Pokemon has celebrated its 27th Birthday this week and to continue the celebration of our favourite franchise, we have compiled our top 5 favourite Pokemon games! Keep on reading to see why we think that these 5 entries stand out from the rest! Do you agree with our choices? Let us know what your top pick is in the comments below.
Honourable Mentions
We had a really hard time deciding what games would be included in our top 5 and, needless to say, not everyone will agree with our choces! That's why we have decided to include a list of honourable mentions to start this blog off! These are games that were very close to making the list but just missed out!
Pokemon - Legends Arceus Legends Arceus is the most recent game to be featured in the honourable mentions. The game broke away from the rest of the main series and dared to be different, which definitely allowed for improvements in Scarlet & Violet and future entries.
Pokemon Black 2 & White 2 When it was announced, many considered that the sequels to Black & White would just be more of the same. However you shouldn't write these off too easily! These are considered to have made great advances in the series and hold a very dear place in a lot of players' hearts.
Pokemon Gold & Silver For a long time, these Gen II games were touted as the best of all time. You'll have to check out the Top 5 list below to see why they missed out.
Pokemon Crystal If Gold & Silver were once contenders for the top spot then it is only natural that their enhanced version would also be in the running.
Pokemon Yellow If you're fans of the early adventures of Ash and friends in the Pokemon anime, then it's likely that this game blew your mind! It allowed Pikachu to follow you around in the overworld and even included the iconic team Rocket characters from the series! Meowth!! Now that's a name!
Pokemon Red & Blue These were the games that started it all! It just wouldn't be fair to write this list and not mention the very beginning. The rest of the games on this list wouldn't exist if Red & Blue weren't as successful as they were.
Mystery Dungeon - Explorers of Time and Darkness
5th Place
Starting off our list of the 5th place entry - Mystery Dungeon! This is the only entry on our list that isn't from the core game series! Mystery Dungeon is a unique experience that allows you to take control of a Pokemon character directly as you form your own party of Pokemon adventurers and delve into dungeons to battle enemy monsters, grab loot and solve mysteries! Explorers of Time and Darkness were released back in the 4th Generation of Pokemon and offered an adventure that saw your exploration team travelling through time!
The games started off with a simple personality test that determined which Pokemon your character would be. There were 16 possible results, with the possibility of you being one of the iconic starter Pokemon such as Charmander, Mudkip or Turtwig. The player will find themselves waking on a beach with no memory of prior events before befriending a partner Pokemon of your choosing and forming an Exploration team to join a Guild run by Wigglytuff. Along your adventure you meet friends and foes of all kinds, including the Legendary Dialga and Groudon! Travel through the Grass Continent and discover the suspicious intentions of the mysterious Grovyle and the truth about your past!
Pokemon Platinum
4th Place
Pokemon Platinum takes 4th place on our list! Plunging Sinnoh into an icy winter and released back in the 4th Generation, Platinum offered a massive amount of improvements upon the already excellent Diamond & Pearl!
Platinum was a veritable treasure trove for those searching for legendary Pokemon. Not only did it allow the player to catch Dialga and Palkia, it also introduced the now-iconic Origin Forme for Giratina! It also introduced new forms for Rotom and greatly increased the size of the Sinnoh Poikedex! Alongside this the Battle Frontier replaced the Battle Park and featured the Battle Tower, Battle Factory, Battle Castle, Battle Arcade and Battle Hall as venues.
The game made certain actions like surfing or riding a bike much quicker and overall tweaked the gameplay into something more streamlined! Combined with the versatile addition of the DS's dual-screen, this makes for a very fun and playable experience.
We're massive fans of the 4th Generation here at Total Cards, as that was when many of our staff fell in love with the magic of Pokemon. It's only natural then that Platinum would feature on our list! We feel that this is truly the point at which Pokemon started to come into it's own, transforming from a relatively simple game into a more nuanced gaming experience.
Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen
3rd Place
FireRed & LeafGreen were the first remake games to be released and reinvented the original entries for the Game Boy Advance generation! It introduced the option of playing as either a boy or a girl and included a wireless adapter that made trading and battling with your friends so much easier! Even though the originals are looking back on with fond nostalgia, these remakes perhaps offer a superior presentation of the Kanto region!
The game has a deep and varied battle system, upgraded from the basic system of Gen I, and offers a wide and varied region to explore! Even parts of the game that could make this entry feel a bit dated manage to give it a bit of nostalgic charm. The retro style music and Pokemon sound effects in particular are very different than what would be considered for a game today, but if you a replaying this game now these help to whisk you away to early 2000s when they were released!
All in all, FireRed & LeafGreen are a particularly good starting point for any new player looking to experience some of the older games. They introduce the first region and story of Pokemon with greatly improved gameplay and graphics and have a good helping of nostalgia whilst still being incredibly fun!
Pokemon Emerald
2nd Place
2nd place goes to Emerald, the premium version of Ruby & Sapphire released in Generation III. The game came out not long after FireRed & LeafGreen were released. It featured animated sprites for the first time since Crystal and introduced a ton of epic changes from Ruby & Sapphire. There are a ton of minor changes to the game that subtlety improve the gameplay experience of Emerald. This game is considered a fan-favourite and definitely heralded the potential that would come later to fruition in Generation IV!
One of the most lauded parts of the game is the inclusion of the Battle Frontier! Up until this point in the series, the post-game had always seemed a bit lacking. After defeating the Elite Four and the Champion there was very little to do except shiny hunting and completing your Pokedex, which admittedly could be very grindy. Enter the Battle Frontier! Every location in the Battle Frontier had its own unique selling point and provided a ton to do after you had beat the main story. The introduction of a separate battle area in Emerald proved to be super-influential and wound up being included in many other games on this list, including Platinum and of course, FireRed and LeafGreen!
Aside from the Battle Frontier the game also prominently featured the Legendary Rayquaza, which is still held in high esteem by Pokemon fans today! Rayquaza is still being included in marketing today, decades later, in TCG expansions such as Evolving Skies! To summarise, if you have a Game Boy Advance, it would certainly be a crime not to pick up a copy of Emerald and dive into the Hoenn region!
Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver
1st Place
Our top pick for the greatest Pokemon game of all time is none other the remakes of Gold & Silver! Before the release of HeartGold & SoulSilver, many considered the main games of the 2nd generation to take the top spot.
One of the biggest selling points of the game is that it allowed your partner Pokemon to follow you around in the overworld! This feature was first seen way back in Generation I with Pokemon Yellow and wouldn't be seen again for many generations to come. This was especially impressive when you consider that each of the 493 Pokemon would need animated sprites!
The game also utilises the DS second screen to its full potential, with it featuring the players bag!
Another epic part of this remake is that it allowed you to travel across both the Kanto and Johto regions, facing 16 Gym Leaders, the Elite Four and of course the Champion! Not only this, but it allowed you to interact with trainers from other games such as Cynthia from Diamond & Pearl and Steven Stone from Ruby & Sapphire. It was also possible to encounter Legendary Pokemon from other regions. These include the breath-taking array of Kyogre, Groundon, Rayquaza, Latios, Latias, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina and even Arceus!!
Copies of the game were bundled with the Pokewalker! Which allowed you to take Pokemon out of the game and earn precious watts! When your Pokemon were sent back into the game, they returned much happier with increased experience, items and more!
There isn't a shortage of epic trainers to battle, with the unofficial final boss being the legendary trainer Red, from the original games. Red's Pikachu was a whopping level 88 and posed a considerable challenge for anyone interested in battling. This Pikachu is the joint-highest Trainer Pokemon encountered outside battle areas in any of the main games (tied with Cynthia's Garchomp in her rematch in the Diamond & Pearl remakes). After defeating Red, you also get the option of obtaining the starter Pokemon from Generation I and III!
Check out a selection of Pokemon products down below. Alternatively, you can browse our entire range of Pokemon video games by clicking the button below.
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