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What's the best Pokemon game so far?

Black and white no contest. I know some people don't like the 'mons in those, but the refinements it brought to the game (reusable TMs! Nurses in the field!) made all of the earlier games feel like a pain.

It just felt incredibly fresh and I appreciated GameFreak's exclusion of the newer 'mons--it didn't feel like a rehash like most Pokemon releases do.
 
I really liked the visuals of HGSS, but the battles were slow as hell and I wasn't a fan of how clunky some of the translations were compared to pre-HGSS.

For me, FRLG was the most enjoyable, because the animations weren't nearly as slow as HGSS, and I preferred the translator for that game. Your asshole rival was rude, but kept the game light-hearted with his kiddy taunts. I just really enjoyed the fun tone of the game that was balanced with some of the darker parts (Cinnabar Island's mansion, Pewter City's haunted tower) without getting too serious or preachy.
 
Balb said:
Yeah definitely, but I'm just talking about older games. Things like trading and battle frontier have little to no value in the non-current games, to me at least.
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having post game content to me only means good things, sure post game content is most relevant in the most resent release in the series but it doesn't hurt for past game to have it

Cday said:
Stadium 2

Lost interest after the 2nd gen. The 2nd gen has a big flaw in that the early game is awful when it comes to catching compelling pokemon. It makes up for it with its post-game. The Game Boy aesthetic of the first 2 gens is so classic to me nothing compares. Then getting that Stadium and loading up your pokemon and seeing them battle in 3D. Mind blowing. Stadium also offered much more challenging trainers to fight than in the Game Boy game so it was a post-game of sorts. It was also really convenient in that you could trade without a link cable, could access information on when pokemon can learn certain moves in any version they're available in, you could play your game on it and speed the gameplay up either 2x or 3x speed and you could even store pokemon on the cartridge so you could start a new game and carry pokemon over from the last one without needing another Game Boy and pokemon game cartridge. Seems very un-Nintendo-like today, but it happened. Now we got pokemon bank subscription and no Stadium equivalent. Gee thanks. Their enthusiasm for the series clearly peaked in Gen 2 and so did mine.
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the need for a Studium game now a days isn't really need cause the mainline series no longer uses sprites
 
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum got me into competitive pokemon, and I got a lot of enjoyiment out of the single player campaign (Digging fossils rule, lots of legendaries, awesome fights, just right difficulty), also a few of my favorite pokemon got new awesome evolutions (Gallade, Porygon-Z, Weavile)

I love all Gens but 4th is the closest to my heart.
 
MissDeviling said:
I really liked the visuals of HGSS, but the battles were slow as hell and I wasn't a fan of how clunky some of the translations were compared to pre-HGSS.

For me, FRLG was the most enjoyable, because the animations weren't nearly as slow as HGSS, and I preferred the translator for that game. Your asshole rival was rude, but kept the game light-hearted with his kiddy taunts. I just really enjoyed the fun tone of the game that was balanced with some of the darker parts (Cinnabar Island's mansion, Pewter City's haunted tower) without getting too serious or preachy.
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I hope a Gen1 remake comes sooner rather than later. I no longer have a GBA SP but would really enjoy getting to play Leaf Green again.

I would have to Leaf Green was my favorite Pokemon game.
 
papertoonz said:
the need for a Studium game now a days isn't really need cause the mainline series no longer uses sprites
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An excuse. They don't want to put in the effort to make one. 3D models on the 3DS look worse than sprites. 10fps and jaggies everywhere. Who knows what a Stadium game could be these days if only they cared to apply themselves.
 
Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver is the most complete package imo (That's if you don't care for generations 5-6). Other than that I would go with Pokemon Black 2/White 2.
 
Cday said:
An excuse. They don't want to put in the effort to make one. 3D models on the 3DS look worse than sprites. 10fps and jaggies everywhere. Who knows what a Stadium game could be these days if only they cared to apply themselves.
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They look like old 2D sprites streched to act like pseudo-3D. I don't really like the direction they are going with but there's always room for improvement in the future.

I wonder why they never going full-3D, full RPG with complete story in any of their home consoles. That type of Pokemon game would probably have saved Wii U.
 
MBS said:
I wonder why they never going full-3D, full RPG with complete story in any of their home consoles. That type of Pokemon game would probably have saved Wii U.
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Agreed, but it would also be much harder to make, more expensive and perhaps outside their comfort zone. I don't think there was any hint of a comfort zone when they came up with Pokemon Stadium though. If they put the kind of effort and vision that it took to realize those games then in a modern pokemon game, who knows what we could get.
 
Black and White. Pokemon is the game that got me into playing RPGs because I loved that there were games that had stories, and Black and White put a ton of care into making the story enjoyable. Plus for the first time in 5 gens I was able to make a team of Pokemon I loved that originated from 1 gen.

For sheer content, BW2 is the best but my personal favourite is BW.
 
Rainbowgun said:
The best games but overlooked since they were sequels of the least liked generation of games
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Where does this come from? I only ever see praise for B/W, and deservedly so. The monster designs get knocked by people every now and then but that's about it.
 
Cday said:
Agreed, but it would also be much harder to make, more expensive and perhaps outside their comfort zone. I don't think there was any hint of a comfort zone when they came up with Pokemon Stadium though. If they put the kind of effort and vision that it took to realize those games then in a modern pokemon game, who knows what we could get.
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My best guess is that they are dealing with budget concerns, but at least they could make a Stadium-like game with 3DS-WiiU connectivity.
 
I just got through playing Soul Silver and I loved the fuck out of it! I might play Storm Silver next. That adds even more content, more pokemon and gives more exp. Shit cray!
 
HG/SS is so goddamn overrated. I can see why people might be disappointed with gen vi, but gen V stills blows it out of the water with both b/w and b2/w2
 
Personally I like gen 4 and gen 5, those two games really impressed me and I really enjoyed them.

I also enjoyed gen 1-3, though gen 1 pandering gets on my nerves since we have moved on since gen 1.

Gen 6 is my least favourite gen so far as it just disappointed me and is more heavily focus on competitive battle.

Battlechili1 said:
RIP my touchscreen
This game is how to get a heavily damaged touch screen.
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I actually wore out my DS stylus as I was too rough on it and was trying to rush the game.
 
Can't speak for ORAS, but Emerald was fucking rad. I love the two-team story in pokemon. Getting caught in a war for planetary domination was really neat.


Also Platinum was great, having to summon pokesatan from his excile to stop the gods was pretty damn rad
 
XY are objectively the best in the series. Each gen improved on its predecessor.

That said, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Gen IV.
 
Black/White and B2W2 are the best pokemon games. They have the best pokemon designs, the best legendaries, the best protagonist designs, the best looking region and B2W2 has the best post-game. The new pokemon games are so disappointing compared to those gems.
 
heartgold-soulsilver.jpg


black-white-2.jpg


These two are the best there are when it comes to an excellent main campaign for the games.

Both feature:
-Large national pokedexes with a really varied selection of pokemon
-Amazing Soundtracks
-Enormous Postgames
-Some decent difficulty compared to the series norm, IMO
-Some of the best visual/overworld design in the series
-A lot of the most memorable battles in the series
 
Team Alucard said:
XY are objectively the best in the series. Each gen improved on its predecessor.

That said, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Gen IV.
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Yeah man, I loved the unoptimised engine, non existent difficulty, terrible story, terrible characters (especially the 'rival'), weird gen 1 pandering (oh look Snorlax is blocking the road again, how exciting!), Lumiose City...

Objectively the best~~
 
Black/White (and to a lesser extent B2/W2) has a special place in my heart. It just stands out among all the other games. For many good reasons: story, setting, music, how they handled the new Pokemon (basically all others didn't exist in the main story) and characters made it the high point of the series for me.
 
Crayolan said:
heartgold-soulsilver.jpg


black-white-2.jpg


These two are the best there are when it comes to an excellent main campaign for the games.

Both feature:
-Large national pokedexes with a really varied selection of pokemon
-Amazing Soundtracks
-Enormous Postgames
-Some decent difficulty compared to the series norm, IMO
-Some of the best visual/overworld design in the series
-A lot of the most memorable battles in the series
Click to expand...

I don't know about Black2 and White2, but as I just finished Soul Silver, the variety of pokemon is not true. You'll basically only see the same ones from the original version until you beat the game and then at that point it would require bringing the power plant back up and listening to a radio station only on a Wednesday or a Thursday and not to mention at that point in the game you'd be way above the few of those Pokemon you'd find. Sacred Gold and Storm Silver fixes that though.
 
I'd say a few different ones are the best based on some criteria.

Best for "tryhard" battling online

OR/AS (with stuff from X/Y too) - The battle resort in OR/AS is PERFECT for this kind of thing, with the breeding center right there plus a circular walking path where the camera angle changes for you to hatch eggs. All you have to do is hold the D-pad left or right, you don't have to go to the end of a path and change directions.

Best Single Player

Black/White/Black2/White2

B/W and B/W2 kind of run together for me as far as storyline goes. B2/W2 was the best replacement for a third version we have ever seen simply because it was a continuation and still felt like a new game, even while largely taking place in the same region. The best part though was the fact that the villain team in these games was actually pretty cool. Instead of just being "We're bad people and steal Pokemon because we do bad things", they actually had a motive behind what they did. They were basically Pokemon PETA, and all the scenes of seeing them protest in towns and such was really cool. N and Ghetsis were the best villains the series has ever seen, full stop. I actually wanted to keep playing to advance the story, and not purely because I wanted to get to the postgame, which is my favorite part of Pokemon games.

Best Map

Heart Gold/Soul Silver - While Kanto was slightly gimped in this game and in the original version, it was still nearly to-scale of how it was in the first game. Seeing two worlds combined like this gave it a huge amount of content. Not only that, there was actually a Safari Zone this time!
 
Blasian Persuasion said:
I don't know about Black2 and White2, but as I just finished Soul Silver, the variety of pokemon is not true. You'll basically only see the same ones from the original version until you beat the game and then at that point it would require bringing the power plant back up and listening to a radio station only on a Wednesday or a Thursday and not to mention at that point in the game you'd be way above the few of those Pokemon you'd find. Sacred Gold and Storm Silver fixes that though.
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It's still a regional dex of 250+, which is a lot by the usual standards
 
RBY for the nostalgia. HGSS might be the best complete package for me though. Favorite music, two big regions, charming visuals, barebones but inoffensive story, and not a glitch-fest like the original games. It's not that I don't like XY or ORAS but they're just... kind of meh single-player experiences for me. Great multiplayer though.

That being said, TPC needs to stop making excuses and just give us another Pokemon Snap already.
 
I personally enjoyed the original Silver, Gold, and Crystal the most. I'm not so sure I'd want to play a game that slow today, but the atmosphere, music, and adventure were my favorite. Crappy 8 bit graphics can add a lot up to the imagination, and I felt the remake lost that (it also killed the music). Who can deny the last third of the game wasn't a complete mindfuck either? Biggest surprise in gaming as a kid up to that point.
 
Black and White 2......If they'd done the difficulty settings right no other pokemon game would even come close.

X and Y are garbage compared to them in everything besides graphics, pokemon and maybe some game mechanics and those are subjective.
 
Nostalgia aside, Black/White are easily my favorites. They shook up the formula quite a bit, especially with the story. Memorable characters, great region, huge amount of brand new Pokémon. They're so well made.

I really do like many of the improvements they added to XY, but I don't think they're quite up there with BW. I like them better than the Hoenn games though.
 
Black and White and BW2 are the best ones IMO. BW have a great campaign and is very fresh with only Gen 5 Pokemon until you beat it which is great, but lack much to do after you're done but BW2 have a ton of content afterwards and more variety with the addition of legacy pokemon throughout at the expense of a worse overall campaign.

Still though, they're both utterly fantastic and what Pokemon should have continued doing unlike XY which was a massive step backwards.

Platinum is also a great runner-up that contains many of the changes to the Pokemon battle system that are still used to this day such as the Phys/Special split so it doesn't feel too outdated and has a metric ton of content and a great campaign too. A fantastic choice if you don't mind sacrificing some of the neater QoL stuff Gen5+ adds like infinite TM's and Auto-Repel renewal. Still holds up IMO.

Emerald and below are a little too outdated and obsolete to be able to recommend, but Emerald is pretty good for Gen 3.
 
Zebra said:
Where does this come from? I only ever see praise for B/W, and deservedly so. The monster designs get knocked by people every now and then but that's about it.
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Well this isn't coming from this board, but talking with others in RL I see more dislike than praise for it, wich is why I have the impression it was the most disliked version :/
 
Cday said:
Stadium 2

Lost interest after the 2nd gen. The 2nd gen has a big flaw in that the early game is awful when it comes to catching compelling pokemon. It makes up for it with its post-game. The Game Boy aesthetic of the first 2 gens is so classic to me nothing compares. Then getting that Stadium and loading up your pokemon and seeing them battle in 3D. Mind blowing. Stadium also offered much more challenging trainers to fight than in the Game Boy game so it was a post-game of sorts. It was also really convenient in that you could trade without a link cable, could access information on when pokemon can learn certain moves in any version they're available in, you could play your game on it and speed the gameplay up either 2x or 3x speed and you could even store pokemon on the cartridge so you could start a new game and carry pokemon over from the last one without needing another Game Boy and pokemon game cartridge. Seems very un-Nintendo-like today, but it happened. Now we got pokemon bank subscription and no Stadium equivalent. Gee thanks. Their enthusiasm for the series clearly peaked in Gen 2 and so did mine.
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Are you me?

Also, throw RBY and GSC into that. Pokemon is all nostalgia to me, and I revisit it regularly. Just played some Pokemon Stadium 2 minigames with my roommate, and some trivia too. It's like seeing old friends.
 
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