Favorite Pokemon Game?

[darthmunky]

What is the best one and why? I have only played Red, Silver, and FireRed. My favorite so far was FireRed because it's just an even better version of Red. But I think I am going to start Platinum (Unless there's a better one?).

[Ivo]

I know it is not included (and probably not the kind of answer you want), but mine is Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire.

I hope they'll make another Pokemon Pinball game for the DS / 3DS soon.

Ivo.

[AppleQueso]

Crystal always seemed like the franchise's peak to me.

[DaGamingMonkey]

Red/Blue for me. First game that got me into the series (of course) first game that got me into the Gameboy.
Silver and gold is alright but can't beat out the original.

[AmishSamurai]

It's the general consensus that gen II (Gold/Silver/Crystal) are the pinnacle of the series. I'd say that the remakes, HeartGold/SoulSilver, took everything that made those great, and added enough to make it better. Like the stand-in for the dev team said- they managed to make it just similar enough that fans of the originals would appreciate it, but not get bored because "everything's the same".

Behind Gen II, I'd put all the GBA Pokemon games together. FireRed/LeafGreen were exceptional in the way that HGSS were, and the extra content was a blast. Gen III gets a lot of hate because of the excessive amounts of surfing in the endgame, but I felt that prior to that, Hoenn was so varied and rich that I could forgive it. Plus, it probably had as much endgame content as Gen II with the contests, expanded safari zone in Emerald, Battle Frontier, and Secret bases. I remember in an old file of mine, my friends and I through record swapping tried to get a trainer in every secret base. We came pretty damn close.

I'd say I dislike Gen IV the most of all the games. Sinnoh was a pretty bland region, and difficult as hell to navigate with that huge mountain in the center. It was incredibly slow, fights taking forever with slow entries, animations, not to mention it made you dread advancing the plot or using your PC or reconfiguring your pa- SAVING A LOT OF DATA, DO NOT TURN OFF THE POWER! They also took all the cool aspects of Gen III- Pokeblock making, Contests, and Secret Bases- and made them un-fun. Contests got these hit-or-miss accessory BS and dance sequence things, instead of just the appeal stage, Poffin making was more difficult than it should have been, and they turned secret bases into a chore with having to capture flags to clear out rocks. And for the people complaining about the surfing from Gen III, they managed to make something worse- that goddamn swamp. Oh Jesus the swamp. It still gives me nightmares.

[YoshiEgg25]

To be honest, the swamp wasn't so bad for me.

I'd still agree that HeartGold and SoulSilver are the top two.

[Erik_Twice]

HGSS for sure. Each new game greatly improved the previous version. I consider that there's nothing in the original two generations that wasn't there in better form in the remakes*.

While Gen III had it's share of problems, I feel it's better than Gen II games. It was less polished than Crystal for sure and the lack of old Pokémon availble was kind of a turn-off but it was the first game with a healthy competitive balance and the abilities were incredibly fun.

Competitive balance may not appear to matter much but it also affects casual play. Everyone knew how good Psychics were in first edition and most people had Alakazam somwhere in their team.

EDIT: Well actually I haven't played Diamond. I got it for free with HG back at release but never bothered to play it.


*Go into the menu, items, look for the bike, select bike.

[Haoie]

Crystal!

[GSZX1337]

Gold/Silver Those were the last ones I played.

[Betamax001]

Tough call, Red and Blue being the originals and the first video games I ever played. But Gold and Silver added so much awesome stuff to the series that I really enjoyed, and the remakes made them even better. My favorite.