Curious to see if one of the games is a clear front runner if there were to be a poll.
My personal favorite is Pokemon Soul Silver. Love the fact that you can go back to the Kanto region from the original Pokemon games and basically play an entirely new game by facing all the original gym leaders while having all your new pokemon with you. And the best part, and the most memorable, in all the games combined imo is when youre done with the elite 4 you can climb Mt.Snow and face the legendary Red ontop of a snowy terrain. Very cool when the music just cuts, and red throws a lvl 88 pikachu at you to start things off. On top of everything Lugia and Hooh are some of the most memorable legendary pokemon ever. They even still have MewTwo in SS I believe, which is just the cherry on top. Really enjoy soul sivler as a whole more than any of the other games. Even though theyre all amazing.
Red and Blue. Definitely not the best in terms of a stylistic standpoint, as the games are really old and there were a lot of glitches (which I actually think people make too big of a deal of; they barely affected actual gameplay), but they have the most replay value for me.
Gold/Silver/Crystal are a close second, although the shaky team-building opportunities in those games (can’t get some Gen 2 Pokemon like Houndour, Misdreavus, Murkrow and Larvitar until you get to Kanto…really?) really took away from what was otherwise an incredibly enjoyable experience.
Loved Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, as well. Underrated Pokemon, great team-building opportunities and and amazing soundtrack.
And I know these technically aren’t “Gameboy” games, but Black and White were really, really good because of the fact that you HAD to pick all brand new Pokemon for your team.
Red and blue were very fun because they were the first ones but I’m going to pick off gameplay and vote Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Sos chaining for shiny Pokemon. Ultra Wormhole ride was a blast. Tons of Legendarys and Ultra Beasts. Plus I transferred every Pokemon using (Pokemon Home) it’s not Pokemon Home but I forgot the name ill edit after. Online battling is great. And the use of Global Trade System made finishing the pokedex easier. X and Y was a close second though
For me, the game was just a lot of fun with the first additions of moving sprites and an added side quest giving the Dogs a bit more definition in Gen 2. With this generation easily being my favorite, i ended up putting in over 100 hours in the game (a lot for me at the time) while also just having the most fun overall in a single pokemon game. i stopped playing the games after gen 3 (3 will forever be my most hated, and most my friends really disagree with me there) but in coming back to collecting the tcg i ended up buying a copy of Heartgold to give that a shot since ive heard nothing but great things. I just wish i had the time to really get deep into it like i used to, but regardless ill always cherish those memories of really grinding hard throughout the games and coming out out on top.
Sapphire was definitely my favorite. This is the game I have the clearest memory of and I just remember on Christmas morning me and my brother opening Sapphire and he got Ruby and we played almost all afternoon and were comparing pokemon. This game gave me a love for Swampert (a very underated pokemon in my opinion) and I just loved the improved graphics and color for the time period and the Gen 3 pokemon were some of my favorite. My second favorite would be Gold and I LOVE Feraligatr from this game and have great memories playing this as well.
Pokemon Red was my first Pokemon game, but even the sheer nostalgia of that can’t outweigh the brilliance of Heart Gold/Soul Silver. They are the peak Pokemon games. 2 regions, 16 badges, epic legendaries, vibrant sprites, following Pokemon in the overworld, brilliant music. I could replay those games at any point in time and enjoy myself. So yeah, I agree
My first pokemon game was Gold, as I never owned a gameboy when Red and Blue were out. And neither with gold, it was my brother’s. Then I bought a gameboy advance at a flea market with pokemon yellow. Great games.
Pokemon crystal.
In my opinion 2nd gen pokemon games were the biggest improvement to previous games, and was the only gen that didn’t remove things I liked or changed them in a way to make me like them less. A ton of awesome new pokemon, shiny pokemon, greatly improved graphics, smoother gameplay with better quality of life improvements, loads of new mechanics and removal of weird or broken things.
Plus suicune is on the cover of the game and you have the chance to battle and catch it fairly early. Note my profile picture lol
Red and Blue will always be how it started, and certain musical themes (like the Pallet Town theme) trigger instant nostalgia. But by the time Silver and Gold came out, my brother and I were experienced Pokemon veterans, and Pokemon was something we were already excited about. Not to mention, Gen 2 had an absolutely perfect expansion to the Pokedex. I think Scott mentioned it in one of his videos, but seeing all the additional evolutions of Pokemon we already loved… there was a completely renewed sense of wonder and curiosity. Like holy crap, this all existed?! And how we got little previews of these never before seen Pokemon, like the Donphan in The First Movie. It was all very organic.
Side note, I’ve been replaying Silver in the Soulsilver form, and it is extremely well-done.
I would have to say Ruby. It was the first Pokemon game I ever played all the way through. I remember catching Latios at like 7:00 in the morning on the ride to school and completely flipping shit. It’s funny how something that small can stick with you so many years later.
Gold version has a close 2nd place for me. I really enjoyed my first playthrough of that.
Emerald was and will always be the best pokemon gameboy game. The amount of features and things you could do in the game was just amazing. There was also the Battle Frontier which was, at the time, a nice challenge for a young lad.
Yellow will always be my favorite. My brother got red, our friend got blue, so that left me getting yellow. Having my little pikachu follow me around in game was so cool, also felt more like I was Ash since it matched the Anime.
that being said, emerald and yellow were very good.