Rank the Pokemon Generations!

[Launcelot111]

1. Gen 4. I appreciated all the pre/post evolutions of all the old pokemon, this gen had Torterra, and a rocky, swampy land really appeals to me for some reason.
2. Gen 5. Best story, flashiest graphics, best online stuff, and a bold move to go with an all new 150.
3. Gen 2. Leaps and bounds ahead of Gen 1 in terms of gameplay. I like this gen's pokemon and I like having 16 gyms. Gets minus points for no Safari Zone.
4. Gen 3. The map's layout annoys me and the high proportion of lazy or WTF pokemon isn't great, but this is the first one to leap forward in presentation and there were some very solid additions to the pokemon roster.
5. Gen 1. I have plenty of nostalgia for this game, but seriously, go replay the original. If you didn't manually switch your PC box, you wont be catching that pokemon.

This series is the most genius gameplay mechanic ever. That monster you're fighting looks cool, huh? Capture it, and raise it as your own! That never gets old.

 

[Scarim Coral]

1 Gold/ Silver/ Crystel. Back then I was blow away by the night and special event days only as to me it added more atmosphere and dept to the game. Also this is the ONLY game that ever let you revisit an old region (Kanto) after you beat the game (Elite 4). Seriously why the hell didn't the new Pokemon games ever use that again and adding islands doesn't count! Oh don't give me the exuse of maxing the data, HeartGold and SoulSilver still had that while added new feature like that Olympic thing in that city and creating your own safari aswell!

2 Pearl/ Diamond/ Platinum. They kind of made a nifty use of the touchscreen well sort of and I was glad they added the night and day and the special event day aswell. Also I liked most of the new Pokemons.

3 Black and White. Sure it was good but I didn't think the 3d graphic was all that impression and it was quite lineal compare to the past games (in terms of the routes).

4 Red/ Blue/ Yellow. Sure I love this game but it is pretty much outdated now.

5. Ruby/ Sapphire/ Emerald. I didn't like most of new Pokemons, the new mechanic they put into it like Double team battle, the whole secret base and the new HM dive and removing the nigh and day and the special event days. Funny how they got rid of that hm move and the hidden base in the other games. Maybe it's the fact that it suppose to be the sucesser to Gold/ Silver that I was let down by it.

 

[Truniron]

Everyone seems to agree with each other.

 

[Truniron]

1st: Gen 2.
Gold/Silver/Crystal.
Gave us everything we wanted and much more. Oh the memories, oh the memories :,-)

2nd: Gen 5.
Black/White.
I was one of those who thought this was going to suck the big one, but is glad I was wrong.

3rd: Gen 1.
Red/Blue/Yellow.
Overall a good beginning, but difficult in late game for us new to the games.

4th: Gen 4.
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum
Avoids the bottom because of the pokemons. Had the worst ending theme by far!

5th: Gen 3.
Ruby/Saphire/Emerald
Too easy, dissapointing (and dissapointingly easy) rival, team Aqua and Magma were a total joke to battle.

 

[Reaper195]

1st gen rocked. Second gen was...alright. Everything else can go fucitself. Hard. In the face, with a glass bottle up an arse.

 

[Ruzinus]

Gen 4 - This is the generation that separated Physical and Special moves, so that every move was specifically typed as one or the other, rather than this being automatically dependent on the moves typing. While it was a shame that it ruined my beloved Alakazam (with the elemental punches suddenly be all Physical), it was an amazing move for the game as a competitive thing. I think raising battlers was most interesting during this gen, and that alone pretty much puts it at the top. I liked the sprite legendaries, my favorite legend trio since the original birds (although the box legendaries were all stupid, their designs just seem to get increasingly ridiculous). The elite 4 was nice and challenging, although less so than it was in gen 3, but still worth points. Oh, and HG/SS was a really nice upgrade to GSC. Kanto didn't suck this time, and having your lead pokemon follow you was an amazing touch.

Gen 3 - Running shoes, and the EV system suddenly makes sense, and an elite 4 that made you feel really cool if you managed to beat it without training up... and Wally. Wally is the best character in the series yet. I liked the secret base system too.. and Blaziken is basically the coolest starter final evolution yet. But mostly the update to the EV system. So many points for that.

Gen 5 - The coolest thing about gen 1 was that every thing you ran into was new. Learning about all these creatures... it was just this awesome journey of discovery. Gen 5 gave me that again.

Gen 1

Gen 2 - These pretty much get auto put at the end simply because they aged poorly. I sunk hundreds of hours into gen 1 at the time, and many into gen 2 as well... it's just the speed of the thing, same problem Phantasy Star 3 has. Worth it then, but not so much now that we can just play the later gens. I greatly prefer the gen 1 pokemon to the gen 2 (I don't understand how anyone can like the final forms of any of the gen 2 starts. Cyndaquil was nice, but Typhlosion was just wtf), and also prefer Kanto to Johto (and the Kanto in the original GSC was depressing - everything seemed to have gone to hell after RBY).

 

[scorptatious]

1. Black and White
What can I say? I love pretty much everything about this game. The improved story telling and characters, the music, the fact that there are pretty much nothing but new Pokemon until the post game, I feel this is the best generation to me. Plus it has Snivy, my absolute favorite starter Pokemon.

2. Red and Blue
This is mainly for nostalgic reasons I guess. I'll admit, the original games haven't aged too well in terms of graphics, story, and the like. But it still has that special charm that pretty much sucked me right into the world of Pokemon.

3. Diamond and Pearl.
I can honestly say that I spent a lot of time in this game. I liked a lot of the new Pokemon, I liked the champion, and I really like the legendaries. Plus this was actually the first Pokemon game I've played all the way through. Before I couldn't get through any of the other Pokemon games I've played due to a lack of skill.

4. Gold/Silver
I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for having this generation so low on my list. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed this one for the most part. It's odd really, this was the only Pokemon generation that I skipped and I honestly can't remember why.

I was able to play Silver via an online emulator and I had fun with it. Although I had quite a couple of issues with it myself. Particularly with with the Pokemon team I wanted to have.

I had a Weepinbell on my team, but I discovered later on though I couldn't get a leaf stone for it until after I got to Kanto. And I really didn't feel like raising another grass type Pokemon at that point.

There was also an issue I had with the waterfall that stood between me and the path to the elite four. I wanted to teach Waterfall to my Quagsire, but for whatever reason, he can't learn it. Which I thought was really stupid.

This presented a problem, I needed to use Quagsire, but I can't just use an HM slave, as the path from after the waterfall to the next Pokemon center were pretty far apart, and I didn't want him to be underleveled. So, I had to switch out my Noctowl for Lugia, who can use both Waterfall and Fly. Kinda disappointed me, as I wanted to use Noctowl for the Elite Four, and by that point I really didn't feel like grinding for too long just to get my Noctowl back up to speed. So I just used Lugia in the Pokemon League.

This overall kind of hurt my experience with the game. I didn't even do very much of the post game before I got burnt out on it. Still, I had fun with it, and it did have my favorite final battle theme of the series.

5. Ruby/Sapphire
I still liked this generations. However, to me, this one seemed to stand out the least out of all the Pokemon generations. The towns and areas weren't very special, the gym battles weren't very memorable, and from what I've played of it, the post game is kinda lackluster. I will say though, the champion in that game thoroughly kicked my ass quite a few times, so it was quite satisfying to finally beat him.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

1. Gen 1
2. Gen 2
3. Gen 3

I haven't played a Pokémon game since Gen 3 and have no real desire to. I couldn't even catch (and in fact still can't!) 150 (mew is pretty much impossible) and I can't deal with the disappointment of being unable to catch 300 odd.

in general, I just prefer the design of the gen 1 Pokémon (Nostalgia goggles, ho!) with Gen 2 being a close second. Gen 3 introduced Mudflips but excluding a couple of others, there aren't that many I like. I know nothing of Gen 4 and 5 Pokémon.

My friend, mew is 151 not 150. I'm obsessive over pokemon so I won't blame you, but if you make the mistake again, so help me god I won't be responsible for my actions. If anyone wants my response it's a little above this.

Let me clarify, I meant that I couldn't catch 1-150, I didn't bother to say all 151 as Mew is practically impossible to get. Does that clear things up a tad?

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

*snip*

... Whoa. Your ranking is nearly identical to mine, although we have some different reasoning. Allow me to explain:

1. 2nd Gen: Mostly for nostalgia reasons, as this was my first experience with Pokémon and brought my favorite starter (Cyndaquil) and my favorite "normal" (read- non-starter, non legendary) pokémon, Lanturn. There's also all the cool new features originally mentioned.

2. 5th Gen: Took all of the polished game mechanics of the 4th gen, implemented them correctly, and dialed back some of the 4th gen's terrible pokémon design. There are still some questionable, artificial-looking designs (purple robot bug with a back-mounted cannon, anyone?), but overall a comeback for the series.

3. 1st Gen: The originals are always a lot of fun, and you've got to give them credit for starting it all. That said, there's not a whole lot to do in them. After the main story and aside from the obvious goal of catching 'em all, there was essentially no extra content. What there was was plenty to sustain a good game, but it seems a bit bare-bones in the face of everything that came after.

4. 3rd Gen: Really, I rank this one so low because it's forgettable more than because I dislike it. It was a servicable enough game, and Hoenn was one of the most visually stunning regions in Pokémon, but aside from the pretty scenery, Gen 3 doesn't stand out.

5: 4th Gen: An absolute disaster in terms of pokémon design, a completely bipolar difficulty curve, and some truly terrible side-content. While I did mark Gen 1 down for having no extra content at all, that at least prevents it from having a load of frustrating, un-fun crap on the side. I must give Gen 4 props for trying to polish the game mechanics and introducing the first rudiments of a plot, but it was executed terribly and overall made a complete mess of what should have been some great games.

 

[Gxas]

5
4
3
2
1

Why? Because I'm taking every part of the generation into account. Gen 5's mechanics are the best and most refined. Period.

Gen 1 was broken as hell.

 

[Dragonpit]

Let's see now... Keep in mind, while I voted for them in this order, I still enjoyed them.

1. Gen 3 is my favorite. It improved on a lot of parts on the series, from the battling screen to the animations. A lot of my favorite Pokemon come from this generation. Even the cities and locations look fresh.

2. Gen 2 comes second, just because it was when I really got into the Pokemon series. I had fun with the new sprites and strategies, the new types, and the new Pokemon.

3. Gen 1. Everything started here. I got into Pokemon not long after I came out. Hell, it was because of this game that I got into video games in general. I probably would've enjoyed it more if it weren't for the wonky experience system...

4. Gen 5. The stronger story gets it here. It's more involved and I do enjoy a few of the new Pokemon.

5. Gen 4 is by far the weakest in my opinion. I haven't actually ever finished the D/P/Pl games, so...yeah.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

This is rather easy for me (1 being the best and 5 being the worst).

1.) Gen 2 - Pokemon Gold, Silver, & Crystal
Sheer Pokemon Greatness
A sequel to Gen 1 that takes place 3 years later, adds 100 new Pokemon to the previous roster, introducing Item Holding, Pokemon Breeding/Eggs, Pokerus, evolution through happiness, Berries, rematches via registered trainers, new Pokeballs, Steel- and Dark-type Pokemon, new moves, 3 new HMs, Battle Frontier Time/Day-specific events, Daytime and Nighttime, Pokemon Bug-Catching Contest, Move Deleter/Tutor, and had two regions to explore.

2.) Gen 1 - Pokemon Red, Blue/Green, & Yellow
The OG (Original Gen)
The Gen that started it all had 150 Pokemon to catch, train, battle and trade, offered 15 different types of Pokemon, HMs that interacted with the environment, Team Rocket, Safari Zone, and fun glitches that allowed you to catch'em all.

3.) Gen 3 - Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, & Emerald
A Polished Gem
A new Gen in a new region, we are introduced to 135 new Pokemon, Pokemon abilities, Double Battles, Pokeblocks, the running shoes, two evil Teams (both with reasonable goals), weather effects, Pokemon Formes, the HM Dive, Pokemon Contest, a better Move Tutor, multiple rivals, teaming up with NPCs in battle, trainer rematches via PokeNav, and traveling to Islands to find rare items/Pokemon.

4.) Gen 4 - Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, & Platinum
Props from the Underground

New Gen, new region, this time filled with 108 new Pokemon, offering new ways of evolution, touch controls and interface via the Nintendo DS Touch Screen and Mic, the Underground, VS Seeker, Distrotion World, more TMs and new HMs, Global Trading Network, Pokemon events via Wireless connection, and Pal Park.

5.) Gen 5 - Pokemon Black, White, Black 2, & White 2
And here we are...

A Gen that tries to pay homage to Gen 1 by introducing 156 initially exclusive Pokemon, as well as the C-Gear, monthly seasons, locales and Pokemon that change according to the season, moving Pokemon sprites on a handheld title, Triple and Rotation battles, Pokemon Theatre, and a sequel that takes place 2 years after the initial introduction to the region, introducing features like a World Tournament and Pokewood.

 

[mrhappy1489]

1. Gen 1
2. Gen 2
3. Gen 3

I haven't played a Pokémon game since Gen 3 and have no real desire to. I couldn't even catch (and in fact still can't!) 150 (mew is pretty much impossible) and I can't deal with the disappointment of being unable to catch 300 odd.

in general, I just prefer the design of the gen 1 Pokémon (Nostalgia goggles, ho!) with Gen 2 being a close second. Gen 3 introduced Mudflips but excluding a couple of others, there aren't that many I like. I know nothing of Gen 4 and 5 Pokémon.

My friend, mew is 151 not 150. I'm obsessive over pokemon so I won't blame you, but if you make the mistake again, so help me god I won't be responsible for my actions. If anyone wants my response it's a little above this.

Let me clarify, I meant that I couldn't catch 1-150, I didn't bother to say all 151 as Mew is practically impossible to get. Does that clear things up a tad?

Don't worry, I've never even bothered to catch em' all anyway, just my favourites, failing that the ones that look cool.

 

[Fishyash]

I've never played Gen IV. I should at some point though... because I've always wanted to use an empoleon.

1st: Gen II

This is partially because I think this is the easiest generation by far. You can beat the game with no grinding done which is great. I also love most of the pokemon in that game, and not only that it has my favourite pokemon, Heracross. I also love the idea of going to a previous region of the game, which is a feature that I am still hoping to come to another game. The best part about generation II though was how they improved the battle system. The improvements put Gen II leaps and bounds over generation I.

2nd: Gen V

This is probably the actual best generations. It's just not my favourite. However, I appreciate the improvement of the story, and there are some nice pokemon there. I'm also glad that TMs had unlimited use, which I personally actually prefer over the one-time only drawback. It's also definitely one of the easier generations too. It starts off a little harder than others I guess. There were a couple of designs I disagreed with (Trubbish really wasn't necessary. It was a design I expected to be in generation I) along with some others that I just thought were pointless.

3rd: Gen III

I love the size of the area. However I do have to note the flaw of too much of the game being on water. There are however lots of wonderful pokemon in this generation too. I especially like treecko, and it's my favourite starter of all generations. Also, Fire red and Leaf Green are just flat out better in every way to their generation I counterparts. Sapphire was actually the first pokemon game I owned.

4th: Gen I

While since it's the first game, it was led to creating the icons of the franchise (particularly pokemon like Pikachu, Charizard and jigglypuff) the game is practically broken. Mechanics like the Special stat, moves like focus energy not working, pokemon like Jolteon just critting with thunderbolt 24/7, and the ways that sleep, confusion and continuous attacks (holy shit they are FUCKING annoying) work is just plain shit in comparison to the other generations. Also, some of the pokemon in gen I are just plain lazy. (Seel? Really?) and lazy evolutions where it's just three of the same thing. In general, Gen I just didn't age well, while Gen II aged VERY well to me.


I'm not sure about generation IV, but from what I've seen I would probably place it either in 3rd or 4th place. I doubt it could be worse than Gen 1.

 

[Zhadramekel]

Gen 2 - Not played the original games but played their remakes (I would have played the originals by now if I'd been able to get one of the cartridges and I don't believe in using romhacks) and it's probably the closest we've had to getting a game that plays through all the generation thus far since johto and kanto were the only one's that existed at the time.

Gen 5 - Such an improvement over gen 4, more places to explore, a whole new cast, marketed at a slightly older age range and great replay value. It felt a bit like a reboot to the series. Can't wait for Black 2 & White 2. I don't know why a lot of people don't like the idea, it's a sequel not a remake which is the formula they've used since gen 1.

Gen 3 - Again not played, but I've always wanted to play Emerald. The Battle Frontier in that game seemed great to me and had some proper creative differences between the facilities unlike the gen 4 one.
TIED WITH
Gen 1 - It's hard to pick between this one and gen 3 and I loved Pokemon Yellow but I'm just not sure it holds up by todays standards. I can't hate it too much as it kicked off the franchise, which is why it ties with gen 3.

Gen 4 - Even though this was the game that got me into Pokemon and gaming in general, when I look back now, I realise it wasn't that good. About half the new pokemon in that generation were evolutions or pre-evolutions of families from old generations. I mean come on, there was one new COMPLETE fire family. And to me, it just doesn't have great replay value.

 

[Brownie_The_Baller]

1. Red/Yellow/Blue/Leaf Green/Fire Red
2. Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
3.Crystal/Gold/Silver/Heart Gold/Soul Silver
4. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

Have not played Gen. 5 yet.

 

[Brownie_The_Baller]

1. Red/Yellow/Blue/Leaf Green/Fire Red
2. Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
3.Crystal/Gold/Silver/Heart Gold/Soul Silver
4. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

Have not played Gen. 5 yet.

 

[Dominic Crossman]

1st - Gen 2 - New types, balanced gameplay, only one with 2 region, best legendaries
Joint 2nd - Gen 3 and 5 - Gen 3 simply for introducing double battles and Gen 5 because black/white is my favorite pokemon, black/white 2 ruined the gen somewhat, would've been 1st had it not been for the sequels.
4th - Gen 1 - While nostalgia wise it's brill, the physic pokes where overpowered due to coding errors, and there is a lack of post e4 gameplay
Last - Gen 4 - Regularly got lost, overpowered early gym leader, defog hm annoyed me, only pokemon I didn't enjoy.

Edit: Gen 3 is 2nd, Gen 5 is 3rd, simply because snorlax was so bloody hard to get in black/white and gen 3 introduced pokemon abilities.