murakyuumo

Veterans insist RBY were the glory days of Pokémon. Nostalgia enthusiasts proclaim their love for GSC. Fanatics embrace the fresh coat of paint RSE gave to the series, and younger players rave about the variety in DPPt. Which generation of Pokémon is truly the greatest? I present to you an unbiased-as-possible approach, comparing and contrasting the advances and shortcomings of each generation.

Generation I
“Hah! You’d better have BURN HEAL!”

Arguments for:

• The games that started it all, Pokémon would not exist without the flagship titles.
• Simplicity: 151 (or 150, if you insist) Pokémon was plenty enough. Choosing just 6 for a team was already difficult.
• Classic factor: Still enjoyable after many years
• Notoriety: Pokémon’s most recognisable faces (Pikachu, Charizard, Brock, Misty) originate in the first generation.
• Fun: Kanto had some of the most fun places to explore (Safari Zone, Silph Co., Seafoam Islands, Cerulean Cave)

Arguments against:

• Buggy: The handheld games had many exploitable glitches and crashed quite often.
• Not very user-friendly. Inventory space was a major issue, and it takes time to remember there is no registering Key Items.
• Imbalance in type representation. Gastly line were the only ghosts, Dratini line were the only dragons. Neither type had any decent moves. Bug also lacked a good attack. The Psychic type was considerably overpowered.
• Some awkward mechanics (think Sleep, Freeze, and moves like Bind, Clamp, Fire Spin)
• Lack of variety in metagame: Alakazam, Chansey, Tauros, etc. on every team.
• Lack of replay value: Mewtwo was the only thing to do after defeating the Pokémon League. There was nothing to do besides battling.

Details, Detales

Okay, so I’ve listed some of the pros and cons about the first generation. You’ll notice that most of the “cons” deal with mechanics and interface. These were not as big of problems back then, when we were used to the simplicity of Game Boy games. Heck, Pokémon was easily the most complex Game Boy game of its time. RBY laid out the foundation for GSC, RSE, and so on to build upon. Interaction with friends was key: Pokémon was the game you needed a link cable for. And there was certainly no shortage of Pokémon players. Chances are, most of your friends played (or play!) Pokémon at some point in their lives, and RBY were the games they likely played. Another prevalent problem with the originals is the simple lack of replay value–there wasn’t a whole lot to do after beating Green besides catching Mewtwo and filling up the rest of your Pokédex, which compared to today’s standards, isn’t particularly hard to do (if you have trading access, anyway). Stadium for the N64 remedied this issue somewhat: you could use your beloved Pokémon trained on your handheld games to play against a more challenging AI and in different styles of battle. While this may not sound particularly exciting for some, multiplayer was definitely better on the N64. Oak’s Lab made things a heck of a lot more convenient, too. You could even play your cartridge games at increased speeds in the GB tower.

Breakdown

Story: 3/10 – Admittedly the weakest in the series. Team Rocket is just a generic crime syndicate out to make money. At least they’re amusing sometimes. The rest of the plot is simply beating Gym Leaders and becoming the champion. The legendary birds are kind of just there, but the backstory behind Mew and Mewtwo is interesting.

Graphics: 5/10 – Depends on the game. Sprites that weren’t done by Ken Sugimori (it’s pretty obvious which ones were and weren’t) were generally bad. This gap between “good sprites” and “total crap” made things awkward, especially when it came to choosing favourite Pokémon and simply the canon design of the Pokémon (upside-down Koffing? not-vagina Cloyster?). Blue’s sprites were an (overall) improvement from Red and Green, and Yellow’s were even better. The overworld and architecture are clean and varied.

Music: 7/10 – A few memorable tunes, like the classic trainer battle theme, and of course, the Pokémon main theme. Overworld music mood changed with your progress throughout Kanto (I find this a brilliant touch) although some dungeon tunes were outright creepy (Viridian Forest, Pokémon Tower). The Champion battle theme is certainly the most unique to date, but not necessarily the best. The S.S. Anne tune will always be a personal favourite.

Replay: 2/10 – RBY’s greatest weakness. A dire lack of “distractions” and reasons to come back to the game after beating it. Multiplayer battles help with this a little bit.

Overall: 5/10 – RBY proper are quite archaic in this day and time and there’s is little reason to play them except to relive the memory (which is by no means a bad reason). Fortunately, FRLG are still fairly “current” games, and you can transfer Pokémon from them to DPPt/HGSS and by extent, Black and White. So while the first generation was indeed fantastic, it is nonetheless overshadowed by more recent advancements in Pokémon technology.

Generation II
“With just a little beep, you get a gift.”

Arguments for:

• “Biggest” world with two regions to explore.
• Introduced many mainstay elements of the game (breeding, hold items and berries, shinies)
• Cleaner interface with more convenient Bag and PC system.
• More interaction with players (Mystery Gift, Trainer House)
• Memorable plot (Kimono Girls, legendary encounters, Radio Tower siege, Silver Cave, etc.)
• “Fixed” metagame (accuracy issues, Hyper Beam glitch, Wrap/Bind/etc.)
• Interesting side-distractions (Radio, Bug Catching Contest, Battle Tower in Crystal)

Arguments against:

• Too fast-paced: Most of the time, there was very little to do story-wise between Gym Leaders.
• Laughably easy: Lance’s highest level was 50, and the only Kanto leader with higher levels than Lance was Green.
• Nowhere to grind: Wild Pokémon have consistently low levels throughout, capping in the 40s at Mt Silver (which is only accessible after you have the 16 badges).
• Boring second half: Kanto isn’t much more than an afterthought. Besides the Power Plant quest, there isn’t much to do there at all. Pewter Museum is closed, Safari Zone is closed, can’t explore Seafoam, Mt Moon and Rock Tunnel were condensed, etc.
• Many new Pokémon weren’t available until Kanto, defeating the point of them being new.
• Still lacking in replay: Red required a very boring continuous grind through the (weak) Elite Four or powerful Trainer House battles unless you had amazing skill. Likewise, the Battle Tower in Crystal required serious competence to stand a chance.
• “Balanced”, but slow metagame: GSC had a very defensively-oriented metagame unlike RBY’s rough-’em-up-quick style. Battles could drag on for ages.

Details, Detales

For people my age, Gold/Silver/Crystal were often their first games. Gold was my first game, at least. So indeed, it does have a special place in my heart as it was the game that got me into Pokémon in the first place. I was overwhelmed with how much there was to explore, and a favourite pastime of mine was playing through the game with my best friend, having rival battles after each gym. Between the sixteen gyms, day of the week events, breeding, Ruins of Alph, and everything else; GSC felt incredibly immense at the time, seeming to trounce the originals every which way. Stadium 2 with its vast collection of modes and mini-games (that you could use your Pokémon in!) only enforced this (room decoration was a delight — I am seriously disappointed this element disappeared in HGSS). GSC isn’t without problems, though; in fact, it has some dire weaknesses. The games are incredibly easy. The hardest battles are the first few Gym Leaders. After that, it’s pretty much downhill as far as a challenge goes. I mean, come on, Janine had Pokémon in the thirties. I wish they had just made Johto more expansive and not bothered with Kanto at all, because what they did to the region was an absolute disgrace.

Breakdown

Story: 5/10 – Team Rocket’s prevalence was fairly weak, but at least the Hideout and Radio Tower were fun. The legendaries weren’t involved with the plot at all, though, except arguably Suicune in Crystal (not really). Lance is pretty bad-ass when he shows up, and Silver is easily the best rival to date.

Graphics: 7/10 – Battle sprites were much more consistent, much fewer instances of “what the hell happened here?”. I generally prefer Gold’s sprites to Silver’s, but Crystal’s are better than both for certain. Multi-frame animations were also keen (still exclusive to Crystal). The overworld looks pretty much the same as it did in RBY, except with more colour.

Music: 7/10 – Greater variety in battle themes very much welcomed. Literally all of them are a delight without getting too repetitive. Shame the Kanto leader theme was short and you could only hear it up to 8 times. Some fantastic dungeon themes, too — Dragon’s Den, Tin and Brass Towers, “Viridian Forest” to name a few. Most of the Johto town music is great, Ecruteak/Cianwood contending for best to date. I got sick of hearing Viridian City in almost every Kanto town, though.

Replay: 3/10 – Kanto is honestly boring and there is little to keep your attention before and after Red. Crystal has the Battle Tower for hardcore players, but it was too hard for casuals. There are a couple side-quests (Tyrogue comes to mind) but nothing to write home about.

Overall: 6/10 – GSC will always have a special place in my heart as the first generation of Pokémon I ever played, but I simply can’t ignore its flaws. It’s quite an overrated generation, but I won’t deny that they were the “glory days” of Pokémon. HGSS addressed many of its issues, albeit not perfectly. Still, with HGSS around, I see little-to-no reason to actually play GSC again. Not to mention functioning copies are rare.

Generation III
“Wait! Please don’t take my GOODS!”

Arguments for:

• Greatly enhanced aesthetics. Overworld and dungeons are vastly improved in design and extras (like weather, craters and other geological features, etc.)
• A few neat side-quests and side-dungeons.
• Completely revamped mechanics; Pokémon are further personalised via Natures, Abilities and custom EV spreads.
• “Each turn” statuses (Poison, Burn, Leech Seed etc.) fixed, as well as more descriptive interface for learning and re-learning moves. Bag and PC storage are also massively improved again.
• Broadens type representation by introducing a fair number of Ghosts, Dragons, Darks, and Steels (along with respective attacks).
• Return of Safari Zone, and a good one at that.
• Consistent difficulty throughout; many Gym Leaders are quite challenging and the Elite Four is no pushover.
• More replay value: Contests are a nice side activity, Secret Bases are awesome, and there is the Battle Tower.
• Emerald has the original Battle Frontier, which pretty much makes it have the highest replay value of any Pokémon game to date.
• Closest thing to a plot in handheld Pokémon. The game legendaries are actually involved in the plot. Team Aqua and Magma were pretty great, as well.
• Balanced metagame with decent pacing. My personal favourite.

Arguments against:

• Felt too “different” for a lot of players, as if they were playing a different game.
• Many players claim RSE Pokémon are too unoriginal.
• Many 1st/2nd generation Pokémon initially unavailable; required trades from CoXD/FRLG
• Weak professor with a weaker rival; Rival’s starter doesn’t get past second stage. Wally is a bit of a mystery.
• Many of the new mechanics (e.g. EV training) are too boring of a grind for casual players.
• Large reliance on HMs (Rock Smash, Strength especially) is irritating.
• Some Battle Frontier facilities are tricky (Battle Palace…), and getting all Gold symbols is mindnumbingly difficult.

Details, Detales

Whoa, things are different. The game looks different, the battles look different, there are double battles, amongst other things. Some people liked the different. Some people didn’t like the different. Personally? I enjoyed the different! My Pokémon looked pretty and the environment was pretty and less blocky. The Hoenn region is gorgeous with unique architecture and cities, and a great share of distractions from the main storyline (like the Trick House and Secret Bases!). There is honestly not a whole lot I can legitimately criticise, but there are some standout issues. May is cute and Brendan is an asshole, but neither are superb rivals. Their primary function seems to be giving you key items (Itemfinder, Go-Goggles, HM02) more than battling you. Birch is also admittedly a dull professor who doesn’t factor much into the story at all. The Gym Leaders as a whole aren’t as interesting, either, although I do like Wynona and the twins. Phoebe and Glacia have boring teams, but Sidney and Drake are cool. Steven and Wallace are pretty fantastic champions, as well. And then (for Emerald at least) there’s the Battle Frontier — this place will keep you busy for ages. Every facility is fun in its own way, and the variety is amazing. It truly is hard to become completely bored with the Battle Frontier. Pt/HGSS’s doesn’t come close.

Breakdown

Story: 7/10 – I can accept the endeavours of Team Aqua and Team Magma as a legitimate plot (Emerald for best results). For Pokémon, this is impressive. Additionally, the game doesn’t start out with you just suddenly becoming a trainer out of nothing on the road to championship–you’ve got Dad to face first, and you grow from there.

Graphics: 8/10 – The overworld is crisp and clean. Dungeons are varied, Meteor Falls is especially gorgeous. Cities have real personality to them, like Rustboro and Fortree. Attack animations are much more lively. Emerald’s Pokémon animations are quite lame compared to Crystal’s, though.

Music: 9/10 – Go Ichinose has composed what is easily the best and fully-fleshed out soundtrack on a handheld Pokémon game. Town music is rarely recycled, and particular routes (Route 113) and landmarks (Meteor Falls) have tracks that scream personality. Not to mention the battle music; while some may argue GSC’s Trainer/Leader music are better, nobody can deny how awesome the Team Aqua/Magma and Elite Four themes are. Emerald’s Frontier Brain theme is keen, too. The Abandoned Ship, Dewford Town, and Underwater themes are some personal favourites (there are loads more I am forgetting).

Replay: 8/10 – Assuming you’re playing Emerald, the Battle Frontier alone guarantees hours and hours of extra playtime, well after you’ve defeated Wallace. Steven makes a Red-like appearance as a bonus. This may not be perfect for people who aren’t fanatics about battling, though (and if you’re not, why are you playing Pokémon!)

Overall: 8/10 – If you haven’t figured it out by now, I think RSE are really good games. They are the optimum Pokémon experience still to this date (yes, DPPt was a step backward). They are not perfect, and they do lack some form of charm that the prior generations possessed, but they are still the most coherent titles with an appealing selection of Pokémon, interesting plot, and plenty of things to do ingame. I hope secret bases come back for Black/White because they were awesome, but I doubt they will. Ditto Trick House.

(More to come later: 4th gen, and why it was a step backwards! Also more details on FRLG, HGSS, and CoXD)