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Pokemon: Retrospective Game Review
12 years ago
General
People often argue about which pokemon game was the best, so I decided to put my two cents in. Really, I think that your choice of "Best" game will rely almost entirely on what criteria you use to evaluate them, as there is no one game that trumps all the others. So with that in mind, I've broken down the best and worst of each category with a brief description of why I feel the games deserve that spot. So with that in mind, let's get started!
Story
Winner: Pokemon Black/White
Runner up: Pokemon Platinum
Last Place: Pokemon Black 2/White 2
As a general rule, the pokemon stories have gotten strictly better over the years, with a few notable exceptions. However, I believe the game story peaked with pokemon Black and White one, which turns the entire pokemon formula on its head by questioning the very nature of the game, and creating a rival/evil organization story that not only unfolds in a way you would never expect, but even ties it up with the pokemon league challenge and a final revelation that twists everything you thought you knew about team plasma. Fighting for a runner up spot are Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire and Pokemon platinum, but I chose pokemon platinum just because it feels more epic to be talking about resetting the entire universe.
Absolutely last place is pokemon Black 2/White 2. I'm not going to go into great detail here but suffice to say I have NEVER felt less engaged playing a pokemon game. It was generic, uninteresting, and just... bad. All this is even before you factor it into being a direct sequel to my top pick.
Edit: On re-reading this I don't think it's fair to complain about a game without explaining why I think it's poor, so I'll break it down quickly:
-Team Plasma devolved from a morally ambiguous eco-terrorist organization into just an outright group of evil thugs who just wanted to take over the world
-There is no story about Team Plasma's plan at all in the early part of the game, you just kind of wander around and randomly thwart them while they harass sheep or whatever they're doing.
-You don't get to capture the legendary pokemon before the post game content
-Ghetsis just ragequits his plot for no good reason after you beat him
-Also, I know this might be a minor detail... but eventually blocking you with NPCs or having the ninjas escort you out when the Game designers can't figure out a good way to guide you about the game just feels really lazy.
Pokemon Selection
Winner: Pokemon X/Y
Runner up: Pokemon Crystal
Last Place: Pokemon Black/White
I should note that this isn't about "What new pokemon got added?" so much as "What pokemon are available to you as you play the story?" As I find this to be a much more critical factor in game enjoyment. And topping that category by far is pokemon X/Y. The game gives you access to nearly every popular pokemon you could ever want very early in the game as well as rolling in some new gems as well. At first I was sad that pokemon bank wouldn't be around for the launch, but I'm really so far past that it doesn't even matter. There were so many pokemon I loved I had to triage which ones to take with me. Pokemon Crystal is a great runner up, it offered you your favourite classic pokemon as well as bringing in some very adorable new ones. Maybe I'm nostalgic, but I love me some old school pokemon designs.
Last place might be a shocker considering the last category, but I found many of the new Black and White pokemon designs rather unpalatable, and worse they were the only ones you could access outside of trading until after the main story. Very disappointing.
End Game Content
Winner: Pokemon Black 2 / White 2
Runner up: Pokemon Soulsilver / Heartgold
Last Place: Pokemon Red / Blue
As much as I am bitter about Black 2 and White 2's pathetic story, it is by far the clear winner for things to do once you beat the game. There is the battle tower, movies, Pokemon wold tournament... Really if I hadn't have sold it out of spite I'd probably still be playing it. Soulsilver and Heartgold are also high up there with their daily and weekly events as well as pokelympics or whatever it's called, as well as having the battle tower.
Last place goes to Red / Blue because, let's be honest, after beating the game there wasn't a whole lot to do besides catching mewtwo and link battling your friends. This award comes without shame however, as it was still a very groundbreaking game. I just feel like if you're going to judge honestly based on categories, you can't let overall quality bias to sway your opinion.
Competitive PvP Quality
Winner: Pokemon Gold/Silver
Runner up: Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire
Last Place: Pokemon Red/Blue
Special note: Pokemon X/Y excluded from considering pending more time to see repercussions.
Gold and silver made so many changes to pokemon competitive play I'm not even sure where to begin. Pokemon holding items became a thing. Weather became a thing, pokemon BREEDING became a thing, and most importantly the dark and steel were added to counteract the dominant psychic types. Everything we knew about competitive pokemon was flung out the window. And while the contributions of Gen 3 and 4 helped add new depth to the game, nothing has had the impact that Gen 2 did.
Last place is pretty straight forward. I honestly don't know how the game even shipped with Psychic in the shape it was.
Music
Winner: Pokemon Heartgold/Soulsilver
Runner up: Pokemon Black 2 / White 2
Last place: Pokemon Ruby / Sapphire
I'm going to omit the graphics contest because I think it's a little straight forward and biased towards system limitations, but I think Music is fair topic to judge the games on, and Heart Gold and Soul Silver clearly come out on top. Not only do they do improved remixes of all your favourite themes, they have some new gems as well. The improved DS sound technology really shines here. Pokemon Black 2 and and White 2 are runners up for having a remix of just about every awesome pokemon song ever in the Pokemon world tournament, but I think that's just not enough to really win this competition
Last place was a hard decision for me and I briefly considered putting no last place at all. Ultimately though I felt like I had to choose and there just... isn't really that much memorable music from Ruby and Sapphire, and the endless brass instruments got a little annoying after a while.
Overall:
???
Overall, it's very tough to pick a winner, there are even a few more categories to consider like graphics, relative innovation and online support that could even affect one's decision. In the end, I don't think I have a favourite, What do you think?
Story
Winner: Pokemon Black/White
Runner up: Pokemon Platinum
Last Place: Pokemon Black 2/White 2
As a general rule, the pokemon stories have gotten strictly better over the years, with a few notable exceptions. However, I believe the game story peaked with pokemon Black and White one, which turns the entire pokemon formula on its head by questioning the very nature of the game, and creating a rival/evil organization story that not only unfolds in a way you would never expect, but even ties it up with the pokemon league challenge and a final revelation that twists everything you thought you knew about team plasma. Fighting for a runner up spot are Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire and Pokemon platinum, but I chose pokemon platinum just because it feels more epic to be talking about resetting the entire universe.
Absolutely last place is pokemon Black 2/White 2. I'm not going to go into great detail here but suffice to say I have NEVER felt less engaged playing a pokemon game. It was generic, uninteresting, and just... bad. All this is even before you factor it into being a direct sequel to my top pick.
Edit: On re-reading this I don't think it's fair to complain about a game without explaining why I think it's poor, so I'll break it down quickly:
-Team Plasma devolved from a morally ambiguous eco-terrorist organization into just an outright group of evil thugs who just wanted to take over the world
-There is no story about Team Plasma's plan at all in the early part of the game, you just kind of wander around and randomly thwart them while they harass sheep or whatever they're doing.
-You don't get to capture the legendary pokemon before the post game content
-Ghetsis just ragequits his plot for no good reason after you beat him
-Also, I know this might be a minor detail... but eventually blocking you with NPCs or having the ninjas escort you out when the Game designers can't figure out a good way to guide you about the game just feels really lazy.
Pokemon Selection
Winner: Pokemon X/Y
Runner up: Pokemon Crystal
Last Place: Pokemon Black/White
I should note that this isn't about "What new pokemon got added?" so much as "What pokemon are available to you as you play the story?" As I find this to be a much more critical factor in game enjoyment. And topping that category by far is pokemon X/Y. The game gives you access to nearly every popular pokemon you could ever want very early in the game as well as rolling in some new gems as well. At first I was sad that pokemon bank wouldn't be around for the launch, but I'm really so far past that it doesn't even matter. There were so many pokemon I loved I had to triage which ones to take with me. Pokemon Crystal is a great runner up, it offered you your favourite classic pokemon as well as bringing in some very adorable new ones. Maybe I'm nostalgic, but I love me some old school pokemon designs.
Last place might be a shocker considering the last category, but I found many of the new Black and White pokemon designs rather unpalatable, and worse they were the only ones you could access outside of trading until after the main story. Very disappointing.
End Game Content
Winner: Pokemon Black 2 / White 2
Runner up: Pokemon Soulsilver / Heartgold
Last Place: Pokemon Red / Blue
As much as I am bitter about Black 2 and White 2's pathetic story, it is by far the clear winner for things to do once you beat the game. There is the battle tower, movies, Pokemon wold tournament... Really if I hadn't have sold it out of spite I'd probably still be playing it. Soulsilver and Heartgold are also high up there with their daily and weekly events as well as pokelympics or whatever it's called, as well as having the battle tower.
Last place goes to Red / Blue because, let's be honest, after beating the game there wasn't a whole lot to do besides catching mewtwo and link battling your friends. This award comes without shame however, as it was still a very groundbreaking game. I just feel like if you're going to judge honestly based on categories, you can't let overall quality bias to sway your opinion.
Competitive PvP Quality
Winner: Pokemon Gold/Silver
Runner up: Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire
Last Place: Pokemon Red/Blue
Special note: Pokemon X/Y excluded from considering pending more time to see repercussions.
Gold and silver made so many changes to pokemon competitive play I'm not even sure where to begin. Pokemon holding items became a thing. Weather became a thing, pokemon BREEDING became a thing, and most importantly the dark and steel were added to counteract the dominant psychic types. Everything we knew about competitive pokemon was flung out the window. And while the contributions of Gen 3 and 4 helped add new depth to the game, nothing has had the impact that Gen 2 did.
Last place is pretty straight forward. I honestly don't know how the game even shipped with Psychic in the shape it was.
Music
Winner: Pokemon Heartgold/Soulsilver
Runner up: Pokemon Black 2 / White 2
Last place: Pokemon Ruby / Sapphire
I'm going to omit the graphics contest because I think it's a little straight forward and biased towards system limitations, but I think Music is fair topic to judge the games on, and Heart Gold and Soul Silver clearly come out on top. Not only do they do improved remixes of all your favourite themes, they have some new gems as well. The improved DS sound technology really shines here. Pokemon Black 2 and and White 2 are runners up for having a remix of just about every awesome pokemon song ever in the Pokemon world tournament, but I think that's just not enough to really win this competition
Last place was a hard decision for me and I briefly considered putting no last place at all. Ultimately though I felt like I had to choose and there just... isn't really that much memorable music from Ruby and Sapphire, and the endless brass instruments got a little annoying after a while.
Overall:
???
Overall, it's very tough to pick a winner, there are even a few more categories to consider like graphics, relative innovation and online support that could even affect one's decision. In the end, I don't think I have a favourite, What do you think?
black and white, to me, had a completely generic story with no thought put into it what so ever.
the story was so bad that they had to have an npc placed every 10 steps to tell you where to go next.
and alder was such a crappy champion. just a generic "mysterious" spikey haired man who "knows the ways"
hoopblah!
You're welcome to disagree. I get a lot of flack for hating B2/W2 so I must say these rankings are solely my opnion
I just hate when I prefer the earlier generations people just start going all "oh you're just a gen 1-er"
i get same when i discuss past Final Fantasy v newer ones lol. i missed Pokemon gens 3 and 4 mostly, so i'm uber behind on this stuff like "o power" "IV" "traits" "abilities" and such :o
Charmander char!
4 and 5, in my opinion, was complete shit.
"Team Plasma" was a complete copycat of shit PETA does XD
BLIZZARD! WOO!
Honestly, I love seeing such varied reactions on the same games, and it really shows you how hard it is to make a game that'll please everyone.
Incidently, call me bias but my money's on HG/SS for best game, though I wish they had Pokemon following you outside of their pokeballs in more games than that, and Amity square doesn't count.
In truth, I was skeptical about X/Y because of the prevalence of older pokemon, I was afraid it was going to be mostly old faces with a few new ones thrown in for good measure. Hell, I was originally going to skip Gen 6, but my resistance was about as structurally sound as wet toilet paper.
As it stands, Gen 4 is my least favourite for reasons I won't go into here, but mostly our thoughts on Gen 5 are, different shall we say.
Team Rocket:
legit black market type shady business with their ongoings and ill will+treatment to pokemon.
Team Magma/Aqua:
eco-terrorists...
Team Plasma:
PETA. come on! kidnapping animals/pokemon to "liberate them"? dead giveaway there lol
i'm still living in yesteryears of when we called the generations by a grouping rather than numbers. Red/Yellow/Blue = "color versions", Silver/Crystal/Gold = "metal versions", Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald = "gem versions"....then we hit Diamon/Pearl/Platinum and just moved into "well....they're not all metals/gems/whatevers anymore so....generation #" :v i was stoked thuogh when HeartGold and SoulSilver got made. was epic as hell reliving my obsession with those two in nicer colors and same game feel overall ^^'
But yes on it's own Merits, HG and SS or gen 2, did have the interesting aspect of revisiting places from the first game, which I believe that should factor into it's story.
Now as for Mega Evolutions, from what I seen of it they almost appear game breaking when it comes to the Meta, though I'm not sure by how much it buffs, but a universal buff to your pokemon without consuming a turn is pretty huge.
I'm old school, in general, i prefer the older pokemon designs to the new ones, and love the idea that you can ever get the original starters in X and Y.
I'll definitely be keeping your reviews in mind though!