Pokemon Generation Tier List

Hey all. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to think to do this but here it is. This is my relatively simple (simple, lol) listing of Pokemon generations from worst to best. You’ve seen other people’s videos on the topic, you’ve played the games, I’m not going to breakdown the premise and plot of all of them. I’m just going to say what I feel about the game and why it made me feel so. I already know that the ones I like the least are some people’s favorites for some reason so harden up. Let’s go! Worst to best! Boom!

GEN V

My least favorite in the core franchise is Black/White, Black 2/White 2. I could’ve SWORN that HeartGold and SoulSilver came out in the middle of these two but the internet says no so I’m not sure if that hurts or helps BW at all but either way it would’ve been on the bottom. First off it just looks so bad to me. Like I don’t typically rag on games for not looking good as long as they’re fun but after Diamond/Pearl and HeartGold/SoulSilver, which all looked great, I don’t understand why it looks the way it does. The starters aren’t great. Samurott is okay, he’s a little weird but, sure, okay. But Emboar, man, what a disappointment! Third time in a row! THIRD TIME IN A ROW we have a fire/fighting starter. Two times in a row I can kind of forgive but a third time? Come now. I was so exited when I saw Tepig, I just imagined his final evolution would be some awesome fire boar on all fours with fire for tusks. But instead we got a bipedal pig. The rest of the game is a blur; the story’s not great, the legendaries aren’t great, and the end game is just plain awful. I don’t understand how you go from Platinum’s end game, which is the best in the series for me, to trains that all you do is singles, doubles or triples. That’s super interesting guys. The legendaries are pretty boring also and why is Landorus not next to Thundurus and Tornadus in the Pokedex? The little OCD part of me goes to eleven when I see that. This was also the start of plot legendaries. A legendary you had to catch in order to progress and the fight was much easier then most legendary fights. I remember fighting Articuno in Red/Blue/Yellow many times because it would use its entire move set then struggle itself to death instead of getting in the FUCKING ball. The Pokemon in general just aren’t interesting either, I feel like there’s two teams that create the Pokemon even though I’m pretty sure there’s not. I’ll get more into that in my next game on the list but I just really feel like a B team worked on these things. This was the first generation to deviate from having a third game in the series and does something a tad different but to be fair; Pokemon Gray/Grey would have been dumb. The only good things to come out of Black and White are a handful of Pokemon, Hilda and Rosa.

GEN III

            I played Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald late. I got it after I played Pearl and to me Pearl was very much what I was used to. It felt and looked like a Pokemon game so when I first played Emerald I was very put off. I start the game and my character is in a tiny room that’s kind of shifting and moving. Okay, that’s a bit odd, then a door opens and he hops out. HE WAS IN A MOVING VAN. Who does that to their kid? I was like “wtf” and then you go to your neighbor’s house and their literal words are “oh you’re our new next-door neighbor. OUR DAUGHTER IS UPSTAIRS.”  Whhhaaaaaatttttt? Who says that? Why are you offering your daughter to me like this? Call her downstairs so you can keep an eye on me, you don’t know me. For all you know I’m a crazed lunatic or a klepto. So other than that my complaints are kind of more of the same as my previous paragraph. It looks bad but I’m guessing that’s because the Game Boy Advance was a wide boy. The Pokemon in this gen look like they were made by a B team. I played the first two gens, pretty standard stuff. Played fourth gen, yup looks like a Pokemon game to me. Go back a generation and the Pokemon just look sad, lazy, no thought put into them at all. Like what is this? What is it really? So I honestly didn’t stick around too much, I had to come back to it during Black/White to get a Seviper to breed with my Deino so I could have Dark Pulse. As for the starters, I really wasn’t into Marshtomp but I think he’s okay now and Blaziken was a pretty decent design. I don’t like the grass starter, whoever he is but I don’t really care for any of the grass starters. I’m a little biased, sorry grass fans. I think it’s just hard to really understand their design for me because I think he’s alright in Pokken Tournament. The best things from this gen were the Salamance line and maybe Aggron’s line and the legendaries. The legendaries were all pretty awesome this generation.

GEN VII

            There’s pretty much a tie between Sun/Moon and the fourth one on my list. There is so much hand holding in this game it’s crazy. They show you where to go every step of the way. The older games you could literally be running around scratching you’re head on where to go. There was less exploring and find your own way, finding random places. I was replaying HeartGold at some point and was very confused where to battle Blaine. I was just surfing around Cinnabar Island like an idiot. One of my friends during Diamond thought he was going the wrong way because it was raining… Yup, it was raining in the area so he turned around. But that was kind of the point; you had to talk to NPCs to find out where to go. If you didn’t you might find where to go but the NPCs typically point you in the right direction. Sun/Moon was the second game to have character customization with salons and clothing stores but it was much more watered down. Sun had warm colored clothing and Moon had cool colored clothing which was kind of lame. The starters in S/M were alright. The second types for each were at least different and I actually picked Rowlet, first grass starter on my first play through ever. The only thing is that Incineroar is still pretty much a fire/fighting; he can learn more fighting moves than dark. I did like that in each area on the bottom screen of the 3DS you had a little map and it showed you a little crown in the corner that would be bronze, silver, gold then platinum I think? But the colors represented how many Pokemon you’ve caught everything in the given area and I enjoyed that. Didn’t have to go to a different screen or anything, it’s just there for you to look at. The legendaries were a little lame and a lot lighter than most older games. They added all those Ultra Beast but in my mind they are not Pokemon so I haven’t cared to catch all of them. I was really disappointed with the Lusamine fight. Like, why would she still use Pokemon in that form? It should have just been a boss battle against her. I think it should’ve been more like the dynamax fights that are in Sword/Shield and maybe that’s what gave them the idea to do dynamax. Another gen that missed out on a third game in favor for a “sequel” of sorts with Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. I did not pick eirther up because I didn’t like the originals enough but they really missed an opportunity with Pokemon Stars or Pokemon Eclipse. Both great names, Eclipse seems more fitting for Sun/Moon but what will you do. Uh, what else? It had a battle tower for end game, whoo. (Add on: One thing I did like was the addition of region variants of Pokemon. I mean there are just SO MANY Pokemon that instead of making something completely new, putting a new spin on older Pokemon is kind of smart.)

GEN VIII

            On to Sword/Shield. The starters aren’t great, they’re all very humanoid and I don’t care for it. I like when Pokemon are more creature then humanoid. People were complaining super hard about every Pokemon not being in the game but honestly I could do without. Like, it’s fine to let me bring Pokemon from the other games but when they put in a vast majority of common Pokemon it drives me nuts. I’m running around in the wild area and there’s just no end in sight for me catching every ‘mon. I don’t know where the count was when I stopped playing but as of writing there’s 400 Pokemon in my ‘dex to catch and I’m not doing that. I’m more interested in catching all the Pokemon that are in the game then completing the “national dex” again. I think the natdex should be exclusive the Pokemon Bank or something similar, a different app, like just an honest to god Pokedex. I think part of the reason I stopped was because evolving some of these little ass hats is so fucking time consuming. The character customization and clothing options were better than Sun/Moon but still a little lacking. The expansions add a bit more but. I liked the gyms in this game though. They made you do more things then just battle other trainers. Most of the previous games would have a quiz gym and typically I would get the answer wrong just so I could fight the trainer and get my Pokemon more xp. But Sw/Sh made you fight in the quiz gym and you or your opponent would get buffs depending if you got the answer right or wrong. I really liked that. Legendaries are nonexistent aside from the plot ones, which, by the by, I caught with a quickball. But more will be coming in the next expansion, maybe more than region variants of older legendaries, not that I dislike that or anything. If you haven’t been able to tell yet I like hunting the legendaries and seeing region variants of the three birds is pretty cool to me.  I like the expansion idea more than a “sequel” title where you have to re-level all your Pokemon. That being said I haven’t finished the Isle of Armor yet. I got my little Kubfu and stopped immediately after. I don’t know if I’m finally getting over Pokemon or I’m just over this formula or I’m “too old” or what. I liked seeing Pokemon in the overall world. Seeing them walk around in the grass and swimming in the water is pretty nice to see. Seeing some of the Pokemon float around, like Steelix, will always be weird.

GEN VI

            X/Y was the first games to get away from the typical 2D pixel type art in favor for 3D. Another gen that could’ve had a third game with Z and they even had a cover Pokemon for it with Zygarde. The starters weren’t great and I feel like Game Freak knew it because they hand out a first gen starter towards the beginning of the game. X/Y introduced mega evolutions which aren’t that cool to me, I mean, it just seems very Digimon and it just made most of the mega Pokemon get harrier. What’s up with that? I really loved the roller skates though; I used them more than the bicycle. The gyms were kind of cool looking if I remember correctly. I remember getting to Yveltal and I used a quickball and caught him. I was pretty disappointed in that. I’m not sure why these games are so high on my list to be honest. I didn’t like the starters much; it only had a few legendaries. I guess just the skates and the character customization were so good that it outweighs everything else? I really liked the customization options. My Serena was fucking adorable. But X/Y aren’t the only ones in this gen, we also had Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. It was supposed to be an alternate reality to the first Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald or something because it had mega evolutions. What I really loved about these remakes was that there were Pokemon all over the place in the over world. More so in the water from what I recall but it was still nice to see Wingulls on the beaches and water Pokemon peaking around rocks and such when you were underwater. The other thing I really liked was the Eon Flute. A lot of people didn’t like it from what I understand but I thought it was really neat. People have been complaining about HMs and they go and get something to replace fly and they don’t like it. But I loved flying around Hoenn and finding other islands and stuff. So I guess that’s what really put sixth gen up so high was the Pokemon being around in an nonintrusive way in OR/AS and the protagonist options in X/Y. Not great reasons I think but it’s my list and I like what I like.

GEN I

            What’s to say really? These were the first games that started this whole series off. I remember seeing a kid at school play it and I was immediately intrigued. Your rival shows up at the worst possible times always, Victory Road was actually hard and overall the game is quite challenging. We all know the game I don’t think I need to go on really. Red/Blue/Yellow sits in at third.

GEN II

            Gold/Silver/Crystal was just like gen one and even had the first game shoved in it. I’m fairly certain no other game has sixteen gyms. I loved the legendary dogs and how you would just come across them throughout the world. I didn’t like that they usually didn’t stick around. I feel like when I was a kid I only caught Entei. Another thing it had was friggin’ Red from first gen sitting on top of Mt. Silver to battle. That was pretty cool as a kid.

GEN IV

            Here it is! My fav! I picked Pearl up sometime during high school. The thought just came to my mind “you know what, I want to play a Pokemon game. I haven’t done that for a while.” I went out, got it and when I started it was pretty much just like I remember the first two generations. It has so many legendaries it’s crazy, I love it. Flying Shaymin isn’t that great though, I like normal Shaymin, it’s cute. The reason I even picked up Emerald was because I needed the three Regis to get Regigigas. Granted the way you had to get the Regis took a little work but it was pretty cool. Puzzles like that are fun and interesting and they should do more things like that. I liked the starters for the most part. They all were very creature like and Empoleon is the best starter evolution ever and nothing you can say will change my mind. He’s a freakin’ giant steel penguin, pretty awesome. I just imagine surfing on one and it just cleaving floating ice chunks with its wings. I loved how in the games the gym leaders interacted with you more than most the other games. In Platinum there was a building called Trainer Café, I think, where you could have rematches with the gym leaders and other characters you run into during the game. I loved that. I loved going underground and digging for fossils! Unlike the previous games and the games since that just hand you a fossil of your choice you actually had to go underground and mine it out of the wall. I had so much fun doing that and probably spent more time underground then most people and I’m not sure if it was all three games or just Platinum but after you finished the game you could dig up all the fossil type Pokemon. Another thing that was cool was the battle frontier that had five different challenge type things to do. They had the Battle Tower that is pretty standard stuff, take your team and try to beat everyone. The Battle Factory where you had to use rental Pokemon and as you win you get to trade Pokemon you have with your opponents Pokemon. There’s the Battle Arcade and Battle Castle which after reading the description on bulbapedia I’m pretty sure I never did it but the one I did the most was the Battle Hall. You’d have to pick one of your Pokemon, pick a Pokemon type to fight against and have to fight ten Pokemon of that type in a row. After, pick another type and continue. I just liked that there was so much to do after you finished the game. Even without HeartGold and SoulSilver, which are considered to be part of this gen, Diamond/Pearl/Platinum would be my number one. It’s called frickin’ Platinum, you can’t do better than that. And with the new Regi variants coming to Sw/Sh maybe we’ll be seeing a new Regigigas and/or gen four remakes soon. Maybe, you never know.

            Real quick, maybe, honorable mention types; Pokken Tournament is kind of neat. When it was first announced I was more hoping for an all fighting Pokemon type game but seeing different types of Pokemon in the game and it work; it turned out to be not bad. I’m not a big fan of the two different fight phases but my boy Empoleon is in it so that’s pretty awesome and my girl Whimsicott in for support. Pokemon Conquest is a cool concept. I’d like a newer one. I felt like I was playing it wrong though. I was trying to level my Pokemon up but I just felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere with my grinding. Played XD: Gale of Darkness for a minute. It had kind of a cool premise. You used Espeon and Umbreon at the beginning. Eevee has always been the second mascot for Pokemon hasn’t it? First rival had one, I think? Right? Or was that just in Yellow? Anyway, the one I liked the most was Battle Revolution. You couldn’t have guessed that one right? I didn’t get the chance to play Stadium when I was a kid so when I came across Battle Revolution I had to have it and it was pretty cool. I liked all the different colosseums or arenas or whatever they were. I loved being able to use my party from D/P/Pt and using the DS as a controller when battling my friend so we couldn’t see what each other were choosing. Seeing Ponyta just float in the air when it did bounce or whatever was kind of weird though and I was really disappointed with the move double team. I was expecting to see multiple copies around my Pokemon like in the anime but no. I guess that was too much.

            So that was long, I doubt anyone read this whole thing but if you did how mad did I make you? What’s your favorite out of the series and why? I made a short video a few years ago talking about making certain fights in the Pokemon games more epic. Give that a quick watch if you like. Basically I think now it could be summed up with making certain fights within the story be like dynamax fights but with your Pokemon party alone and not have a group of players with one Pokemon each. Watch the video, it’ll make more sense I’m sure. It’s short. Alright, if you did read this, thank you. Now I have to go and proof read this shit, sure I’m still going to miss something and it still be incoherent to everyone but me. Until next time, buh-bye!

                           @AztecSauce                                                    @H4mmerBros