I sit here writing this final entry into this feature having read all of the preceding pages. Willem is very passionate about Gen 5, and I think he sold me on the fact that the 2D sprite art in that game is peak and beats the pants off all the 3D stuff. Donald did yeoman’s work trying to paint a nice picture for Gen 6. And of course Justin Berube went for the nostalgic angle (that I happen to also adore because I grew up with it in a similar way that he did). I have relished the trip down memory lane for all of the previous generations. The history of Pokémon is fun and varied with countless different games and creatures that people label their absolute favorite. I sit here writing this final entry with a credo for how I feel about playing Pokémon games in 2025: new is better.

As I wrote in my Gen 4 piece, I came back after a break from Pokémon. I have never left since, diving into each mainline release and coming away from each one relatively satisfied, but I’ve found it difficult to sincerely go back to a previous gen after the new one has come out. It’s hard to go back to the days where physical and special weren’t split up. It’s hard to go back to the days of starting battles with the low-level Pokémon you want to level up and then immediately switching to a more powerful one, especially when much easier pathways to do that (like Exp Share) exist in modern games. It’s hard to go back to random battles once you could see the Pokémon on the overworld.

The start of Pokémon’s eighth generation was undeniably rough, even if the prospect of Pokémon fully moving away from being just a handheld series was exciting. The transition to the HD Nintendo Switch led to a big culling of available Pokémon in Pokémon Sword and Shield. It might have made sense, but it was still disappointing. What wasn’t disappointing was getting to play a Pokémon game on a hybrid system, especially one that had a fun British setting and had open environments where you could see the Pokémon on the map itself.

Sobble, Grookey, and Scorbunny are all fun starters, highlighting the ways the Pokémon of this gen do a great job referencing the British style of the region. It rules that Scorbunny turns into a soccer-playing rabbit and Sobble turns into James Pond. I love my little psychic bug in Orbeetle. Wooloo is an adorable Scottish sheep. Yamper is an electric corgi. Applin is a freaking apple dragon. There’s a sentient teapot! It’s really such a great assortment of new creatures, even more so when you start diving into the regional evolutions like the pirate Purrserker for Meowth and the leek-wielding Sirfetch’d for Farfetch’d. We might have not had immediate access to the full National Dex, but at least what was there was fun as hell.

Sword and Shield feature some experimentation that doesn’t always land, but the foundations of the Wild Area would go on to define the future of Pokémon to a degree. While most routes fell into the expected style of tall grass and random Pokémon, the Wild Area was an expanse where Pokémon appeared on the overworld for you to decide to engage with. If you wanted to play online, the Wild Area was sometimes a technical debacle, but the concept of it ruled.

In lieu of a third version, Sword and Shield had a double dose of DLC. I prefer the first pack to the second, but both highlight different aspects of the game, focusing on expanding those Wild Area concepts while also introducing more old Pokémon.

The last few generations have usually culminated in some form of remake, but Game Freak ventured to do something different from the usual remake this time with Pokémon Legends Arceus. Unfortunately, at some point they seemingly got cold feet because we also got the worst remake of a Pokémon game ever made in Shining Diamond and Brilliant Pearl. Legends Arceus, a game that is firmly mainline, breathed new life into the series in my eyes as it let your player character have a far more active role in the world, tossing Pokéballs at wild Pokémon and dodging attacks from bosses. The unique style of the game made for one of the more cerebral Pokémon games I’ve ever played. It does an incredible job of celebrating the generation it’s riffing on while also bringing forth something new. If you want to hear more about how much I adore this game, check out my launch review from early 2022.

Touching on Shining Diamond and Brilliant Pearl is less thrilling. I still played the game to completion, but this game firmly kind of sucks. That’s also why I still kind of love it. I’ll just kick it to what I wrote about the game in a games of 2021 editorial I wrote: “Playing through Pokémon Shining Pearl makes it seem like developer ILCA had like four weeks to put together a remake. Before the crucial day-one patch, this game was a mess and even with bandages plastered on, it’s still janky. Crucially, that almost made it more nostalgic for me. I would prefer my Pokémon remakes be more ambitious than this, but Shining Pearl just felt achingly like I remembered it on Nintendo DS. The momentary hitch before you enter any battle is likely not intentional, but the fact that this seems to be put together with duct tape and a glue gun an hour before the project was due reminded me a lot of the memorable jank of the original Pokémon games. I devoured Pokémon Red and Blue as a kid not because they were smooth, bug-free experiences; but because they were deliriously fun in spite of how broken they were. This remake will not sit near the top of my favorite Pokémon games, but I loved it for the woebegone husk that it is.”

This generation touches on every aspect of why I love Pokémon, whether it’s the janky nostalgia of Shining Diamond and Brilliant Pearl, the glorious overambition of Sword and Shield’s Wild Area, or the brilliant gameplay innovation of Legends Arceus. I love seeing this series develop and iterate over the decades because even if some attempts miss, it’s always interesting and engaging, especially when they make adorable and incredible new critters. This is the best generation of Pokémon to me, at least until the next one. Legends Z-A is “TBD” so we aren’t hitting on that now, but new has usually been better for me with Pokémon. I can’t wait to see what’s next.