10. Poképark: Pikachu’s Adventure. Poképark is one of the most underrated spin-offs from the main Pokemon series, and Poképark has only seen one sequel. It’s a great world-building, friendship weaving, journey of a game that deserves much more attention than it gets.
9. Pokémon Platinum: Pokémon Platinum is everything a director’s cut expanded version of a game should be. Its only major flaw is that the games it’s based on, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, aren’t that good to begin with. Otherwise, Platinum is a phenomenal experience.
8. Pokémon Colosseum: Regardless of what I said about Poképark earlier, Pokémon Colosseum is the definition of an underrated game begging for an HD remake. The more mature plot and new gameplay elements, as well as being the closest thing to a home console entry in the Pokémon franchise before Let’s Go makes this a game to remember.
7. Pokémon GO: Pokémon GO is great for the simple fact that is given in its name. It makes you go. It makes you want to continue to the next Pokéstop so you can go out and catch ’em all. A phenomenal attempt by Nintendo to keep gamers active and outdoors.
6. Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon: Pokémon Ultra Moon is nowhere near the best, and it’s mostly because the Ultra Wormholes in the final segments of the game devalue shinies tenfold. Other than that, it’s the newest main series Pokémon game, and deserves respect.
5. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire: Taking off the nostalgia goggles and the rose-tinted glasses still shows a good game, with little detriment to its value. Solid graphics, music, plot, and new Pokémon creatures makes these games excellent entries across the board.
4. Pokémon Black 2 and White 2: A sweet upgrade to the original Pokémon Black and White for Nintendo DS, and by far a better experience. More locations, a better plot, and including more creatures from generations I through IV.
3. Pokémon Emerald: Only slightly better than Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. Add in the Battle Frontier and other new elements for a better experience. Everything said about Ruby and Sapphire holds true here, as well.
2. Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green: By far the best way to experience Kanto. A better art style than Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, despite being on the same console, yet a worse composition, despite being on the same console.
1. Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver: The best experience in Johto possible. Everything added in is there for the simple reason of making the game better. No lame gimmicks made simply to add a bullet point on the back. A swansong for the ages, and a must-have for any Pokémon or RPG fan.
Author’s Note: This post was made by MiddleSon, and the fact that it was written in ten minutes means that opinions contained therein may not reflect true feelings as accurately as intended.
Ahem.
I would like to thank MiddleSon for manning the keyboard and upping tonight’s word count as I paced about the home library, wondering what tonight’s topic might be. Well, it might as well be Pokémon.
I resisted the lure of the Pokémon for what felt like a long time, at the time. In retrospect, it seems like a millisecond. There were the cards. And the video games for each type of console. And the game guides. And the stuffed toy creatures. And the TV shows. And the movies, for goodness’ sake! And now we also have board games, discovered at thrift stores.
The school was against Pokémon, perhaps because kids made card trades on the bus and on the playground and occasionally took advantage of each other. If the kids were caught with Pokémon cards during class time, they were usually confiscated and sometimes thrown away. My kids didn’t actually play the card game, so I didn’t understand why they needed all the cards and why I needed to spend so much money on them. Every trip to Walmart or Target was punctuated by a purchase of a card pack for each child. I also never understood why MiddleSon never seemed to get a pack with an awesome card, even when all packs were from the same series and they were handed out at random on the drive home. Daughter or Youngest always seemed to get some kind of legendary rare shiny that absolutely blew his mind. It was so unfair.
After a few years, however, they convinced me to play the card game with them. Suddenly I understood the need for all the card packs, the deck boxes, the game guides, and the endless searches of Bulbapedia. Certain creatures of certain types had different moves, defenses, attacks, strengths, and weakness against others. It was a complex strategy game that was not at all easy even to play — let alone to win — unless you had already amassed a great deal of specialized knowledge.
That’s when I started to become a Pokémon advocate, online and in real life. And I advocated it right back to my kids. Someday, I said, you’ll study science, or history, or the catechism, or law, and your ability to create a multidimensional, conditional database in your head will become a very good ability to have. To other adults and parents I said, At least Pokémon Go is getting them outside. I must add that the year that Pokémon Go was released, our summer vacation trips became a lot more fun. We stopped at rest stops and visitor sites more often, wandered around a bit more, and generally paced ourselves better as we hunted for Pokéstops and gyms.
Lo and behold, my prophecy seems to have come true. They can hold amazing amounts of conditional and interactional information in their heads. It’s not always about Pokémon these days — although sometimes it is — but there is no doubt in my mind that the Pokémon experience has been for the better.
Chocolate Sheep 