Ranking and Awarding the Mainline Pokémon Games 

I continue the discussion here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dX5oomhRvEY.html Check it out and leave your suggestions for what you'd like to see in the next Pokémon game!

What an absolute joy of a video. Loved the concept - it really shows how formulaic (not bad) conventional ranking videos are. It also helps I share a massive love and experience with the series in question. One award I would like to give is the “Mythos Award” for best Pokémon origin story. Mine goes to Gyarados. Something about the magestic carp considered harmless becoming a monstrosity always strikes me. It’s always a ritual of mine when playing a Pokémon game to raise a Magikarp into a Gyarados on my playthrough team at the earliest convienence. Damn Pokémon Yellow coming 8th out of 9, and Gold / Silvers Kanto region could bump it lower?! You really aren’t a Gen 1’er lolol. I didn’t realize until after watching this I have a couple blind spots with Pokémon. Gen 5, I checked out (though I did hazily play through White 2 leading up to X). Gen 7 I personally boycotted at the time having lived in Hawaii. Gen 9 I couldn’t bring myself to spend retail price on. I’m covering some of that lost ground now but it will be some time before I can make a comparable video. Nature / competitive play are the series biggest double edged sword. Though they existed in Gen 3, I didn’t start focusing on them until Gen 4 when shiny hunting. I’ve reconciled that obsession since but they have forever made me a more superficial catcher. By my current play style, as long as we’re not sacrificing primary attack type and speed, we’re good. Also, you could probably clip a Leo sound bite from the announcer saying “CharmeLEOn!” 😂

Cool video! I personally agree, that most box legendaries feel weird and overdesigned, but my favourites are definitely gen 3. All three are simple but cool, represent their element, and have patterns and design elements that really give them cohesion, something a lot of other legendary groups don't.

What an awesome video. Really love the format too. I want to do something similar but for the Legend of Zelda series. Definitely going to reference this video. I think what I appreciate most is the explanation you give for every answer. It doesn’t come off as just a cop out because of nostalgia or social peer pressure 😂

Great video, im hoping you blow up on yuotube soon because ur videos are really good!

Most of your lower ranks are my higher ranks but that’s because I got into the series late and I’ve never played any of the original games. In general though I really like Pokémon but I would love to see the series take a bit more chances. I look at all Zelda games prior to Breath of the Wild (maybe you can add Skyward Sword) and see that Nintendo really opened up the door to its signature franchise, it’s bigger, bolder and better. I want to see something similar with Pokémon, I know it can be done but they need to get away from the mentality of annualizing this franchise. Great video, very much in depth and something different from the normal stuff found on RU-vid 👍

gen 2 indeed has that awesome shiney box art that we rarely get now. route 209 night theme is a great song but one thing that makes me laugh is using it in smash bros palkia stage. its so unfittingly hilarious lol chandelure is also a favorite of mine even though its such a dumb random idea for a pokemon but they made them look cool. heracross is also one of my all time favorites. my favorite from gen 3 are cacturne and duskull very interesting list and i can say for myself gen 2 is my favorite but gen 3 is very close

Pokemon is the series that got me into gaming and Pokemon Yellow was my very first game, I was massively into Pokemon as a kid and growing up it had a huge influence on my childhood. Despite this however, the series began to get stale over time. The journey to becomming champion was starting to get old, then came the Legendary Pokemon Colosseum, the right game at the right time, the moment that game was announced I was so hyped that I begged for a gamecube and a copy of the game for my birthday and I got both my gamecube and my PS2 on the same day and the first thing I did was load up the Gamecube and play Pokemon Colosseum and the moment I started the game I was absolutely blown away by the intro of the game, no longer was I this 10 year old kid who would be patronized the whole game, now I am a man! I start my adventure by blowing up my former gang member's base and riding off to the local boozer to get into a freaking bar fight, then I get to see my Pokemon, a fully leveled team of Espeon and Umbreon, ready to go, completely smoke those Zigzagoons and head off to find more asses to kick. This was a game that respected the fans and didn't hold their hand in any way, it threw you straight into the action and treated players as if they were long time fans of the series by giving them a head start right from the get go and thrusting you straight into the action. New players could access the pre-gym to learn the game and get some easy battles to test their skills but experienced players could walk right past the gym and never needed to do it ever, you could complete the entire game without doing a single gym. Colosseum felt like the ultimate love letter to veterans of the series and brought the rule of cool to a series that is known for being sanitized and kid friendly, well not this game, in this game you are stealing Pokemon and you're a former criminal. I love how they dared to make such a kid-friendly series edgy without featuring anything too obscene as a kid it was the most empowering experience I ever had in my life and it made me feel unstoppable. Even the battle music was a mixture of energetic metal tracks/tense orchestral tracks that really got you in the zone. I particularly loved the Cipher Peon Battle theme, it felt so awesome to enter a random trainer battle and hear that fantastic battle theme over and over again as I mow down trainers, it gives me that same feeling Grandia 2's battle theme gives me... that feeling of absolute awesomeness. When XD was announced, I was initially disappointed because once again you play as a 10 year old kid and not a criminal but when my friend brought it over for my birthday, I spent my entire birthday party on my own why my friends were playing board games with each other, part of me regrets ignoring my friends to this day but I couldn't help it, I was hooked to the game and eventually, I bought myself a copy, I had no regrets. Aside from the protagonist, XD took everything Colosseum brought to the table and improved it, that game's finale in particular is and always will be the most epic finale in the entire series, all that build up with that grueling final dungeon only to face your final confrontation who not only has one of the greatest final boss battle themes of all time but also has one of the greatest line ups of Pokemon out of any trainer since they're all Shadow Pokemon that can pretty much nearly one shot your team unless you were smart enough to bring shadow pokemon along or... and this is the best part, you can just throw a ball at each ane every one of them and if you catch them all successfully, you don't even need to fight him, you just win by stealing all of his Pokemon, how incredible is that??? There hasn't been a single battle in the series like it since, it truly is remarkable, all of this follows a very satisfying conclusion with a great ending that took me by surprise with the villains reflecting on their actions and trying to make things right... well all but one of them at least. After Pokemon XD my expectations were extremely high, I wanted a continuation, I wanted to see what would happen next since one of the brothers clearly wanted to continue the Shadow Pokemon plans, unfortunately this would be the last proper Pokemon game Genius Sonority would make and when I played Diamond and Pearl, I was bitterly disappointed, I didn't want to go back to the old formula and quite frankly it started to get monotonous, I realized this when I replayed it on Platinum, I was just not having fun anymore, the magic was over, I didn't play another Pokemon game until X & Y which confirmed that the series was dead to me. With all that said and done, my personal favorite is still Gen 2.

I enjoyed watching your video and agree with many things you said. I'm a tad older than you, but I was 8 when playing on release in 1998. Truly exciting times haha I also got back into Pokemon in college, probably due to stress. That was a great time to play towards the end of the series' high point from Gen 3 to 5. I never got a Switch to play the newer games because I was infinitely frustrated with the *suboptimal* Sun & Moon games, which should have been executed so well but werent. On top of that, we never got a Pokemon Z to fix gen 6 because of their development! And then the Ultra games... Yeah, so I ended it there. All that said, I think some things you said really nailed it. But I dont like the new 3D graphics, region design is bad, the gimmicks suck, things are now humanoid, everything is too kiddified and sterile, etc. I'd prefer GameFreak to go another direction, because even my nieces find the new stuff mostly uninteresting (and theyre the target demographic).

My first pokemon game was Ruby when i was pretty young and i got bored with it, strangely i was pretty much a fan of Pokemon in the anime format but the games bored me to death, mostly because i didnt understand them (i think i was 7 o 8), years later i played Emerald and was hooked, i think Emerald could be the game that you mentioned could be "definitive" title to the series to someone who hasnt played them before, i think is the closest one could get to a Pokemon game in its purest form, its just a simple, well made and fun game and i think thats all it needs to be, and it has also aged very well in my opinion, after playing almost all the titles i think my favorite one is Black and White i dont think GameFreak has tried something like Gen V since, i loved the more urban oriented design of Unova (i have always really liked the concept of pokemon assimilating to human society which works well because its one of the main plot points of the game), the UI, the spritework, the design of the main heroes (they started to look older, which i could relate since i was an early teenager at the time), the Unova mons feel very fresh to me to this day and the changing seasons made it feel so alive, it has its problems but its the perfect pokemon game for me