Which Generation was best? (Pokemon Poll)

[someone3760]

Please put here what pokemon generation was the best and why. I would have to say the first generation because my first game that I owned was Leafgreen, and that is set in Kanto. I just recently bought pokemon red and had fun finding missingno.

[BoringSupreez]

Gen 1 is the most nostalgic for me. The first round of monsters are the best and most iconic IMO.

[someone3760]

I dare you pokemon fans to watch the original theme song and not feel something at your eye.

[lisalover1]

I love the nostalgia and simplicity of Gen 1, but statistically, Gen 2 really is better, as it essentially let you play all of the new game, plus the old game as a bonus.

[Flake]

Gen 1 is the most nostalgic for me. The first round of monsters are the best and most iconic IMO.

This a thousand times over. I think I logged over a hundred hours on Pokemon Blue and another fifty on Yellow.

[Betamax001]

I love the nostalgia and simplicity of Gen 1, but statistically, Gen 2 really is better, as it essentially let you play all of the new game, plus the old game as a bonus.

This pretty much. Gen 1 Pokemon Red and Yellow were the first video games I really ever played, so there is a ton of nostalgia there for me, but I also have a ton of nostalgia for Silver, because they really added a TON of new stuff and things to do. Something that the franchise has done little as of late.

[Key-Glyph]

I love the nostalgia and simplicity of Gen 1, but statistically, Gen 2 really is better, as it essentially let you play all of the new game, plus the old game as a bonus.

Bingo. They just took everything that ruled about Kanto, added to it and improved it, and then still gave you Kanto. It was brilliant. You might even say you could have your Kanto, and eat it, too! Ha ha! *ducks tomatoes*

I played the heck out of Red/Blue as a middle schooler, but for whatever reason never moved on to the later titles until I was well into college. (Diamond/Pearl was a mere year away from being released at that time, to put things in perspective.) Gold became a huge staple of my short breaks between undergrad classes; I even bought a Game Boy Color especially for the experience. A lot of love stems from my associating the game with that point in my life, but even while playing it for the first time I knew I was enjoying it more than its predecessor.

My brain treats the first and second gen pokémon as being one big mass. I think this is because there seemed to be a real style consistency between the two, but also because of the aforementioned fact that Johto was really Johto/Kanto. Those two regions and their pokémon are inseparable to me (although I suspect I would technically favor the second gen species more, if I counted them up).

[Erik_Twice]

The best games are the Gen II remakes: Heartgold and Soulsilver. They add the needed polish to the best game in the franchise, which was Crystal and even added a lot of fun stuff like the Pokewalker or fighting Giovanni.

I'm trying to cover this in depth in an article but what was lost after Tajiri, the original creator, left the team after making Gen II was charm. The exploration aspects, the plot and everything turned generic and grandiose instead of the personal tale of the original games. And each time they recycle the Team Rocket it's more forced and more like the villains in Final Fantasy, ugh!


Now if you want multiplayer action, which is really great, then play the latest release, hack it to avoid grinding for the right invisible values and fight!

[alienjesus]

The only 'bad' generation in my eyes is Gen 4, which was far too slow, and had a limited pokémon selection. It was still enjoyable though.

Gen 2 was definitely my favourite, although I would happily argue that Gen 5 (the newest games) are the 'best' in the series. Unlike most, I have a real soft spot for Gen 3 aswell. It was fast, it offered a good Pokémon selection and the world felt big and interesting.

[Balasubbie]

I could not disagree more with the sentiment that Gen 2 was somehow the series' peak. It honestly wasn't.

Kanto was included, yes, but it was a drastically compressed version of it, that still came in too big, so they'd inevitably had to start downsizing Johto, which, as a region alone, is one of the smallest going. Thus leaving with the issue of burning through one quite quickly, then being over-leveled for minimal challenge that Kanto presents.

Many of the features introduced in it were undercooked, however fine an idea, that didn't come near their potential 'til the necessary hardware upgrades from Gens following. The aforementioned post-game. The Battle Tower introduced in Crystal was essentially unplayable, as the AI was always clocked to have the best scenario in its favour, regardless of how prepared you went in. The concept only became worthwhile from Emerald onwards.

All I can say I liked about Gen 2 was the series of 'Mon it introduced, and Johto, for however short it came in at.

Gen 3 did a brilliant job of re-introducing Gen 1, and giving double the game in the process. Then, Gen 4 came along and gave you two fleshed-out regions, coupled with the refinements the series had seen 'til that point. Gen 2 was fine for its time, but it is entirely antiquated now. Admittedly, so many of its shortcomings can be attributed to the amount of memory present on the cart and system, but I'd have so rather to have one full, proper region, than two halves than somehow fail to make whole.

If I choosing favourites, I'd put in Emerald, for its crisp presentation of the R&S engine, along with the edits it made to it, working out for a fine standalone experience. Platinum is a very good game, that adds quite a bit in region, and removes a lot of the plodding-nature of Diamond and Pearl. And, of course, HeartGold and SoulSilver, for finally giving us a proper Johto, coupled with doing Kanto justice in the process.