Crystal (mostly nostalgia), Emerald, and Conquest

I’ve always enjoyed Firered and Sapphire and recently found Polished Crystal which is fantastic

Emerald holds a special place in my heart. Omega Ruby got me back into Pokemon and to this day is my favorite. I’m currently playing through every generation, but no other region hits harder that Hoenn

Crystal!

My favourite will always be Red because of nostalgia. It doesn’t really hold up these days but being a kid during peak Pokémon mania where everyone were whipping out their Gameboys during recess and the dude who got a Mew from some marketing event was king of the schoolyard was just the source of so many memories. Most of them related to longing for an innocence lost, I’m sure. But still.

Realistically though as a game I think HeartGold/SoulSilver was the peak of the series. Lovingly recapturing the essence of the first two generations, adding a ton of content on top and even shipping with the freaking Pokewalker! It’s got everything that was good about G/S/C in a modern package, what more can you want? Going back to Kanto after beating the Pokémon League is still the coolest thing ever. But maybe I’m swayed by nostalgia again…

Pokemon Master Trainer

I only really played red and blue myself, but we did play the Green rom back before the English version came out. I think we stumbled out way along to the first gym. That’s probably my go to, since back in the day we completely exhausted ourselves playing it.

I watched my partner play Sword. It looked pretty good. She’s playing it again now with our daughter and it seems fun.

I started playing Soul Silver with my daughter on a DS emulator, and it seems good too.

I had Diamond on my DS years ago, but I only remember playing it for about an hour.

Um… one of the later ones for the 3DS. But I think these new ones coming out soon will be super awesome. I don’t play many Pokemon games though.

I’ve played Blue, emerald, black? For 3ds? And that’s it.

Crystal is very special to me. I always felt like I was “wrong” as a child for not liking “girl things.” It was the first game I ever played that offered a female protagonist. That was something that told me that I was okay the way I am. I know it’s kind of silly, but it really helped me become comfortable with myself.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky

In terms of mainline games though, I’d probably have to go with Blue version, since it’s the one I’ve spent the most time with over the years

I would like to say leaf green just because I played it later on and the little clubhouse you could make was cool, I recently started trying to replay one of each generation like yellow, crystal, and now emerald but man I just want to power through them but you have to grind to level up and i get sleepy

I think Gold was amazing back when I first played. I liked the new Pokemon designs and when I found out you can go to Kanto, my mind was blown. I did not expect so much playtime after the Elite 4. Everything in that game was an improvement to the first gen. It still had some jank, but at that time, I think it was the perfect game they could make.

But there is one thing where I think the GBA games stood out: graphics. I still love it, it’s extremely timeless and just beautiful. That is still how Pokemon games should look like today. I prefer Leaf Green over Emerald because it doesn’t have way too many water routes like Hoenn and as Gold and Silver, it had some nice unexpected post Elite 4 content.

Of course I’m totally biased because those were my childhood games. I tried Soul Silver maaaaany years later and got Shield for the switch, but they could not keep up with the GBA games. Maybe I will give Gen 4 and 5 a go in the future though.

Emerald, leaf green, and gold?yellow?

I played Gen 1 as a kid and didn’t play Pokemon again til Black and White. It was an amazing leap to see the first and last pixel animated mainline Pokemon games, and both had their own unique set of 150 Pokemon. It’s like a showcase of how much the series had grown.

Incidentally, it was the last mainline Pokemon game I actually enjoyed.