Rank the Pokemon Generations!

[xplosive59]

Gen 2 > Gen 5 > Gen 3 > Gen 1 > Gen 4

I really did not like Gen 4 for some reason, and my favourite Pokemon designs come from Gen 2 and Gen 3 but Gen 5 had an awesome story so that is why it is second.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

God genwunners are annoying.

Spoiler

Gen 3. IDK why, but I always loved sapphire. the world is so much more awesome, and I loved the starters. Plus the legendaries are amazing.

Spoiler

Gen 4. I really liked it a lot. Sinnoh region was great, and I loved the starters. The legendaries are pretty shit though

Spoiler

Gen 1. It's very close to second place, as it is the first I played, but a lot of the desings just aren't very good...
Kanto will always be the region I think of when I think pokemon, and the starters are great. Many of the normal pokemon are just quite shit though :.

Spoiler

Gen 2. I just really don't like it. Johto was always boring, the starters are terrible and so are most of the pokemon. Legendaries are good though

Never played B/W. can't judge.

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

I go by order of release with number one starting at gen 1.

 

[silver wolf009]

Alright then, here I go:

Spoiler: Gen 3 First.

I put this one first for a number of reasons. Firstly, I felt that the break away from the area of Johto and Kanto were nice, and the island itself just felt like it was the right size to me. Yes, there was a huge amount of water in the bottom right hand corner, but a lot of that was only optional. Heck, you don't even have to go to Pacifilodge town at all.

Other than that, I liked the Pokemon that lived there. I mean, how can you dislike a bipedal, armored metal triceratops? And while it's WAY too overused nowadays, Fire Fighting was a good combination, and Blaziken's a good Pokemon, his little tuft of crotch feathers not withstanding.

The music was awesome, with the Team Leader music and Drought in particular being the best. I mean, just listen to them:



That second one really got me moving. I remember reading a comment that summed up what I had thought when I first picked up Ruby: "I used to think if you didn't move fast enough, Groudon would destroy the world, and this music is what helped me think like that." The legendaries, for the first time, had an impact on the story. You weren't just fighting a group of thugs, you were fighting a freaking cult, who have a viable and functional way to completely ruin the world.

That, and Steven is the best champion, having a suave suit and a great team of Steel and Rock typed Pokemon. Metagross is best Pseudo legendary by the way. He's like an Alakazam, but a tank.

Spoiler: Gen 4 Second

While I've yet to finish Platinum, [footnote]Yes, I know, I'm slow.[/footnote]I can't ignore the improvement that is the special physical split. That alone made a huge impact on the series and the gameplay. That, and it's had some good Pokemon to boot. Empoleon's really awesome, barring his bib, and that typing makes him unique and resistant. One's going on my HG team when I finish Platinum.

The legendaries are alright. Not my favorite, which are the gen three legendaries, but Dialga looks really cool with his chest plate and diamond heart, while Palkia holds his own, even if he does have high heels for feet.

Gen four does have some drawbacks though. Cyrus really is a Final Fantasy villain, with a stupid, stupid plan, even if he is the only Team Leader that orders an actual bombing, and I'm not a fan of the section in the Pokedex that's just third stage evolution, even if some of them, Gallade, are really good.

Not my favorite, but pretty high up there, especially for what it did to move how the games are played.

Snip.

Pontya is so a viable fire type. I've got one right now, and she's able to outpace the competition and smack them upside the face with flaming hooves of fury.

Spoiler: Gen 1 Third.

Wait wait, don't shoot me.

Yes, they're good games. Yes, they're the first. Yes, Articuno is awesome. I've just never fallen in love with them.

Oh, I played them quasi-religiously at the time, but I looking back, they're just alright.

Spoiler: Gen 2 Fourth.

Okay, I may not have strong feelings for Gen 1, but when it comes to Gen 2, I've just never liked it.

Johto has always been, to me, the weakest region. Yes, they have some good Pokemon, but none that I'd keep on my team given alternatives.

Heck, HG was the first time I've ever just dropped a starter, favoring my Gengar over Typhlosion.

Spoiler: Gen 5 Last.

Why is Gen 5 last? Is it because I hate the designs, the region, or the moves?

Nah. I just haven't played them, so I'm not putting them ahead of anything I have played.

However, if I were to take a stab at it, I'd be pretty happy betting on them coming in third, right above Gen 1.

 

[windlenot]

I haven't bothered playing any other generations aside from the first two until before this year. I just assumed they'd be rubbish. And now that I've played a bit of Sapphire and talked to friends who have played the later two, I'm going to arrange em like so.

Generation 2. I felt like this expanded without making dumb mistakes. It allowed you to return to a slightly differeny Kanto which I felt was pretty cool. I enjoyed the hell out of Silver, nuff said.

Generation 1. What can I say? It's just classic. There are enough Pokémon to know what they do, although nobody knows why Charizard can't fly.

Generation 3. I just annoyed by too many stupid things. Why is there a Pokémon that's a mix between a Brontosaurus and a banana tree? Why did the swap out the order of your pokemon and your bag in the battle scene? I don't need to see my Pokémon every time I use a HM. I just got too annoyed to enjoy it as much as Silver.

Generation 4 & 5. Just cause I haven't played em and probably won't.

 

[gigastrike]

Gen 3: Great Pokemon designs (shut up, they are), interesting and deep world, easily a better story than the first two game combined, and introduced many of the best game mechanics such as abilities, weather, proper berries, and nailed personal houses in a way that no game since has been able to match.

Gen 5: Best story in the series, to the point where I actually cared about what was going on, rather than just playing through to get to the next gym. Unlike most people it seems, I liked the new designs and art style.

Gen 4: Falls a little short on pokemon designs, but the world was deep and splitting special and physical by moves is always a good thing.

Gen 2: More of gen 1, and I think that's the only reason why people like it. Granted its world is better, and the fact that it introduced two new types is nice, but they barely did anything with it. The story is just an extension to the already boring gen 1 story, and the second half of the game is essentially just replaying the game that we just had with no side quests and wild pokemon that are improperly leveled.

Gen 1: Boring story, boring pokemon designs, boring world. Really the only thing I liked about it was your rival. Lets all just take our nostalgia glasses off and accept that the new ones really are better.

 

[Fractral]

Oooh... thats a tricky one.
Gen 3 first- I liked the region more, and it has the coolest legendaries imo. Also FR and LG were amazing. It also added natures, abilities and made the EV system actually interesting.
Gen 5 second- because it made so many improvements to the metagame, making it so much more fun to play online.
Gen 4 third- because this gen finally added special/physical to each move, rather than having all fire type moves being special, for example. I'd say it made the competitive side of pokemon worth playing.
Gen 1 fourth- The region was cool, and the designs cool, but it had so many bugs and the competitive side was awful- no IV's, EV's were boring, etc.
Gen 2 last- I managed, just about, to play through HG/SS once. Every time I've tried to replay it I've got bored before the 8th gym leader. So much grind, so boring. The region was too small, and Kanto felt rushed and lifeless. There isn't even any storyline in Kanto, just walking from Gym to Gym along short, empty roads. Massive dissapointment.

 

[silver wolf009]

3rd. Gen 3. It had more stuff: double battles, abilities. Although the Team Magma/ Aqua arc was, I found, a little lame. Although it had Breloom and Gallade so all is forgiven.

Do you mean Gardevoir? Gallade's from Generation Four.

 

[silver wolf009]

The only correct answer to this question is POKEMON SUCKS ASS.

Why would you come in here just to say that? What does it accomplish for you, or for anyone?

 

[Captain Pirate]

1st - Generation 5
<spoiler=Explanations>
Yeah, generally speaking it has the most Pokemon that I hate/don't care about, but game wise, it has to be the best by far. The entire region is incredible to explore, and all the little extra parts and details don't feel tacked on like they did in previous games.

I liked the way they cut down the legendaries, compared to the insane amount of useless ones in Gen 4, and made them all interesting and, most importantly, usable.
In every other Generation, the more titular legendaries have usually been one of these:
1) Caught post-game, making them rather useless.
2) Been legendary beings, which when caught felt like you were merely imprisoning them.
3) A danger to the region/world which is caught to tame its power.
In Black and White, this is different. Reshiram and Zekrom are powerful, sure, but they are never described as being wild, or dangerous, etc etc.
The one on your box art in fact chooses you as its champion, which I found awesome! No longer would I have another overpowered monster to be caged in my boxes, but a legitimate Pokemon to use! Another neat fact was the opposite chose N as its champion, making for an epic final rival battle.
The same applies for the legendary trio, the Musketeers. By the first/story ending of the game, the average trainer level of Pokemon is significantly higher than any of the trio, making them as legitimate to use as any of your other team.

The story was also incredible.
However the best thing, I think, is the post-game. A whole quarter of the region is opened to you, and while it has no Gyms, it has new Pokemon, trainers, and all sorts of things to do. Especially amazing was the Elite Four happening twice, which makes sense in the story. They are much tougher to finally beat than any other game, with the lowest Pokemon they have at level 71. Bearing in mind that the wild Pokemon you can fight to train your own cut short at 65 at best, training your final team up to a level that stands a chance against the Elite Four is a real challenge.
I still have yet to beat them, and I'm on my 125th hour.

So, in my opinion, while it does have the most sucky Pokemon, the rest of the game more than makes up for it.
[/spoiler]

2nd: Generation 3. I really can't be bothered to explain it all, I just liked it the most. Has the best Pokemon for me. I also have a Flygon and Gorebyss that I've had for literally 9 years, so it really has been the game I've grown up with more than Gens 1 and 2.

3rd: Generation 2. Blah blah blah, improved on everything that happened in Gen 1, awesome Pokemon, blah blah blah childhood, blah blah blah two regions.

4th: Generation 1: Blah Blah Blah original.

5th Generation 5: It's last because it felt too forced for me. The Pokemon are badass to be sure, but the region was rather dull, the story was what we've all seen before and felt like Gen 3 in a different colour. It was just the least memorable and interesting game for me overall.

As a side note, I hope they stop doing remakes. I want a Gen 3 SEQUEL instead. Same region, same pokes, new story, characters etc though. Maybe a new city or two, and the possibility of exploring another region, maybe Sinnoh or Kanto?

 

[Mr. Omega]

I'll break this down into three catagories: Region, Villains and Pokemon design.

Before I do, however: Gen 1 has not aged that well. After all the mechanical tweaks made to the series, one simply can't go back and play the original games, and then say with a straight face they were better. Maybe the remakes. But even then, the changes made afterwards just made the games better.

Spoiler: Regions:

1: Unova. Unova is certainly the most well-developed region. It's Gym Leaders had roles in the community, the champion was more integral to the plot, I prefered the way you fought the Elite 4 in B/W, and Unova just seemed more urban than the other regions.

2: Johto. Johto seemed a little more Japanese than the other regions, if that makes sense. And it's because of that, it's multiple towers and little odd bits of culture like the apricorn balls and dragon shrine that gave it an identity.

3: Kanto. Most of Kanto's limited development really comes down to technical limitations, and it being the first region limited how much could really be done with it. However, it did have the mot iconic Gym Leaders in the regions, and being first does give it some bonus points.

4: Sinnoh. Sinnoh had a lot dealing with mythology and some interesting areas to mess around in, but that's really about it.

5: Hoenn. Hoenn didn't really have much to distinguish itself, and it was really a chore to travel through at times. Some decent gym leaders, but the region itself was just dull. And the last third of the game being in water was fucking stupid.

Spoiler: Villains

1: Giovanni/Team Rocket. I know some might say "well they were just guys using pokemon for crime. The others were trying to change the world!" My response is this: sometime simple is best. Basically having the mafia, but with Pokemon served the purposes of an evil group just fine. Sometimes causing harm for fun and profit is really all you need for a good villain. Plus, Rocket was the only group to survive the departure of its leader (until Plasma, anyway.)

2: Ghestis/Team Plasma. What stops Plasma from being #1 is that they pissed away the chance at having genuine moral ambiguity in a Pokemon game. And it's not because Ghestis was using it all as a front. In fact, his manipulation of people with good intentions like N and the use of legends to fool the people to advance his plans makes him arguably the best leader of the 5 groups. What pissed away Plasma's shot at ambiguity was the fact that its minions were over-the-top cartoonishly evil. And they looked fucking stupid.

3: Cyrus/Team Galactic. Cyrus was certainly the most ambitious of the 5 leader. And he probably did come the closest to success. But everything else about Galactic was just so... forgettable.

4: Maxie and Archie/Teams Magma and Aqua. The plans were stupid. The villains were two dimensional even by Pokemon standards. And their Pokemon usage was almost completely interchangeable. Not much more to say.

Spoiler: Pokemon Design.

1: Kanto. Yes, this mostly comes down to nostalgia and the iconic nature of the original 151, but they're still well designed. While it's not as perfect as the G1ers say (there were plenty of stupid 'mons and lazy design choices), they're still fondly remembered for a reason.

2: Unova. It took some balls to try and hold up a region entirely on new Pokemon. And the Unova 'mons, while they had some more noticeable bad ones, also had some of the most fucking AWESOME ones since the original 151.

3: Hoenn. Plenty of originality among them and some really fun ideas came into play, and the introduction of abilities allowed for some fun novelty 'mons. An underrated bunch, IMO.

4: Sinnoh. Most of the bet pokemon from gen 4 were just evolutions of previous 'mons. But the fact is they were awesome, so I'm not really complaining.

5: Johto. Purely speaking of the new ones introduced in Jhoto, there just weren't as many stand-outs. There were some, like in all generations, but really, the fact that there were so little (a lot were just pokemon that couldn't be fit into gen 1) hurt it.

Overall, in terms of the actual gameplay?
Tie for 1: Gens 2 (HG/SS remake) and 5.
Tie for 2: Gens 1 (FR/LG remake) and 4.
3: Gen 3.

 

[geK0]

I know that Gen2 is my favourite one, but I have a hard time ranking the others; I guess if I had to, it would be like this

Spoiler: Gen2

The pokemon added in this gen were awesome in my opinion, and it's the only gen where the legendary pokemon actually look like legendary beasts instead of giant robots or large bald cats (I still love you Mewtwo). I also love the fact that you can travel to the older region; why have they no done this in the newer gens?

Spoiler: Gen1

This is mostly because of Nostalgia, I'll admit; I simply enjoyed this one a lot more than the later ones, and I can't really explain why, as the game itself is lower quality in many respects. One of the things that helped me enjoy it I suppose is the fact that I got it (pokemon yellow) as a gift with Pokemon Stadium (I didn't own a gameboy), so I got a lot more out of the game simply by catching ad training teams soley for using in pokemon stadium. Yes the other gens had their poke-stadium equivalents, but I didn't own them, and this is a personal favourite list which is by no means objective

Spoiler: Gen3

I liked this game, , I liked the pokemon it brought, I liked the villainous teams in this gen more than I did the others,This gen had my favourite starters, I loved the whole puzzle the game had for capturing the regis, Natures, abilities were a good addition, and EVs/IVs were a very welcome change to the way stats were calculated . This is a good game, and I hate to put it in the dead-center of my list.... as I said, I had a hard time picking an order for these; I'm just going to say that the horrible battle music lowers it's position on the list.... just so I have some sort of justification : \

Spoiler: Gen5

BW were pretty decent games overall. I had very mixed feelings about this batch of pokemon, I Hated more of them than any other generation, but absolutely loved many of them; there wasn't much "meh" in this batch, it was more of either "RAAAAGE" or "OMG YES!"; also, the legendries didn't look like robots for the first time since Gen2. I liked that the cities for the first time ever actually looked like CITIES, and the scenery in general definitely gets my approval. Gen5 just gets a lower place in my list because I didn't feel like it added as much to the game as any other generation did; it feels more like Gen 4.5.

Spoiler: Gen4

This is the gen where they added online battling and trading, which is something that the pokemon universe REALLY needed. I didn't like many of the pokemon added in this gen other than the new evolutions of old ones, but it did bring one of my favourites (Lucario); none of the pokemon seemed outrageously bad to me aside from Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Heatran, Biddof, Bibarel and Floatzel; but the rest were just sort of "meh"; making outrageously bad (looking)legendaries is a pretty big deal though.

This was hard to do because I loved all of them.

 

[natster43]

1. Gen 2 or 5.
2. Gen 1.
3. Gen 3.
4. Gen 4.

I have a real hard time deciding between which Gen I like the most, On one hand Gold and Silver/Heart Gold and Soul Silver have 2 regions, Red, a lot of stuff to do, and a wee bit of nostalgia for it as it was the first Pokemon game I played. On the other hand, I like the Pokemon introduced in Black and White more than most of the Pokemon introduced in Gold and Silver, and Black and White had a really good story going.
Gen 1 is good, not my favorite though. Also had some of the worst Pokemon in my opinion.
Gen 3 is also good. I kinda hated all the surfing and such, but really liked how Hoenn was set up. I am still waiting for them to announce the remakes for it.
Gen 4 in my opinion was the worst in the series. I really didn't care for how Sinnoh was set up, and besides Glaceon and Giratina, there were very few Pokemon I liked from it.

 

[HappyCastor]

1st- 5TH GEN, focused, tight, somewhat story oriented, and pokemon roster wasn't bullshit on a stick, even though only 5th gen pokemon were in it. Designs were clean simple and memorable. New battle types don't seem frivolous or tacked on. Entertaining post game. Level progression quick, to the point where it doesn't seem grindy. I also hardly had to look at my map pre-national dex, as Unova had a simple layout, either up or left. Didn't like the starters though,ANOTHER FUCKING FIRE-FIGHTING TYPE URGH

2nd- 2ND GEN. Fun, fast, and now up-to date. Great post-game plus a battle against Red. Fun pokemon roster, designs are great. Interesting locales... not so interesting layout. Pokemon following you is a nice tough. Level progression reasonably fast. Best starters to date. Elite four seemed easy


3rd- 3RD GEN, Interesting villains, Roster tolerable, designs A-, Interesting layout but dirt boring locales. A lot of tacked on and frivolous features... double battles almost non-existent, berry system and contests convoluted and unusable. Roster good, Poke designs great. Starters meh(fire-fighting type weeee). No update game, which we should be getting soon. Cool, and different postgame though.


4th- 4TH GEN, mostly due to the utterly fucked up roster. The designs were fine. The different types of pokemon available pre-nat dex weren't. Seriously, you'd think a gen that uses pokemon from other regions could get that right, but apparently not. Layout boring and forgettable. Battles move like molasses uphill on a hot day, save for platinum. Still can't remember what the baddies wanted. Starters all gain advantages against each other, which I think is kinda stupid. Not to mention that the game basically hits you upside the head the whole game through if you didn't choose Chimchar, ANOTHER Fire-Fighthing Type. It did add some cool new evolution methods though. Contests were alright.

5th- 1ST GEN, all I remember really is an unending grind. I didn't like to many of the pokemon, rosters were crap, the Elite Four were over powered in comparison to your level progression. Just boring in the utmost extreme. Completely bereft on features other than "Fight the people with the pokemon", and that was with the updated version. Starters were second best of all though.

 

[Terminate421]

1. 4th AND 2nd - I cannot choose between the two, they, in my opinion, shook up the games for me the most to where they mattered, as a bonus, they have alot of my favorite Pokemon. And I have, in fact, been playing since red and blue came out.

2. 5th - I like this one because of its attention to detail, plus the new shine behind it gives it bonus points

3. 3rd- I love this one but not as much as the 5th generation.

4. 1st- I still love it, but it feels...dated. I for the life of me, just can't pull it through to go play Blue again without feeling like its empty.


This thread is kinda depressing IMO because people will just say "I never played anything past X generation but I heard from one commenter that it sucked so I'll just say it did"

 

[DugMachine]

Generation 1 and nothing will top them ever.