playing pokemon since red/blue and has played every game and version since... This is really hard!

I'm gonna have to go with emerald. Hoenn was always my favorite region and has some of my favorite music and mons. (Absol ftw!) And the battle frontier. I loved that place to no end. I also got my competitive start in emerald, and I still replay it every now and again.

But then again...
ORAS has been a pleasure to play through and breeding is so much easier than it was in gen 3 (which I consider an excellent thing! Nobody wants to spend days breeding one good pokemon.) And hey! The touch screen has use again after being nothing but an annoyance in XY! If ORAS had battle frontier, it would beat emerald hands down.

This is a tough decision. But for now emerald. Ask me again in a few more weeks and maybe I'll say ORAS

This should be interesting to see. No matter how I try, I can never seem to get into Pokemon. I have Black 2, but for some reason, I can't seem to get far without getting slightly bored. I've been thinking about getting one of the more recent games to get into, but maybe I should go with something different (according to the poll). I'm not giving up, either, because I've always heard the games are great, and I want to join the fun.

I went HGSS because it's the new and improved version of Gold/Silver. And until they make another Pokemon with a postgame content as good as HGSS's (going to the Kanto region for 8 more badges, improved Elite 4, etc), that version will always win out for me. XY's postgame content was a joke, and it was much too easy.

Easily Blue though my decision is not final as I haven't finished the gen 5 games (don't own B2/W2 yet and haven't finished White) and I'm not getting Alpha Sapphire until Jan 10th.

@BLPs

Hahaha! Amen, friend. Amen.

Gold and Silver are my favourites. Heartgold and Soulsilver are better versions of those games, so naturally they are the best in my opinion.

While I personally love Pearl/Diamond the most, I feel like Black/White were the best overall. I loved the battles and overall gameplay of it and it's just so awesome!

Honestly the only wrong choices are probably BW and Platinum. BW2 were way better than BW1 with their huge variety of Pokemon available pre-national dex (and the story all Pokemon games are laughable so don't even mention them). BW1 does get credit for adding new mechanics and Pokemon that shifted the competitive landscape (even if most of the Pokemon aren't really classics). Platinum didn't add anything valuable other than new tutor/egg moves (the new forms - Skymin - were a pain).

Every other entry added something that made it worth while at the time. Obviously the BRY started everything and GSC improved on everything (and Crystal added a battle tower). RSE added EVs, IVs and everything else. LGFR gave RBY a better end game. DP gets a huge win for adding online along with moves being categorized by physical/special rather than just by type. HGSS has the most content out of any game in the series and is a significantly improved remake of the best generation. BW2 was the first to have Pokemon from all regions available throughout the game and it changed a ton of mechanics to streamline the games. XY was the first entry in a new generation that felt complete by itself outside of its bare bones end game. ORAS has the best end game by far, but I never cared for the 3rd generation games campaign and ORAS didn't really change my mind there.

Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness

Heart gold all the way! I loved/love everything about Johto region, also the battle against Red was so great! Somehow ORAS was kind of a disappointment for me, the hand holding was just too overwhelming.

I don't understand why people like B2/W2 so much! Reasons why:
Going through the same areas from B/W with only a few changes
Mashing legendaries together
Taking way too long to build up excitement
Putting in random features like owning a mall in to make it feel new
Hardly anything new from the original B/W

I've played almost all of them first-run, and it's tough to make this decision. Since the basics of Pokemon have never changed, singling out one title amongst them is a hard choice. Even though it was only the third game, Yellow was one choice I initially considered, based on utilizing the anime story and having Ash's Pikachu as your starter. The only problem is there isn't much more to it — it's still Red/Blue otherwise.

The only one that really stood out from all the others was the Gold/Silver/Crystal line, for one important reason: It is the only Pokemon game where you crossed back into Kanto in order to face the gym leaders & Elite Four there. No other game in the series presented the Pokemon world as being connected to each other — they all stayed self-contained in their little countries and never presented challenges in the old countries, not even the newest games. There's a world out there to explore, but Game Freak seems a bit afraid to show it, and as a result, post-game play hasn't been as great as it was in Gold/Silver/Crystal.

So, because it allows multi-country challenges, but also for being the current best of the various revivals for DS & 3DS (IMHO), my ultimate choice is HeartGold/SoulSilver. It's the Pokemon games that provide the extensive cross-country post-game adventure people would want, but revised in a manner that vastly improves upon the original.

....is "What's the best Mario game?" next? lol

@JasonAnArgoNOT64 Why don't you watch your mouth you immature brat!Before you rustle someone's jimmies.Telling someone to watch their mouth and you're doing the same thing, you accuse of them of doing hypocrite.

Great to see Gold and Silver doing so well and Sapphire/Ruby doing so poorly

All i can say is some of my best memory's of pokemon would be platinum like being able to ride my bike through the gate checkpoints at the end of many area's. (it made me cry with joy)

Pokémon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire

Gens 1 (purely nostalgia at this point) 5 and 6 are my favorite. I had to go with X and Y over Black and White though because of the improvements it made. Though I loved how in gen 5 you met only Unova Pokemon until postgame. That was really cool. Really they all have their good qualities.

Again..., I Can't Decide!, upsi..., All versions are my favorite, although that Haruka/May and Meloetta are my favorite characters, but, the Stories, Sceneries, events and characters and Pokemon are what make I like the series.

Heart Gold and Soul Silver are my favourite. There was so much to do in it, such as the battle frontier, safari zone, bug catching competition and the pokeathlon, as well as pokemon following you and the pokewalker. Plus the Johto region felt slightly less linear than most of the other regions, and there were lots of areas to explore.

Heart Gold and Soul Silver are great remakes of the best pokemon games. Easy choice for me.

Red and Blue for me. Started playing those as soon as they came to U.S. and its all history from there. Still playing them to this day

I always go back to Yellow on my GBC to get my retro Pokemon fix.

@Nintendo_Ninja
"Hardly anything new from the original B/W"

Aren't all Pokemon games alike? And there are more changes in this game than the others. Pokemon from all regions gather in Unova for the first time, White Treehollow/Black Tower, key exchange, new locations, Pokestar Studios, and plenty more. And I'm not even mentioning any you did.

Point proven.

While I like X and Black 2, Heartgold was my first Pokémon so I'll always have a soft spot for that game.

Gold/Silver/Crystal for me. They improved upon Red/Blue/Yellow in virtually every way, the new Pokémon were amazing, the music was fantastic, and the graphics were beautiful in their modest simplicity. HeartGold and SoulSilver did not stir those same feelings and I would attribute any fault to the fact that it used the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum engine, which I absolutely abhor. Those games moved at a dead snail's pace, and HG/SS were bound by the same limitations as D/P/P.

Black and White however, were game changers in a sense that while they still used the tried and true D/P/P engines, they improved upon it in every conceivable way. Gone were the days when we'd have to sit through about 10 seconds just to watch that damned health meter deplete (it seemed like the worst and stupidest possible way to artificially prolong the length of what would otherwise have been a very short game).

If HG/SS had been released after Black/White and included the improvements that B/W had made to the D/P/P engine, then it probably would have been my favourite Pokémon game to date, but unfortunately, HG/SS is inherently tainted by all of the faults that made D/P/P so sluggish and insufferable. I don't think I could ever play a Gen IV game again. While I've almost completed HG (I still have to battle Red, and I have no way of levelling up my Pokémon without ripping my hair out, so I traded them all over to Platinum so that I could train them at the Battle House and trade them back to HG), I'm still yet to play SoulSilver. I may at some point, but after being spoiled by the enormous improvements in Gen V and VI, I don't know if I can go back to playing the most sluggish generation of Pokémon games again. I still loved D/P/P (especially Platinum), but I would definitely struggle if I were to go back to it now.

@MoonKnight7

Part 1: Well, I'm one that started playing Pokemon with Blue/Red, and although I love them, X got my vote. It's not wrong, but people should consider everything fairly (in general).

And Part 2, true. But you'll get the kids who only played one game vote for it lol

HG and SS were my favorite. If you count the teenagers as part of their original gen (ie ORAS is gen 3) then currently
Gen 1 - 15%
Gen 2 - 30%
Gen 3 - 17%
Gen 4 - 8%
Gen 5 - 11%
Gen 6 - 11%
IDK - 8%

I am suprised and kinda glad that gen 3 isn't in the lead especially since so many people make a big deal about it and it just wasn't as good some other entries, but I haven't played to much of Alpha Sapphire that much yet.

May as well add my thoughts to this one too, though unlike the others, I have played at least 1 game from each generation, and the fact that I've played more Pokemon than any other game series. So, here we go.

Blue version: Oh man, if I talked about this we'd be here for an hour. Let's leave personal feelings and nostalgia go for a bit, and I'll just say...there's a reason for my profile pic, because of this game. But yeah, this game got me into gaming and strategy, so...yeah. Lost my cartridge a long time ago, though I'm probably going to pick up a copy of Red version someday...hopefully soonish.

Crystal: 2nd favorite Pokemon game ever, only after W2. Sadly, my save randomly corrupted recently, and unless the place I'm going tommorow has it, nobody sells a 3.8 mm security bit I need to fix it. Regardless, it's IMO, the best GBC/GB game out there. Period. If you haven't played it, it's a sin. A sin you should rectify immediately.

FR/LG: I put both on there since I owned and played both at one point, but I only own LG now, since I think I gave FR to someone. I reccomend it to the point that you can play the game and actually use the Pokemon you get in it with the current generation games, and that the battle system has a few less flaws, but minus those important things, I almost have to say I liked Blue version better. (Hey, that wild battle music in that one can get to you pretty quickly!)(I've probably replayed this one the most though, for various reasons. I always chose Charmander, though.)

Emerald: Best GBA Pokemon game if it wasn't for Mystery Dungeon, but I won't be talking about side games, despite how good they are. I have to say this one's actually better than ORAS for the sole reason that it has the Battle Frontier. Get with that, Nintendo... (although, of course, I still don't like the Battle System too much anyway, that is until...

Diamond: The gameplay feels laggy for some reason, but that's really it's only fault for me. In fact, all the Generation 4 games had that. But most importantly, it revamped the Battle System into what we have today. And it had Wifi. I never really used it in this game, though, so can't comment on that, but I know it was a lot easier than using those link cables...

Soul Silver: Loved it, but it never had the lasting impact that Crystal had on me. Still highly recommended though.

White: As all Pokemon games, I found it very enjoyable, minus a few questionable designs which I still hate to this day (...klink.). I also didn't really appreciate not having access to previous gen Pokemon until after the Elite 4. Best story in the series so far, though. Also didn't help that the Battle Subway was the only postgame thing you could do (minus the dex, of course....)

White 2: Oh boy, this one...easily the best Pokemon game out there. If you could only play one for some reason, play this one. Story-wise, it probably means A LOT more if you played the previous game, but still almost holds out on it's own. But what it really has going for it is all the stuff you can do in the post game - probably the most catchable legendaries since HGSS, Battle Subway AND the PWT - AND Join Avenue (really good for competitive folks like me)< AND I had the most fun on Wifi there (the trading stem was 1000 times better than the one we have now, unless they really upgraded it in ORAS). I've probably battled on Wifi just as much in X, but IDK...I guess I just miss those 2D sprites...I remember when the BW sprites were first revealed, and I was starstruck to see the moving, breathing sprites. It was just... _...

X: Story was the blandest since the GB days, but those games had Team Rocket in them, so I'll let them get off easy there, since I've always had a thing for TR, like alot of people. But anyway, I DID really enjoy the Trainer Customization feature, Mega Evolution, and a few of the new breeding mechanics. And hordes. EV training is much easier now thanks to those.

Well, those are all the main series games I've played. Not sure why I spent a half hour writing all that....go away NL.
(jk)

To most people "What's the best pokémon game?" = "Which pokémon do you like the most?".

So sadly B/W will be pretty low in this poll checks
...Yup...and ORAS are extremely high despite being pretty mediocre games.

Boy do I love Emerald, I have beaten it 6 times and have played for countless hours. I know that I was only alowed to play on my GBA for one hour a day, but that didn't stop me. ORAS are great remakes and I highly recommend getting a copy. I also would try find HGSS because they are also amazing.

For me it is Gold/Silver.
All later Pokémon suffer from feature creep. The games get so overloaded with features. G/S improved upon R/B in so many ways and still kept the game simple enough.

My two favorites seem to be whatever is most recent (6th gen) first and then Red and Blue, for nostalgia.

@SphericalCrusher

"Well, I'm one that started playing Pokemon with Blue/Red, and although I love them, X got my vote. It's not wrong, but people should consider everything fairly (in general)."

As long as you gave it considerable thought, fair enough.

"But you'll get the kids who only played one game vote for it lol"

Oh yes absolutely, I was just pointing out an obvious truth.

Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire

These are remakes done right. They keep the original in mind while adding new content, and this game is well worth it.
Personally, HG/SS are my 2nd favs, pretty much the same deal here, but the nostalgia and amount of fun I have had with ORAS had me come back to it 24/7.
My least fav was X and Y because it was too easy, I didn't like the story, Team Flare was a JOKE, Professor Syncamore wasn't exactly important, and so much more. I loved the big jump to 3D and how the game was still a great game.

I felt X&Y was the biggest leap forward in quality, and not just graphics. If there was a patch for X&Y that allows al the extra mega evolutions from ORAS, I'd stop playing ORAS and keep playing X&Y only (I still play both).

I don't think the remakes should be considered part of the 'main series', but since they are, can't beat Fire Red/Leaf Green. Red and Blue will always be my Pokemon games because I played them during the huge hype when I was deep into the craze. Fire Red/Leaf Green added some great features and ultimately gained my top spot.

There is only 151 Pokemon in my heart, and none of them look like garbage bags. I bet the Pokerap would be about an hour long at this point.

The most votes are skipping Emerald version... You're all wrong!!!!!!!!

I honestly cannot decide here. Every generation has their own ups and downs. I would have voted for one of the first two generation games, if they were compatible with the 3rd gen (and thus with all subsequent gens as well in that sense), but that's not the case. I honestly love ALL of these games! I've had so much fun with every single entry in the series. The only games that I probably wouldn't vote for are Diamond and Pearl because battles went waaaay too slow there, but even those are excellent entries. Being the weakest entry in the Pokémon main series is absolutely no shame when every single game has so much quality! I'm always looking forward to the next installment in this much beloved series.

I can't decide. The only thing I know is that the 4th gen is my least favourite. And the first 3 gens were vastly improved in the remakes. I got all the pokemons playing FireRed and spent most time battling on Emerald. I also loved Yellow when it came out and I love all the inovation brought by X/Y and OR/AS. You can't go wrong with pokemon as even when they're bad they're still very good.

Tough choice, but I'll go with Hoenn. Especifically, ORAS. Just love that region, to me it's the Pokémon game that makes me feel more that I'm on a adventure. My least favorites are probably HGSS and XY. XY just has a very poor post game, and while I like Mega Evolutions, there aren't a lot of new Pokémon.

And I'm not really a fan of the world of HGSS. Johto felt small and crammed to me, and Kanto is a smaller,watered-down version of the original. I'd like much better to have a single,well-constructed region like the other Pokémon games. I know GSC made a lot of improvements over the originals, but since I started by playing games that came after it, I just wasn't blown away by it. I do like the idea of having more than one region though. I kind of want GF to do something like that with more care in the future. Still, I think XY and HGSS are very good games. Looking foward to Z,let's see if they'll make me think more fondly of Kalos in relation to the other regions.

I wonder what Ronda Rousey would pick...

I haven't played them all, but I think XY is the best overall, in terms of refinement...it's the Pokemon game I'd always wanted ever since Pokemon Stadium gave everyone the first taste of fully 3D Pokemon combat (only took 13 years!).

My personal favorite is actually Fukemon, heh heh heh...

Yellow was the last one I legitemetly had fun with.

Crystal was my all time favorite.

Crystal is the best, definitely. Something about those old GBC graphics that I really love.

Let's be honest here-those who pick Gold/Silver/Crystal, did it for nostalgia. I think those Pokemon games were amazing, and would've been my favorites if it weren't for the remakes. So in my opinion, the remakes of Gen 2 (Heartgold and Soulsilver) are the best!! What other Pokemon game had any of the available Pokemon in Gen 4 follow you around, travel to a second region, fight 16 Gym Leaders in remastered DS graphics, catch BOTH mascot legendaries in-game without trading, and came with a Poke'Walker peripheral? These games are the perfect Pokemon games and the only thing that could make them better was another remake into XY's 3D engine. xD

This is coming from someone who has played every main series Pokémon game when they were released.

I have enjoyed most of them on release and couldn't put some of them down until I had beaten the Elite Four's every last Pokémon dead.

The ones I haven't enjoyed though are X/Y and OR/AS and that is because the games are too easy. I loved the challenge in Pokémon games and the earlier games had the tougher Elite Four lineups and Gym Leaders with overpowered Pokémon which could conquer most teams you'd have at that point in the game. There's too much hand holding in X/Y and OR/AS as in you're constantly being told where to go and there's no "work it out for yourself" mentality. While OR/AS was a great remake and added to the great features of R/S/E, the above has ruined the experience for me.

Because of the replay value quality of X/Y and OR/AS, I may not buy anymore of the games. I'm not very pleased that the Battle Frontier was left out of OR/AS either, that was a must if they were going to remake Gen 3.

The ones with the best replay value were HG/SS and B2/W2 in my opinion. Join Avenue and Black City/White Forest were great in B2/W2 and HG/SS had the Olympic minigame type things which were fun in multiplayer! The original R/S/E were also good in my opinion, the secret bases from other games appearing in my games when you traded with people was a great feature at the time.

I ended up voting HG/SS anyway and that has majority of the votes at the moment.

Heartgold and Soulsilver for sure.

Gold/Silver blew me away and still has the best vibe of all the games imo, plus you get to go back to Kanto and beat the old gym leaders. No contest.

This is hard...
I never really got a good kick out of the new Gen 6 games despite wanting to, but they did have to beat in my opinion the best Generation, (being Gen 5) I now cannot decide between Black/White or HGSS (I know it's Gen 4, but they are standalone gems in their own right)
Black/White: Tepig, Snivy and Oshawott my favourite Grass and Fire starters along with 3rd favourite Water. IN my opinion it gave birth to some of the best music and Pokemon designs in a long time (Trubbish is kind of cute, ok?) despite not liking Musicals a whole lot.
HGSS: Totodile 2nd favourite water type starter. Two regions. Pokeathlon.
I guess it's Black?White

blue will always be my favorite, but i think that is just nostalgia taking over.... other than than i loved crystal, but i think that might be the same thing... so i guess alpha sapphire is my next favorite that i didn't play growing up...

Platinum and Heart Gold are my favorites. But Platinum is by far the best for me because of the Distortion World. I loved that world and you could catch a lot of legendaries in that game.

All I want is a 3DS classic top down remake of Yellow. -_-

Classic pokemon RPG'ing

That was a hard choice. I went with Fire Red/Leaf Green, but XY was really close. It just couldn't beat the greatness of the first game's remake.

i have to say pokemon diamond/pearl and platinum because it was the first pokemon games i ever played

Love X n Y!

Emerald because battle frontiear @ FREAKING GAME CORNER!

Heartgold and Soulsiver for sure. I played that game for absolute hours and hours and enjoyed it. I finished it numerous times and yet it still entertained me. The fact that I missed the originals at their proper timing (I half played them like 8 years after their release) made it even better, an entire new region to discover! I miss the artwork that we experience in Gen IV too, sure it was simpler but I love how crisp the colours and textures were!

Soulsilver was packed with more content than I could handle and for that I loved it. Second would be Diamond

No love for platinum? that game is my fave pokemon game

Are you insane Nintendo life. this is either troll bait or you are just crazy. This question has started epic flame wars. All pokemon games are the best. we play Pokemon as a whole. Every game has brought something big to change things up. every generation has booth good and bad designs for pokemon. Every gen is unique but still it is the same game we love.

Gen 1 started it all, Gen 2 was the first step towards breeding and fixed many issues such as Special.

Gen 3 introduced Abillities which was Massive and made Pokemon a competitive game as well as introducing EV/IV

Gen 4 Was probably one of the biggest shifts with the physical/special split

Gen 5 had hidden abilities, made the online the most accessible yet and had tonns of content

Gen 6. Megas, Easier EV training. easier breeding, and the best online functions .

Plat > GS > RB > ΩＲαＳ > XY > HGSS > RSE > DP > Crys > Yell > BW/2

We should do a poll which generation. Cause I'm still on Omega/Alpha hype train.

Everyone likes silver/gold and yet that's my least favorite.

In ORAS, does anyone know when you get the fly ability?

@drewb0203 Right and after the six gym.

I can't really pick for the best - they're all wonderful games, in my opinion - but my favorite is definitely Black/White 1. The story really helps with that - it evokes something for me that no other game in the franchise has duplicated, with the exception of the Explorers set of the PMD spinoff series.

Right behind those are Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, which I played like crazy in my middle- and early high-school years. Ruby was my first GBA game, and it introduced what has remained my favorite species family (the Ralts line) to date. They also have my favorite Gym Leader battle music (sadly, I feel the OR/AS revision of that theme isn't quite up to par).

X/Y feel the most polished in terms of general gameplay, IMO, save for navigating Lumiose City.

I unthinkingly voted for red/blue, even though black and white were my all time favorites. Red and blue take a very close second though.

@Strife89 I agree with you on pretty much all accounts.

none

I chose Crystal. Took everything Gold/Silver refined from RBY, and further refined it! Pretty much everything that subsequent entries in Pokemon did after Gen 2 were more or less already covered by or at least already had the groundwork laid down for by Crystal. It was also the first title to offer online multiplayer through the IR port to cell phones! (JP only though, USA is always behind Japan in everything) Playing through Crystal Kaizo is also giving me a newfound appreciation for the title. Honestly, I can't go back to the baby easy difficulty of the vanilla versions of any gen in the series. I'm looking forward to trying out Perfect Heart / Perfect Soul versions!

It's rediculous that so many technological goodies like animations were in Crystal, yet they didn't become standard until B&W. How did Game Freak screw that up so many times? It just goes to show what a labor of love Gen 1 & 2 were.

32 percent picked the Johto region Pokemon games. GSC and HGSS. I remember when I first played Gold and Heartgold. To me, I would say Johto were the best all-around games. Best Gyms, Pokemon, E4, Villains(Team Rocket), ability to travel two different regions, lastly you can beat Gary and Ash in that game.

Black/White. Good story. Broke many Pokemon traditions like single use TMs and having to win elite 4 to complete the story.

And the final dungeon/battle was EPIC.

Personally, I'm torn between Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (most of my all-time favourite Pokés are from Gen III) and Black/White (best Pokémon villain and general story progression so far).
But I begrudgingly gave my vote to OR/AS. I don't like them, and I don't like GameFreak's current handling of the franchise, but there's no denying that they're the most refined editions of all so far (except for the laughable difficulty, but Pokémon was never a hard game, anyway).