It is a great time to be a Pokémon fan, with new remakes coming in November and Pokémon Legends: Arceus (which looks amazing!) coming early next year. Michela may not enjoy the Pokémon franchise much, but Geekling and I sure do. Pokémon is one of the first video games I ever played. I have tons of childhood memories with the series.

Sadly, after the fourth set of games released, I stopped playing the franchise. I didn’t have a DS anymore, and I lost track of the new releases. But when Nintendo announced the Let’s Go! games for the Switch, I said to myself, “Hey, I have a Switch!”

I somehow convinced Michela to let me buy Let’s Go! Eevee when it came out. But in preparation for the game’s release, I realized that I had missed out on several generations of Pokémon. A few bribes later, Michela began consenting to my purchasing and replaying the entire series of games. After this revival, I am absolutely thrilled to get to forge new memories with my son!

In case you aren’t familiar with the Pokémon games, the mainline games follow a core formula: you play as a young pokémon trainer whose goal is to beat the Pokémon League, become the champion, and catch all the little pocket monsters you can. To beat the League and become the champion, you have to collect eight gym badges by using your team of captured monsters to defeat eight gym leaders, each of whom has their own team of pokémon. 

Along the way, though, some evil(ish) syndicate will do something remotely evilish (and usually extremely outlandish like trying to flood the whole earth for literally no reason), and you will have to stop them because the adults in the game apparently can’t tie their own shoes. Each game takes place in a unique region with unique pokémon to catch, unique gym leaders to battle, and a unique evil team that you’ll have to crush. It’s all good, clean fun!

So yes, we (Geekling and I, at least) definitely recommend Pokémon to your family. But as we can’t pick just one game in the franchise, and as there are…you know, oodles of them…this week’s recommendation post is a ranking of the mainline games. (That means that spin-offs like Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon Snap will not be included.)

And! We will shorten the list somewhat by lumping remakes and originals together. So, for example, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald will be ranked alongside the 3DS remakes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The remakes are all largely the same experience as the originals, just updated, and I’ll note any differences as they come up. Now, to the rankings:

8. The Alola Games (Pokémon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon)

Picking a bottom spot in the Pokémon franchise is hard. They’re all great games, and the Alola games are no exception. The region is vibrant and fun. I loved a lot of  the new Pokémon, and I enjoyed the Alolan versions of old Pokémon even more. The extra content in the Ultra games made the Alolan experience even better.

But the Alola games rank lower on my list simply because of the pacing in the games. The unskippable cutscenes, excessive tutorials and handholding, and overbearing interruptions to the flow of your exploration turn me off a bit. I still have a great time, but I like to explore and just do my own thing. Alola rarely lets you do that until after you beat the game.

7. The Unova Games (Black, White, Black 2, and White 2)

I didn’t get to play these as a kid because by the time they came out, I didn’t own a DS anymore. I had entered my “I like video games but don’t have tons of time for them” phase, and I wasn’t as into Pokémon. But during my revival phase a couple of years ago, I finally got to play the Unova games. And I actually really enjoyed them.

I like that there is a huge roster of new Pokémon to play with. Not all of them are winners, but no generation has perfect Pokémon. I liked the greater (for a Pokémon game) narrative scope and more believable (for a Pokémon game) motivation for the evil team. I like that some of the more established pieces of the formula got shaken up a bit, like the Elite 4 and the games’ climax.

But I must admit that I am not a huge fan of the region itself. It’s kind of dusty and ugly. That’s really my only major gripe with the games (aside from some ambivalence about some of the mechanics introduced, like triple battles, and some of the Pokémon themselves). But the ambiance and theming of the region play a big role in my enjoyment, and I thought Unova was busy and claustrophobic. That’s probably just a personal preference, though.

6. The Kanto Games (Red, Blue, Yellow, FireRed, LeafGreen, Let’s Go! Pikachu, and Let’s Go! Eevee)

Let’s get this out of the way right now: I love the Kanto games. So please, please don’t eat me for putting them at number 6 on the list.  I grew up on them, especially the GameBoy Advance remakes FireRed and LeafGreen. But the Kanto region as a whole is a bit samey all over, with no super interesting flourishes like other regions. Maybe I’ve just played too much of them, but Kanto feels a bit too familiar. 

For me, these games lack the character and identity that later games in the series had. That’s probably due to the fact that the Kanto games began the whole franchise, so their basic existence was more than enough at the time they were released. I just happen to think we’ve improved on many aspects of Pokémon since then.

That doesn’t mean there’s nothing amazing about these games. I love the Pokémon here because I grew up loving them. I enjoy that you can do many of the gyms out of order and that there are multiple routes to explore (some of which are totally optional). And I appreciate that these games spawned the whole franchise.

Most of all, though, I love that I can share this region with my son more easily than most others. Because the Let’s Go! games brought Kanto to the Switch, Geekling and I get to play them together on the TV instead of on a dinky handheld console. I get to show him the magic of catching and training Pokémon, and he just adores throwing the poké balls. (Plus, he picks the best nicknames.)

5. The Hoenn Games (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Omega Ruby, and Alpha Sapphire)

It’s a bit of a toss-up which region I’ve played through the most because I’ve lost count for some of them. But I am pretty sure that I’ve played the Hoenn games more than any other. The original GameBoy Advance titles released around the time I was starting to play Pokémon as a kid, and I got a used copy of Pokémon Sapphire for Christmas one year. 

I played these games to death as a kid, so I do have a lot of fond memories of walloping Team Magma and Team Aqua, discovering double battles, finding that Belldum in Steven’s house and getting my own Metagross, walking through the ash fields and caves of the northern Hoenn region, looking in a printed guidebook to figure out how to read braille to catch the Regis, and surfing…everywhere.

I do think the 3DS remakes lost some of the character of the original GameBoy Advance titles. There’s something beautiful about the pixel art and the atmosphere in the originals. But I am a huge fan of the additional mega evolutions and content in the remakes, including the Delta Episode (which was super fun and cinematic). So I guess that balances things out a bit.

4. The Kalos Games (X and Y)

Remember how I mentioned that ambiance played a huge role in my enjoyment of a game? The Kalos games are a testament to that. I understand that Team Flare is one of the weakest teams in Pokémon history, that the difficulty curve of the Kalos games is basically a flat line (maybe even with a slight decline), and that the rivals in Kalos are rather irksome. But I just love the way it feels to play through Kalos.

The region is based on France, and you can just tell that they wanted to capture as much of that as possible. Grass patches get replaced with flower patches in many areas, and there are castles and chateaus everywhere. The main city has an Eiffel Tower! It’s just a beautiful game.

On top of the European vibes, the Pokémon are honestly some of my favorites in the entire franchise. They’re well-designed, fun to play with, and just downright enjoyable. It’s true that Kalos introduced the fewest Pokémon of any region. But they really focused on quality and theming for the ones that they did add, and I’m a fan.

The Kalos games also introduced elements to let you interact with your Pokémon more, like the Amie function that has carried over into every generation since then. These games sought a more immersive experience, and for me, they nailed it.

3. The Galar Games (Sword and Shield)

Though divisive when they first released, Sword and Shield have quickly won me over. It doesn’t bother me that they are graphically outclassed by almost every other game on the Switch, or that not all of my favorite Pokémon made it into the game. What matters to me is the gameplay and the fact that I can share all of it with Geekling.

Geekling and I have nearly finished playing through Shield using Pokémon that he had a hand in selecting (with nicknames that he chose). Even though this is my third time through the game, it has been so much fun to do it with him. We love to just wander around the wild area or the two DLC areas together and catch Pokémon or do Max Raid Battles. 

Galar introduced many amazing Pokémon and some fun mechanics. I do wish the evil team were…you know, not lame and pointless. But I am grateful that you can turn off most cutscenes and generally do whatever you want most of the time. 

Despite graphical limitations, I think the locales are stunning and full of character  (just look at Ballonlea!).

Plus, no more random encounters! This is huge. If I want to catch Pokémon, I can. I can even try to find the very specific one I’m looking for instead of trying to find it among a bunch of pointless battles. If I want to just run through a route as fast as possible, I can do that too. And that’s a nice change to the series.

2. The Johto Games (Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, and SoulSilver)

I might be misremembering, but I am pretty sure that Pokémon Gold version was the first Pokémon game I ever played. Ergo, all of the Johto games hold a potent nostalgia for me.

But nostalgia aside, there’s a lot to love about this region. The Pokémon introduced in these games are classic. Once again, you can do some of the gyms in any order you want, which makes for a fun and challenging experience. And in the postgame, you can revisit the Kanto region to battle through the gyms and a small side story there.

I’ll be honest, I remember beating Gold as a kid and being told I could go to Kanto for more stuff to do. I scooted on over there and discovered that the Pokémon were all very low level, and I didn’t understand (being so young) that you could challenge the gym leaders over there too. So I thought the trip to Kanto was super lame and restarted the game with a new starter. I never went back to Kanto.

It wasn’t until my most recent reintroduction to the series that I finally took the time to beat the Kanto postgame (except the final battle with Red because I got distracted by Sword and Shield). And now I do appreciate the value added by this extra postgame content. 

What I like most of all, though, is the atmosphere of Johto. The region has this mysterious, mystical vibe. There are local legends about the burned tower and the legendary birds. There are shrines in the forests for other legendary Pokémon. The architecture and culture have a lot of traditional Japanese elements. It’s just beautiful. 

The remakes only enhanced that feel for me. They add autumnal attributes to some of the routes, detail to the architecture, and even some context for some of the legendaries. No wonder they’re often heralded as the gold standard (pun absolutely intended) of Pokémon games.

1. The Sinnoh Games (Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum)

Where to begin with the Sinnoh games. These are and have been my favorites from the moment I first played them. I must admit that the box legendaries did not do it for me initially. (I do like them now.) And Bidoof is dumb, no matter how many memes people make about it. But the rest of the Pokémon are just A+ material. The starter trio is my absolute favorite set of starters. (Torterra and Empoleon are tied for my favorite Pokémon ever.)

And, in my opinion, Sinnoh does a better job at incorporating the lore and legends of the region than most other games in the series. The Sinnoh games take the mystical, ancient sort of feeling from Johto and add to it. Each mythical or legendary Pokémon has a purpose and a story with it. Mt. Coronet and several of the towns play into the legends and lore, and you get drip fed bits of information and story as you go along. There’s so much to enjoy. 

I could go on and on about how incredible the Sinnoh games are. (Just ask poor Michela.) But I think you can see why I’m excited for the Sinnoh Remakes coming out later this year, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. While I wish they had been updated to align with the mechanics/visuals from Galar, I am genuinely looking forward to taking Geekling on another Pokémon adventure with me. 

In fact, I’m so excited about them that Geekling and I just started playing through Pokémon Platinum. He sits on my lap and pushes the buttons on the touch screen to pick attacks, and we’re having a grand time.

If you’re looking to get into Pokémon with your family, the myriad games on Nintendo Switch are definitely the way to go. They’re all available on Amazon, and you can even preorder the Sinnoh Remakes and the new spinoff Pokémon Legends: Arceus (which looks amazing).

And if Pokémon isn’t your thing, definitely check out some of our other recommendations for a game that’s more your family’s speed!