Pokemon no doubt has a lot of games, they actually have over 76 titles including their spinoffs. though, an often contested question is which one is the best? This review will go over some of the more “modern” pokemon titles, from sun&moon and onwards and will be going from worst to best.
- Scarlet & Violet
While this game is indeed the newest installment, I believe by far it is Pokemon’s most publicly disliked game. The game itself is already an oxymoron; it has over 26 million units sold and yet had one of the buggiest releases in the mainline games. Pokemon has responded to this with more fixes along the line, but it is generally considered still to be graphically flawed compared to its predecessors like ‘Sword and Shield.’ Outside of that, I personally found myself not enjoying the game either. For one, the graph indeed destroyed the immersion of the game. I was completely lost and unable to truly enjoy the game when the lighting was not even done and the graphics inside the game were so low quality. This becomes an issue when Pokémon is wishing to create games more and more visually appealing. I also found that I was not extremely interested in any of the stories that Pokémon had to tell. While I did appreciate how story-heavy it was and how trainers had a huge emphasis on this game, there’s no real incentive to explore them outside of what you have to do in order to progress.
- Ruby & Sapphire
I definitely believe that ‘Ruby & Sapphire’ surpasses Scarlet and Violet in leaps and bounds. The story is super interesting, although it for sure is basic in terms of Pokémon’s ability to write. I personally have played Omega Sapphire as well, but I never got into the final small story quest; in the end, I just sort of wanted it to be over with, and while I believe the games are super iconic, I believe the legendaries aside from Rayquaza aren’t anything extraordinary, and the games overall were just sort of slightly beneath mediocre compared to any other Pokémon game. Quality-wise, while this base game is hard to compare to any of the other games on this list due to being 2D, I believe that Omega Sapphire has pretty decent graphics for the time, especially on the 3DS.
- Sword & Shield
This game specifically is very contested in people’s thoughts, especially since it’s a sort of game you love or hate. Personally, I really enjoyed the game. It had a lot of personality for a Pokémon game, and while it did not have anything very special going on story-wise, it is one of the first games stepping into a more open world for Pokémon, and I think it does pretty well at its job. It’s not too hard to get to where you need to go. One problem I noticed, though, is that some areas had extremely overleveled Pokémon when my team was only just starting out. It has a pretty big reliance on the fact that you should go back to these places to catch these Pokémon, but it more so serves as an inconvenience, especially when you’re only first running through the game.
- Pokemon XY
‘Pokémon XY’ has a huge advantage over all these other games; it has a bunch of strengths that I don’t often see in any other game, and it is extremely fun. The story is extremely strong, it has a super fun evolution gimmick, and it has an extremely fun set of new Pokémon for the generation. ‘Pokémon XY’ had a lot of strengths and was an extremely fun playthrough. I didn’t expect to place it above any of the newest games, but I think this is overall a great game that deserves a lot more attention. The region is super fun, and I love even the trainer designs.
- Sun & Moon
I believe the thing that separates XY and ‘Sun&Moon’ for me is the sheer passion and color I see in Sun&Moon. Especially in the trailers, this generation is possibly the best out of any Pokémon game I’ve played. The starters are all-around beautiful, and the strides taken to indulge in the region’s base inspiration, Hawaii, are remarkable, and it flows super well into the Pokémon universe. It does not have a super strong trainer base; however, the story for 2 of the characters inside of the game is super fun and intricate for a Pokemon game.
