Generation 1 was awesome for a lot of reasons. For everyone who complains about there being "not enough" of a storyline, keep in mind it was not only the first game of a series they weren't even 100% sure would take off, but also that they had far more details planned out than you'd think all along, and with every additional game in the series more part of the story are revealed. With each game that comes out another piece of the over-all story and timeline of Pokemon is revealed, and the fact that they've so far managed to connect every single game's events so far in one way or another without being up front, gimmicky, or over-the-top, but actually SUBTLE and well executed, says volumes about Gamefreak's abilities as game designers.
Generation 1 set the foundation for what is in my opinion one of the most expansive and detailed storylines in all of modern game history. The amount of intricate little things that tie each of the stories together is amazing, and when you size up all the little details and nods the series tends to make you'd be amazed how much thought and work actually goes in to it all.
Generation 2 is probably my favorite in terms of Nostalgia. While I probably spent more actual TIME on the very first game, completing the Pokedex completely (including a legitimate Mew), the second one will always be near and dear to me for how deeply it pulled me in to the game, and how for the first time it actually made me feel connected to my Pokemon. The first game was great and had me hooked on the series for life, no questions asked there. But the second game was what sealed the deal. It had so much nostalgia in allowing you to back to Kanto, backwards compatibility making all the time I put in to the first game completely worth it, and features that made the game to me just so realistic and engrossing that I can honestly say its one of my favorite games of all time.
Generation 3 was really not as on-par in terms of features. But honestly after much deliberation I really can't say that they were bad games. Granted they may not have had the time they wanted to put in to the games to make them what they could have been (and I'd say Emerald is probably a far better representation of what they were trying to go for in the FIRST place). I won't lie. It took a long time for the Pokemon in this game to grow on me. Spoiled by gen 2, I'd have to say. At this point I couldn't possibly picture the series without a single one of them, and would love nothing more than to see characters such as Sableye or the Nincada line make a triumphant return in a regional dex some day. While you can argue that the storyline may have been weaker or less fleshed out in this game, this very storyline helps to tie up many loose ends established in previous games, which while many are a matter of interpretation, FireRed and LeafGreen nearly almost certainly confirms as well as current games HeartGold and SoulSilver. 3rd gen also introduced many of today's battle mechanics which I honestly can't see how we'd live without now, it's more than just difficult for me to go back to playing the Gameboy Color games with how limited they feel now.
4th Gen had the same problems as 3rd did for me with adjusting to the new Pokemon but again, Gamefreak has done an excellent job of integrating each and every one in to the series in their own way. While Gen 4 had a lot more incidental Pokemon that didn't feel like they brought a whole lot to the storyline (Crescelia and Heatran, for instance), a lot of this was meant to tie in to movie events and other such external things that us as Americans were never able to gain real exposure to. This generation brought remakes of perhaps the best games in the series, as well as introduced a fun and HUGE region in the form of Sinnoh. I'm serious, Sinnoh was HUGE. While I won't lie and say the game has been nearly as memorable for me, or that I've put in nearly as many hours in to it as I did with the others, I think a lot of it has to do with me getting older and while I will ALWAYS be a Pokemon fan, its become a bit harder to engross me since GSC. That still being said, the games were incredibly well done and if they ever have a Gen 5 (which I'm incredibly adamant about, I'd love to see them find more creative ways to utilize the Pokemon they currently have in a new region), I would only hope it is as large if not larger. Exploring has always been a huge part of the games for me and so I loved the fact that there was so much to see in these games, it really helped me feel right in the middle of things.
tl;dr, I personally prefer Generation 2 but when it comes down to it all of the games are amazing and unique in their own way. |