Poll: Best Pokemon Generation?

[FakeSympathy]

Pick best/favorite pokemon gen. based on the following;

1.Pokemons introduced (Gen. 2 would have no.152 to no.251)
2.Gameplay/new things they added with the gen.
3.The Story

Remakes such as FireRed, OmegaRuby, and HeartGold are not included

 

[RJ 17]

The original, obviously. Back then it was still a broken, exploitable mess of a game...and I quite enjoyed exploiting the hell out of it.

 

[Aerosteam]

Gen 4 introduced the physical/special split of the moves instead of having its type determine which one. To me that was the biggest change (and improvement) in the series.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Design wise I would say Gen 1 and the latest one.

 

[BlackBark]

I always liked Gen 2 and thought they introduced a lot of cool things: day/night cycle with different pokemon, pretty decent set of new pokemon and of course having two regions to (re)explore.

Black and White/2 seemed to try a bit harder with story, but I wasn't a fan of the pokemon of the Unova region.

X and Y were a breath of fresh air again. I hope they take it even further with the next generation and give it a bit more of a story with more interesting characters.

So yeah, Gen 2 is probably my favourite, with Gen 1 and X and Y as a draw for second place.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Sure Gold did let me revisit Kanto but I had invested more time in Diamond than I did with Gold. In saying so however that when I did try the whole "Gotta catch them all!" thing especially when they made it transferable from the GBA Pokemon into it.

If we were to dicuss the Pokemon Gens only then that would be a hard one. Sure I still favour the olds one but Gen 1 had too many water Pokemon and Gen 2 not enough 3 based evolution Pokemon. So overall it would be maybe Gen 4 and 6? Gen 5 was abit of a mix mag for me as they had cool looking Pokemon but they weren't so great in battle or stats wise.

 

[FPLOON]

To me, Gen 3 had the Pokémon, Gen 5 had the story, Gen 3 had the gameplay, and Gen 6 had the greater [modern] accessibility...

Other than that, the first two Gens are too nostalgic for me to judge them fairly and I skipped Gen 4 out of sheer forgetfulness...

 

[Estarc]

I started on Gen 2 so I feel very nostalgic when I think of it. But I voted Gen 6. Cause Gen 6 is the best game made so far. Pokemon is a series that seem to be getting better with each release more or less, and the technology X & Y introduced is mind blowing. Going back to the pre-3D games is painful. Makes me wonder how I ever managed it.

Beyond that the story and gameplay is just really solid. Reusable TMs, reducing the necessity of HM slaves, the introduction of your own little gang, mega-evolution, the Battle Chateau, different hairstyles and heaps of clothes. It's just a great step up.

The post game content is the only thing lacking in X & Y, and for some stupid reason that seems to always be the case with the first game(s) of a Pokemon generation.

 

[Nazulu]

Yeah, it's easily Gen 2 for me. Most of my favourite Pokemon designs were in that set, though Mewtwo is still the best.
The first 3 gens of games had my favourite map layouts and soundtracks, 2 and 3 had the best atmosphere. And none of their story's or characters did anything for me.

 

[Cold Shiny]

Well, Gen 3 has my favorite legendary, Rayquaza, so I guess I'll go with that, although I love pokemon in its entirety.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Gen 6. I haven't played Gens 3, 4 or 5, but 6 seems to have much better variety and type balance than I remember, as well as not requiring nearly as much grinding until the Elite 4. I also liked the option to customize trainer appearance, the Team Flare plotline, and the reusable TMs.

 

[Silvanus]

The best generation for Pokemon designs was the first, but if we're talking about the best generation of Pokemon games, then it's probably Generation 2, letting you revisit Kanto at the end of Gold/Silver.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Toss up between 1 and 2. I liked having 2 regions in Gold but the second one felt like endgame rather than an integral part of it.

 

[Kingjackl]

Pokemon gens have a reverse Star Trek movie thing going on with me where I feel like the odd-numbered ones have always been the best. With that, I love gen 5. The setting felt fresh, plenty of cool new mons, the closest the series has ever come to a decent story, and I liked the idea Black and White had of having only new Pokemon. No running into the same old Zubats, Geodudes and Tentacools every other route.

 

[Pseudonym]

Gen 2 or even better, the gen 4 remakes of gen 2. The second area makes the endgame much more worthwhile for me.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I know the poll options are jokey, but gen 5 deserved better than "LOL bridges." Gave us the best stories and characters by a long shot.

I guess I gave it away with my Gen 5 is my favorite. As far as the Pokemon themselves, Gamefreak set out to make a new gen with over 150 Pokemon, and did a great job with it. Of my top ten Pokemon, six of them are gen 5 Pokemon, and there are so many other great ones in the mix as well.

Gameplay wise, there was not much added. Hidden Abilities were kind of like prototype mega evolutions that made weaker Pokemon more competitively viable. They changed the meta game for sure. There were also triple and rotation battles, but that didn't really make a big impact. However, there is a good reason why there were few new gameplay mechanics.

THE STORY! Gamefreak really wanted to make a story and character driven Pokemon game in regards to 5th gen. It really shows when you compare the stories of all the other games, and Black and White's. The same could be said for the characters. The Gym Leaders actually caring about stopping the evil team alone makes them better than any other gym leaders from any other game. N was certainly more interesting than any other evil team leader, primarily because he was far from evil, just misguided by the other primary antagonist.

I like all the generations, but I've come to appreciate gen 5 more than all the rest. Gen 5 used to be a punching bag for the Pokemon fandom. Thankfully, people either gave it another chance, or saw what Gamefreak was trying to accomplish with the games, as it gets a lot more praise than it used to.

 

[TristanBelmont]

3 was always my favourite. I must have put 200 hours into Sapphire, Emerald, and Ruby (and the remakes). I probably have the map memorized.

 

[vare]

This is a very difficult question.
As a long term player, I would put the latest three generations above the earlier three, simply for the improvements in gameplay that happened in gen 4. The physical/special split is huge in terms of making a whole bunch of pokémon more viable. That plus the huge amount of new moves (or at least that's how it felt) that capitalized on the split. Finally a bunch of mons were more viable - mainly the physical dark- and psycic types. I feel that the split just made the game more fun.
Also, I

As others have pointed out, the story of BW/2 is probably the strongest in the series (ymmw ofc.)
The reusable tms and the lowered focus on HMs to hinder progression through the game was a nice change.
What I didn't like in BW (but was sort of amended in bw2) was the low amount of available pokemon in each area, especially during the beginning of the game. To compare with gen 1, where you could encounter (disregarding starters here) 7-8 different families before the first gym, in bw there were like four, including the monkey.
The diversity sort of kicks off in the mid- to late game, with some great mons like Siglyph, braviary, mandibuzz, the threestage bugs, axew and hydreigon (although you probably won't be able to use one before the aftergame due to high evolution level) etc.
The beginning of bw always leaves me sort of disappointed.

Also the introduction of pick-your-own-elite4-member! Where you can take them on in whatever order you so choose. That's a great improvement in my opinion. It prevents you from having to level in order to be able to take on the champion or the later e4 members - and in the process making the earlier ones a complete joke.

I'm playing through HG currently. I was quite a bit under Lance pokemons levels, but way too powerful for Will and Koga to be a challenge at all.

XY sort of continues the path that bw put down, but since it includes old mons as well as new in the main game it has that typediversity that bw lacked. I thought it was just a superfun game to play. The introduction of hordes and the friend safari (and the pokefinder thing in oras later) made finding pokemon with hidden (and fun) abilities much easier, and the supertraining allowed all to monitor the EV progress and all that. Also, pokemon amie is adorable
The one bad thing about XY really is that it really isn't a difficult game. Especially the later gym leaders and the elite four really has too few pokemon. Three and four respectively? c'mon

 

[Legomaniac91_v1legacy]

From a gameplay standpoint, I liked Gen 4 the best. The physical/special split made me reevaluate a number of pokemon I'd initially dismissed due to their lack of appropriate move (Gyarados in particular went from being "HM slave at best" to "One of my favorite Water types")

From a story perspective, It would go to Gen 5. Specifically Black/White. While the other villains were threatening in the general "take over the world" sense, the conflict against N and Team Plasma felt more personal. These guys weren't just trying to take over or destroy the world, the were going after one of the fundamental aspects of Pokemon itself. In many ways N reminded me a lot of Amon from The Legend of Korra; both believed one of the cornerstones of their world was evil and needed to be erased because a few bad examples had blinded them to all the good that had been done. The difference is that N eventually realized he was wrong after seeing that the player's Pokemon was actually happy being with it trainer and he decided to try and undo the damage he and his organization had done. Unfortunately, this great idea for conflict about Pokemon's right was completely squandered in the anime, but thats a rant for another day.

 

[Fractral]

I love Gen 5. Black and White are still my favorite Pokemon games simply by virtue of having a story that was actually engaging, and having interesting characters.
I like all the other generations except gen 2, simply because HG/SS bored the hell out of me. They were interesting up until the 8th gym, at which point the game's story runs out. The rest of Johto and all of Kanto just felt completely empty. You explore a massive area in which fuck all happens! I just burned out trying to complete Kanto because there was no reason to do it beyond clearing out a second set of Gym Leaders.