The Pokemon series spans two and a half decades at this point, with eight generations full of adventures. Along with each new generation of Pokemon games comes new Pokemon, gameplay features, and worlds to explore. Among the mainline games, there are usually a handful of spin-off titles that expand the Pokemon universe for fans of the franchise to experience. As the media franchise with the highest earnings of all time, Pokemon has certainly left a gigantic mark in each industry it's set foot in. Despite this, fans of the video game series criticize Pokemon's lack of ingenuity as the years have gone by making Pokemon a highly criticized product.
Pokemon is, of course, targeted towards a younger audience, but that hasn't stopped fans of the franchise to continue enjoying the products well into their adulthood. Considering the franchise is over two decades old, many fans grew up with the series. However, as fans have gotten older, the mainline Pokemon games with each new generation seem to take two steps forward and one step back as the overall quality has plateaued out over time. As such, many fans have become frustrated that a series that has generated over $100,000,000,000 over the course of its lifetime hasn't poured more effort into its arguably most important mainline video game series.
Pokemon's First and Second Generation
Even in Pokemon's early days, it was immensely popular, with many schools forced to ban the toys, video games, and trading cards, much like Pogs and Marbles before it. The games had many features unique to the series at the time, including catching and taming monsters, with the goal being to catch them all. Players were encouraged to trade with their friends so that they could finish this task of collecting all of the Pokemon and filling up the Pokemon Encyclopedia. Though this wasn't the only goal for a lot of players, being able to interact and show off their prized Pokemon with their friends was a big deal.
Pokemon Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, and Crystal encompassed the mainline Pokemon games in the first two generations of Pokemon. There were many spinoff titles such as Pokemon Stadium, Hey you, Pikachu!, Pokemon Puzzle League and more in other genres, though it was the core mainline series that fans seemed to gravitate towards the most. This is because the core series emulated what it was like to be someone in a Pokemon world with options of collecting, battling, and going through the story. The first two generations of Pokemon seemed to have experimented a lot with its spinoff titles which would be a trend carried through to today with varying degrees of success.
Pokemon's Third, Fourth, and Fifth Generation
After the first two Pokemon generations, Game Freak decided to overhaul the data structure of the Pokemon, the battle system, and the Pokemon storage. Everything was was more streamlined, while fixing some glaring issues from the original two generations. On top of all the reworking of Pokemon's original formula, Game Freak added more features, such as the Pokemon Contests and Double Battles. Eventually Game Freak would remake Pokemon Red and Blue, giving players access to Gen 1 Pokemon. Despite all of these welcome additions, other notable features such as the day and night cycle and animated Pokemon sprites were removed.
The 4th generation of Pokemon games Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Heart Gold, and Soul Silver saw even more improvements to the original formula. Many of these features were brought on to utilize the Nintendo DS's new functionality over the older hardware of the Game Boy Advance. This included the ability to trade with other players over the internet, touch screen mini-games and menus, improvements to the battle system, contests, secret bases, Pokemon visuals, and 3D environments.
Generation 5's Pokemon Black and White is the second time a new generation debuted on the same console as the last generation. Many improvements and additions were added to the core experience such as the changing of Seasons, new Triple and Rotation Battles, persistent battle animations, and better online capability. Among many gameplay improvements, some key features were removed such as Pokemon following the player, no more Game Corner, and access to other regional Pokemon was only available after the game's story would be completed. Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 had an entirely new story among many improvements to the originals.
Pokemon's Sixth and Seventh Generation
The 6th generation of Pokemon's main series games debuted with Pokemon X and Y and later remakes Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Gen 6 introduced a new Pokemon Type, the first time since gen 2, the Fairy type. The games were now in complete 3D thanks to the power of the Nintendo 3DS and made numerous improvements to the gameplay once again. This came in the form of Mega Evolution, 8-directional movement, Horde Encounters, Super Training, Player Customization, and more. Old features such as the Pokemon Contest and Secret Hideouts returned with Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire along with the new DexNav.
As the generations continued onwards, the stories told with each new Pokemon game became more and more involved culminating in a heavily narrated 7th generation with Pokemon Sun and Moon. This generation introduced new gameplay mechanics such as Z-Moves, Alolan forms for various Pokemon, SOS Battles, Poke-Rides, the Festival Plaza, Hyper Training, and many more.
Though with many unique features added, there were also some series staples that were altered or simply removed. Many of those removed were core features such as the Gym Leader challenge, HMs, National Pokedex, and the PC Hall of Fame. Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were updated versions of their originals.
Pokemon's Eighth Generation
Pokemon's 8th generation of mainline games is Pokemon Sword and Shield. Though it could be argued that remakes Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu and Eevee would also fall under this camp as Pokemon caught in these games can be brought through Pokemon Home to Sword and Shield. One major new addition to the Pokemon series in gen 8 is the Wild Area, a large open area filled with Pokemon running around giving the player the chance to roam freely. Many features from the past were removed such as Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, and the Elite 4 to name a few. New to the series is DLC in the form of expanded content, similar to the Wild Area in the main game.
One major change Game Freak made for Pokemon Sword and Shield is not including every single Pokemon. Sword and Shield are the first games in the main series to do this, and many fans are not happy about it. This is because Pokemon brought up to Game Freak's paid service Pokemon Home is stuck there if they aren't available in Pokemon Sword and Shield. This is a big problem as there is no way for players to move their Pokemon backward from Pokemon Home to the Pokemon games on the 3DS. Their only hope is that newer games in this generation such as Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will include the missing Pokemon in their Pokedex.
Pokemon Sword and Shield's story is much like Pokemon Sun and Moon's where it heavily involves the player without any player input. Many fans of the series aren't keen on such intrusive story-telling especially considering players only have the choice of yes or yes. Some would argue the stories have gotten more complex while being more forgetful than ever. This is a problem if Game Freak decides to continue Pokemon's heavier narrative going forward. This, on top of replacing core features with new ones only to return old features later every generation gives players a frustrating sense of whiplash.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl release on November 19, 2021, for Nintendo Switch.