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Best "first" Pokemon game for a child?

So can someone please explain to me why anyone would get a 7 year old kid with no nostalgia for the series Heartgold or Soulsilver? For a kid that age, always go for the newest gen. Always

Pokemon follow you like Pikachu follows Ash in the show. Seeing as how a lot of people love that feature, a 7 year old girl would adore it. The Pokewalker allows you to bring your Pokemon when you go for a walk; exercise is good for kids, right?

Two regions in one game. Seeing as how she's following the original cartoon, she'll recognize the Kanto Gym Leaders when/if she gets to Kanto.

The Pokeathalon (?) is one of the best minigames in the series.

Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver is not my favourite, but I can see why people would recommend it.
 
Again, suggesting an old game =/= saying you have to play them in order.



Better than XY. My favorite is gen 3 anyway (GBA games).

On what metric? You're own personal taste? Because that's super tainted by Nostalgia. The one thing HGSS has over newer games is the battle frontier, but a 7 year old is unlikely to get much milage from that because it's aimed at way more experienced players
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Pokemon follow you like Pikachu follows Ash in the show. Seeing as how a lot of people love that feature, a 7 year old girl would adore it. The Pokewalker allows you to bring your Pokemon when you go for a walk; exercise is good for kids, right?

Two regions in one game. Seeing as how she's following the original cartoon, she'll recognize the Kanto Gym Leaders when/if she gets to Kanto.

The Pokeathalon (?) is one of the best minigames in the series.

Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver is not my favourite, but I can see why people would recommend it.

You do know that kids who watch the anime won't really recognize Johto or Kanto right?

Pokemon interaction is done much better with amie. Hell I'd argue following Pokemon is shallow compared to how amie handles it (not to mention unobtrusive).
 

wmlk

Member
So can someone please explain to me why anyone would get a 7 year old kid with no nostalgia for the series Heartgold or Soulsilver? For a kid that age, always go for the newest gen. Always

The following Pokémon is the main thing for me. Not even kidding. Especially for a kid who might have a strong attachment to Pokémon already.

From what OP is saying, his daughter might recognize the older Pokémon. So, there's that as well.

Also, HGSS is a huge game. I know that a lot of people like to consider the second part largely filler. I don't like the second stretch of the game as much either, but it can keep OP's daughter engaged for a really long period of time all the while exploring more of the Pokémon world and going back to the series roots.
 

Berordn

Member
If she's going to be playing them with others I'd normally say the most recent ones would be the best (OR/AS) since it's fresher in their heads and is going to support all the new forms and mega evolutions that others might have.

But if you want more of the OGs to show up in the main game then X/Y for sure. It's littered with Gen 1 Pokemon and you even get one of the original starters very early into the game. Pikachu even shows up in the second area with its anime voice, so that'll probably be a nice surprise for her.

The games are still going to feature a lot of the older ones from the show in any case. They're always pretty common at various points in any of the games, though in the case of B/W it wasn't until after the credits roll.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
With that said, the only positive thing I can see for suggesting HGSS is to finally kill that goddamn Whitney difficulty bullshit people have been spreading.

On a related note it seems not people aren't watching XY. Go watch it. Now. Subbed. Easily trumps the OS saga in spades.
 

L Thammy

Member
Yes. Hell, you're given one straight up in XY. And again, that still doesn't mean they'll have a ton of nostalgia for the old VIDEO GAMES

You're given one later. If she's watching the older show and wants to see the Pokemon from the show, as suggested by the OP, it actually makes sense for her to play a game which focuses on older Pokemon. i.e., a remake.

You're whining about everyone else being tainted by nostalgia, but you also don't seem to be taking the kid herself into account. I mean, you might be right, but don't act like you're not displaying tunnel vision yourself.
 

harmonize

Member
Either FireRed/LeafGreen or X/Y. The first have most of the human characters and Pokemon from the original show, while the latter have most of the Pokemon characters and many more that were introduced later.

If all you have is a 3DS, just get X/Y.
 

Caronte

Member
But then everyone's suggesting in this thread, yet has that air of "required playing" in them.

No. They are just saying their favorite.

On what metric? You're own personal taste? Because that's super tainted by Nostalgia. The one thing HGSS has over newer games is the battle frontier, but a 7 year old is unlikely to get much milage from that because it's aimed at way more experienced players

Any game with that awful main city is automatically bad. The world itself in XY is also really boring, I didn't even finish it. And no, the new Pokemon weren't the problem, I thought they were vastly superior to other generations. I thought the gameplay itself was bad. The only reason to play XY is for the online mode.
 
Uh you see people in this thread suggesting very old games. Hell, even people recommending XY are recommending it for the wrong reasons (i.e. what I meant).

Hell, it's actually a great approach to the series without the 90's goggles taint.
The kid likes the original show it's not unlikely that she has attachment to the early Pokémon from the series. XY gives a great base for the child as it has those Pokémon. For an adult, yes the nostalgia bias is stupid. For a child watching the show XY is a great jumping off point as it gives her access to those Pokémon and new ones to make her own personal attachment too.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
No. They are just saying their favorite.

Any game with that awful main city is automatically bad. The world itself in XY is also really boring, I didn't even finish it. And no, the new Pokemon weren't the problem, I thought they were vastly superior to other generations. I thought the gameplay itself was bad. The only reason to play XY is for the online mode.

Honestly XY is the "fresh" of Gen VI so I'll wait until Z or XZ/YZ which is pretty much coming. With that said I feel like the problems with Lumiose City is exaggerated. Once you get to know how it works it goes well in stride.

ORAS did leave a terrible taste though and I can see that, it's quite inferior to XY in any way.

The kid likes the original show it's not unlikely that she has attachment to the early Pokémon from the series. XY gives a great base for the child as it has those Pokémon. For an adult, yes the nostalgia bias is stupid. For a child watching the show XY is a great jumping off point as it gives her access to those Pokémon and new ones to make her own personal attachment too.

I agree on that point, I wish people would refer to that more.
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
"Everything after [title I like] goes downhill" is a silly argument. No Pokémon game is perfect, but, overall, the series gets improves with each iteration.
 
Get the latest ones, you might have nostalgia, they don't. My 7 years old daughter loved Indigo League, started with Omega Ruby and was blown away.
 

Azuran

Banned
More complex mechanics does not equal to improved gameplay.

For Pokemon, yes it does. Pokemon RBY border on unplayable after XY.

The base game are pretty much the same so why should anyone suffer through outdated gameplay mechanics?
 
You do know that kids who watch the anime won't really recognize Johto or Kanto right?

Pokemon interaction is done much better with amie. Hell I'd argue following Pokemon is shallow compared to how amie handles it (not to mention unobtrusive).

The OP just said that she's currenly watching the *original* anime. She won't know Johto at first, but she WILL know Kanto's characters.
 

Mika

Member
The correct answer, I've found, is whatever game lets the kid get their favorite Pokemon the easiest. Last year a friend of mine asked me for advice on what game to get her son. He liked watching the Diamond & Pearl series at the time, and carried around a stuffed Piplup that was half-destroyed with a 4-year-old's love.

So I got him a copy of Platinum, my friend dug up her old DS Lite, and the kid got his Piplup and named it IRONMAN. He was pretty much happy from that point.

Granted, he was only 4. If the kid's older and actually has friends to play the game with, the most recent release should be the default pick.
 

Crayolan

Member
You do know that kids who watch the anime won't really recognize Johto or Kanto right?

Pokemon interaction is done much better with amie. Hell I'd argue following Pokemon is shallow compared to how amie handles it (not to mention unobtrusive).

The OP made it quite clear that their kid is watching the original anime series, not the XY anime, so they should recognize Kanto just fine.
 

nubbe

Member
ORAS or XY

They are new player friendly

XY lets you customize the characters, something Girl tend to like
 

Azuran

Banned
You're given one later. If she's watching the older show and wants to see the Pokemon from the show, as suggested by the OP, it actually makes sense for her to play a game which focuses on older Pokemon. i.e., a remake.

You're whining about everyone else being tainted by nostalgia, but you also don't seem to be taking the kid herself into account. I mean, you might be right, but don't act like you're not displaying tunnel vision yourself.

It's just kinda hilarious seeing people recommending old games to a 7-year old that's probably interested in the newer stuff like pretty much every kid out there. Even if her favorites are not in the newer games, she still has over 500 unique monsters to choose from.

There's also features like Pokemon Amie and character customization that offer a LOT more interaction that some random Pokemon following you in the old games.
 

faridmon

Member
Why don't you ask your daughter who is her favourite Pokemon and get her the games that have that Pokemon?
I think all of them are designed to be the ''first'' Pokemon game for youngsters.
 

Caronte

Member
The games have gotten much faster, remember when weather was shown every turn, and pokemon games has always been pretty easy.

No. Play a GBA game and you'll see how much faster it is. Even for things like how fast the exp bar fills when you defeat something. And now they are easier than ever since you get 6 times the exp you would get in the old games.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
Rule of thumb when introducing a newcomer into the Pokémon series is always suggest the latest game and not let your nostalgia blind you.

There is no real reason to go backward in the Pokémon series other than curiosity.

OP I echo the recommendation of Pokémon X and Y, they have the gen 1 Pokémon plus more, furthermore they are very beginner friendly and are currently still being supported so she can trade and battle with other trainers.

Only go backward once she has finished it and wants more.
 

brinstar

Member
X or Y, then Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire. It's always best to start with the newest titles that have an active community. The DS games no longer support online.

X/Y is very beginner friendly.
 

entremet

Member
No. Play a GBA game and you'll see how much faster it is. Even for things like how fast the exp bar fills when you defeat something. And now they are easier than ever since you get 6 times the exp you would get in the old games.

Gen 3 was pretty fast plus RSE were 60FPS.

Gen 4 was super slow. Makes those very tough to replay, although HGSS improved some speed from the glacially slow D/P.

It got faster with Gen 5 and Gen 6 is the fastest since Gen 3.
 

Asgaro

Member
FireRed or LeafGreen since those are remakes of Blue/Red/Yellow.

I'm playing FireRed currently through an Android emulator. :)

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Meffer

Member
Any latest mainline game is fine, but I suggest HeartGold or SoulSliver. They're the ones with the most content.
 

Roto13

Member
Ignore these losers trying to rank the games like it matters. Get whatever one her friends are playing. Probably Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire.
 
Pokemon X/Y is really beginner friendly. It has easy to follow dialog so she wouldn't get lost, it's so easy and simple I'm using it to learn French.
It's pretty straight forward and you can get Pokemon from the show very easily, from Pikachu at the very first 15 minutes (who even cries "Pika-pika!" instead of its normal gameboy sound) to the series starters (Bulbasaur, Squirtle or Charmander) at 20-30 minutes, and other early series Pokemon during the first 20 minutes (Caterpie, Weedle, Pidgey). Besides, with the Online functionality, you can search for any Pokemon you'd like to trade for in case she wants them but can't find them, and the 3D graphics make the Pokemon look more like their anime conterparts.

I bet she'd like Pokemonamie too, which is a kind of Nintendogs with any Pokemon you have. I know I would have liked when I was young.

Heart Gold/Silver Soul are also nice options, having any Pokemon (up to gen 4) following your character in game to transferring one of her Pokemon into the Pokewalker when going on a walk. However, I'd say a great deal of HGSS has to do with nostalgia, so the game may not be THAT great to someone who didn't experience the original games first.

So... I'd say XY/ORAS.
 

Firestorm

Member
Pokemon X & Y. Always go with the newest. In this case X & Y has a lot of the Gen 1 Pokemon as it was partly aimed at getting people back in the series. She'll even be given a Bulbasaur as part of the story!
 

nubbe

Member
a 7 year old didn't play as Red and experience Kanto
so HGSS will never be as great for a new kid

Gen5 and Gen6 is exceedingly more playable for a kid
drop those rose tinted glasses
 

Daemul

Member
Always get the newest games for a beginner to the Pokemon franchise, older gens will be unplayable to them.
 
X/Y - easily the best one for newcomers. It's the one that two of my friends finally latched on to after not really being into pokemon before. Personally my favourite in the franchise as well (along with Emerald).

If not X/Y, then OR/AS. The newer games are better due to the sizeable online community for each one.
 
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