My favourite will always be Red because of nostalgia. It doesn't really hold up these days but being a kid during peak Pokémon mania where everyone were whipping out their Gameboys during recess and the dude who got a Mew from some marketing event was king of the schoolyard was just the source of so many memories. Most of them related to longing for an innocence lost, I'm sure. But still.

Realistically though as a game I think HeartGold/SoulSilver was the peak of the series. Lovingly recapturing the essence of the first two generations, adding a ton of content on top and even shipping with the freaking Pokewalker! It's got everything that was good about G/S/C in a modern package, what more can you want? Going back to Kanto after beating the Pokémon League is still the coolest thing ever. But maybe I'm swayed by nostalgia again...

[–] shyguyblue@lemmy.world 5 points 13 hours ago

I remember playing Blue so much as a kid, I would hear the MIDI based music whenever I closed my eyes.

So glad we finally have the room on the carts for different music for each region/dungeon/route, but there something quaint about only having a half-dozen musical bits per game.