Pokémon... Where to start?

[sanquin]

Heartgold and Soulsilver give you the most bang for your buck. As as far as I know they're the only games that have two area's. Both the area's from gold/silver and red/blue.

Alternatively, x and y are good. The game is less challenging than earlier ones, but has a lot of things that previous games didn't have. Plus, it's also a HUGE step up graphics-wise.

 

[drthmik]

So which game would you guys say has the most Pokémon available without having to share from other games/go online?

Definitely X & Y
While I have done some wonder training just for the fun of it I have not been trying hard to "Catch them all" at all and I have over 350 in my pokedex

 

[Baldr]

Never buy an old Pokémon game, parts of the games are locked off forever unless you own it and go online during a certain limited time.

Those events were to get Legendaries, there people like me who would get the legendary, trade it to another copy, then reset the game to get it over and over again. We have tons of extra copies willing to be traded. Especially for shinys to complete collections. Don't think that because it was only around for a certain time, that you'll never be able to get it.

 

[KorfZin]

Never buy an old Pokémon game, parts of the games are locked off forever unless you own it and go online during a certain limited time.

Those events were to get Legendaries, there people like me who would get the legendary, trade it to another copy, then reset the game to get it over and over again. We have tons of extra copies willing to be traded. Especially for shinys to complete collections. Don't think that because it was only around for a certain time, that you'll never be able to get it.

The legendaries can be traded. The items and in game areas and events cannot.

 

[Duskflamer]

If you care deeply about the game's storyline, go for Black or White. If a poor story doesn't bother you, go with X and Y

-You're not missing out on anything other than story by skipping the older generations.
-The 3D graphics are incredibly good, even compared to the best sprites from previous generations.
-The new EXP. Share item practically eliminates the need to level grind after the first gym.
-About 450 pokemon are available straight up in the game, with a lot more being available through the Friend Safari if you're lucky and have a lot of friends.
-The multiplayer mechanics, both for local and online, are vastly improved compared to previous generations.

And those are just the reasons off the top of my head to go for X and Y.

 

[SpAc3man]

Yellow is by far the best in the series. Play that one.

Ha, only with nostalgia goggles on, they were great for their time but Gen I really hasn't aged well. Graphically, it's badly drawn monochrome sprites on a white background. The Kanto region is the smallest and most basic, with around half the number of towns of recent installments. The only postgame was catching Mewtwo. The Gen I metagame was also horribly broken in favour of psychic types, with their only counter being bug types which had no moves in that gen above 25 power, and many bugs were also secondarily a poison type which counteracted their meagre advantage over psychic types.

If you have to play a Kanto game, choose FireRed or LeafGreen, which are superior in every way. But seriously, just play X & Y since they have been improved so much and still feature the original 151 pokemon heavily.

Doesn't even matter because you get all of the starters.

Yellow is like Gen I.1 Improved sprites and colour pallette etc. I agree you shouldn't bother with Red or Blue but Gen I is still an important part of the series.

Hence play Yellow. It's abandonware so just download an emulator and a ROM. You could easily get through it in a few sessions.

 

[Artina89]

Pokemon is one of the most accessible games out there, it is fairly easy to pick up any of the generations and play and you don't really need to play any of the previous generations to fully understand what's going on. Having said that, if you are going for a 3DS you might be better off going with Pokemon X and Y as that is the game that utilizes the 3DS's capabilities the best, since that was the Pokemon game that was made with the 3DS in mind.

 

[Brotha Desmond]

I'd say either Heart Gold or Soul Silver. Gen 2 was a great gen, with crystal still holding up to this day in my opinion, and their remakes are pretty good, too.