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Yeah, this has gotten me back into the series officially. I'm considering grabbing one of the Gen 5 games before the bank comes out, so I can get some mons I have an interest in. Serperior and Milotic rank high on that list.

gen 6 > gen 2 > gen 4 > gen 3 > gen 5 > gen 1

gen 1: it was the first step into an amazing new world...on an 8-bit black and white handheld. play emerald and then play firered and you will see how poor the design of that world is. as a kid, viridian forest felt dark and frightening, traversing the safari zone felt like an adventure, fighting your rival at the end felt like the most important moment of your life, every step through the unknown dungeon was tense. but it's because we were projecting our wonder onto a very plain, awkwardly built world. same reason people love the gen 1 designs. charizard is really just a plain boring dragon. but the simplicity of the design allowed people to project what they thought charizard was all about onto it. The game was built around ideas more than playability, and if you don't have that sense of childlike wonder, gen 1 is basically a slog through weird arbitrations. the same can't be said for the following generations.

gen 2: a lot of people like this one for the same reason they loved gen 1. the world design is simple. but in gen 2, it's elegant. adults who have played a million RPGS can pick up Crystal and still enjoy it. The story is much more developed. It's just a much better game. the world lives and breathes without the need for a child's mind filling in the blanks. and in my opinion the ruins of alph are a lot more eerie than lavender town.

gen 3: whoa whats this??? the game was made basically to basically have a visually spectacular overworld, with jungles, deserts, and underwater ruins. a lot of people don't like this one, and i feel like it's because it fills in the blanks with its own ideas, it tells you exactly what things are and what they look like, it sets its own atmosphere. this was also during an important time in the industry as far as art design of japanese games goes. look at this:
the ruby character gives me the same feeling as the 90's sugimori designs, where the emerald one is a huge shift in design. if you played both, you also know that emerald had a completely overhauled UI, and animatic cutscenes (and a cooler story IMO). gen 3 was game freak basically looking for all of the empty space in the formula and filling it.

gen 4: the perfection of the formula. a lot of people didnt care about the story or the world, but i did, and platinum was probably the most consistently pleasant experience i've ever had playing pokemon. I've spent more time with gen 4 than any other (except blue version) and in my opinion it was the pinnacle of what is now the previous incarnation of pokemon as a thing. compare the world maps of all the games, and you will see a sudden shift after gen 4. gen 5 broke the formula for pretty much everything, the UI, the art direction, the releases (black and white...2!?) and tried to make the story a little more mature, and in my opinion it's kind of the confused precursor to what X/Y is achieving.

when you go back to gen 4, you see the old style of maps as blocky colored icons, roads that either go vertically or horizontally (there was no diagonal movement after all), traditional town design (there used to be maps of towns themselves showing where pokemon centers were), and they packed as much utility as they could into the bottom screen, with indicators of pokemon health, affection, item finding, type matchups, shortcuts to items, ways of tracking berry locations and running legendaries...hg/ss even let you carry around berry trees!?

there was just an old formula to pokemon, an old set of conventions, consistent through generations, that is different now. it reached its peak in 4th gen and now it's a different set of rules. it's why I think there may never be a remake of r/s/e or d/p.

gen 4 also had the best postgame content by far.

gen 5: seasons and the tweeny animations were cool? i think much of the criticism of the designs is unfair, how is a trash bag worse than a pile of sewage? how is a mushroom worse than an actual featureless red and white ball? idk. the story asked questions that people have always asked about pokemon, and tried to be more mature, but i lost interest after the electric gym idk. they took away the formula but forgot to reinvent the game.

gen 6: lol i have nice pants

........what did i start here? lol

Gen 4>Gen 6>Gen 3>Gen 5> Gen 2> Gen 1

I agree with a lot of what noodles said. A lot of the Gen 5 designs were weak, but a lot were really great too, and really, this is something present in all of the games. Gen 4 was also the one I've put the most time into, and for me Gen 5 is the one I spent the least amount of time in, even counting both games.

I didn't play any Pokemon at all until Gen 3, so I'll probably always have a fondness for it that not everyone might have (But I mean come on, Tropius is SO GREAT.) Gen 6 has been lovely so far, though the lack of post game stuff in both Gen 6 AND Gen 5 makes me miss the Sinnoh post game.

Boy I sure do wish the UI didn't get worse with each progressive game though. (I am specifically thinking of the bag and the touch screen, but there's all kinds of little things.)

Gen 4 > Gen 1 > Gen 2 > Gen 3 > Gen 5 > Gen 6

They kept getting mechanically better with each installment, and I love a machine that runs more smoothly.

(Except when Gen 4 introduced Stealth Rock, that was stupid and dumb and stupid. I like the pokemon introduced but putting in a hazard to overcentralize a singles metagame... kinda not my style.)

Otherwise, the differences between how much I like the games are very small. I really like all of them. Each generation has good/bad designs I can enjoy through the main game while still composing a different team each time. Tis a good series.

I have felt that every single generation has improved on the game in some way that makes it almost agonizing to play a previous generation.


Gen 2: Special Attack and Defence. Dark and Steel. Held items.
Gen 3: Abilities. Weather was developed more.
Gen 4: Special vs. Physical not linked to type.
Gen 5: HOLY SHIT YOU CAN REUSE TMS.

I thought that the 3-pokemon battles in Black/White looked sweet. That seems like a lot more strategy, more like an EO game or something.

Officially Unofficial Pokemon Generation Ranking by Yggdrago:

1) Generation 6
So many things that make everything feel better. The move from sprites to 3D models, the addition of just a few more Pokemon for variety, a lovely looking region that gives you plenty of Pokemon to choose from, from all Generations. Great music, another attempt at delivering a story (which was a good attempt), a decent postgame (although very short), and just tons of things to make our life easier. Plus, when you're online you just feel...connected. It's a nice feeling.

2) Generation 2
Because splitting the Special stat into Special Attack and Special Defense was necessary. Also, Day/Night. And letting Pokemon hold items. Dark and Steel types. Johto AND Kanto, boy was that game big. Great experience to play through, right after the E4 you went to Kanto and the trainers were at a decent level. Oh, and don't forget the most important reason of all - TYRANITAR!

3) Generation 4
Making moves Special and Physical depending on what the move does and not just the move's type was awesome. Also, giving some older Pokemon new evolutions to make them a bit stronger. Torterra. The first real attempt at making a story (in my opinion), and I just loved Cyrus as a character.

4) Generation 5
Triple Battles, Rotation Battles, new Pokemon, decent Story, nice postgame, nice game overall. Decently difficult (with B2/W2 being slightly easier). Trying to get new fans with the first games, then doing something for the older fans with the second games was a good thing.

5) Generation 3
Double Battles, Abilities, new-ish berry system. Other than that, there really wasn't much here. Why the hell did they get rid of the Day/Night feature...Also, my least favourite Generation, which is 90% the reason why I ranked it so low.

Yeah, taking away that part of the games a really stupid decision. It made sense to have some Pokemon only appear at night or in the middle of the day, and then Generation 3 comes around and says "LOL NOPE" and it's gone.

Generation 2 was the first one that I played, and I have to agree to what Reynard-Miri said. Every Generation adds something that makes the previous ones feel bad. My brother got the Yellow version after he was done with Silver, and it was so painful to play through. And the same is true for every Generation, although I have to say, for me personally, Generation 2 has aged so, SO well. I wish I could still play mine, but the internal battery has run out, and now there's no more saving.

if you have any respect for gen 3 at all, you're cheating yourself if you don't experience Emerald.