When Did Pokémon Peak?

I think everyone can agree that the Gameboy Color Pokemon games are outdated. I was a genwunner and a gentwoer at one point but I think that everyone who grew up in the height of Pokemania like I have has grown out of that stage, since they have to be at least 30 years old at this point.

I think that either Generation 3 or Generation 4 is the peak of Pokémon. Generation 3 is closer to Generation 4 in quality than it is to Generations 1 & 2, but it still doesn’t have the physical/special split. Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD are far better side games than Pokémon Battle Revolution however, which is also worse than Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2, so it actually hurts Generation 4.

On a side note, Generation 5 is overrated but also still better than Generations 1 & 2, and so are the 3DS games which are underrated. I would say the Nintendo Switch Era of Pokémon is when Pokémon became even worse than the Gameboy Color games, and I don’t know why fans compare them too the 3DS games in quality other than the introduction of gimmicks like Mega Evolutions and Alolan Forms which are also present in the Switch games.

Either Gen 3 or 4. Could argue Gen 2 since it was supposed to be the last games but the success made the series live on.

I think in terms of games, probably during the
Gameboy/Gamecube era of Gen 1/2 are the
absolute peaks with Gen 3 and 4 following
closely.

in terms of the card game and anime. probably the same with the games tbh.

Me personally, I liked the Gen 3 era the
best in terms of card games and anime/movies, but I appreciate the Gen 4 video games like Diamond/Pearl and Soul Silver/Heart Gold the most.

i never played the card game. it was always YGO I went with in that department, same with how I used to buy Digimon cards but never even learned how to play.

Isn't this subjectively different for every person? For me personally, I feel that Gen 3 is the superior one. Emerald is primarily the only game I return to.

Everyone will talk about what they're nostalgic for. For me, I started with Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald when I was about six. I have a lot of nostalgia for Gen 4 when I returned to the series in 2009 with Diamond and then again in 2010 with SoulSilver.

To me, trying to factor in my bias and also trying to be objective, I think Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are arguably the best Pokémon games. You can make a real case for every subsequent game being worse than them. I feel like the Switch generations are probably the worst we've seen since the series inception.

I remember what brought me back to Pokémon. I was nine, almost ten years old. I went to a friend's birthday party and he had a copy of Pokémon Diamond in his room. I saw Dialga and thought it looked so cool. Of course I remembered Pokémon but I fell out of it and didn't think much about it. My dad came with me and bought a really overpriced used copy from EB Games. It didn't even have the proper cover art, but rather the generic store art they will include with loose cartridge games. I first played this in the drive thru of a fast food place.

It had more than one peak, but the peak of peaks was Gen 2, 1999-2002. That was a great set of games and there was no sign of the series declining yet. The only way was up. You could also play as a female character iirc. Gen 3 was when cracks began to show for the first time, with too much water (unironically. Did they consult a consumer panel of scuba divers?). There was also pokemon pinball (1999), pokemon stadium (1999) and the pokemon trading card video game (1998, tbf never heard of this until adulthood). The physical cards were still very popular. The pokemon movies were big news still. Kids wore pokemon t-shirts. I went to a pantomime (ya know, "he's behind you!" "where? There's nobody there" "he's over there!", "oh no it isn't" "oh yes it is") in Liverpool with Boys Brigade when I was 5 and they had Pikachu and Mewtwo in it, with Mewtwo as the villain (I dunno the story or if it made any sense. It's for young kids).

Gen 1 had the best main-series game sales though. Maybe that's the peak? Gen 8 had the next-best sales. I do wonder if Gen 1 sold more because 1. there weren't many Gameboy games yet and Pokemon was basically THE flagship game (like Grand Turismo 3 being the paired game for early PS2 buyers), maybe people didn't know if Pokemon Green, Blue and Red were all that different so bought more than one? ALso people just may have wanted to try it out, since it was new - same for Gen 8, being the first 3D main-series pokemon game.

Pokemon Go may have been another peak, around 2016. It was talked about a lot at that time.

Classic Adamas said:

Everyone will talk about what they're nostalgic for. For me, I started with Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald when I was about six. I have a lot of nostalgia for Gen 4 when I returned to the series in 2009 with Diamond and then again in 2010 with SoulSilver.

To me, trying to factor in my bias and also trying to be objective, I think Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are arguably the best Pokémon games. You can make a real case for every subsequent game being worse than them. I feel like the Switch generations are probably the worst we've seen since the series inception.

Click to expand...

Black2/White2 are one of the few main series games I've never completed. I started a new file a few weeks ago but keep forgetting to go back to play it.

Right here