If you're a gamer, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon is probably dear to your heart in some way. Pokémania was inescapable in the 90s and early 2000s. Movies, the TV show, stuffed animals, games -- every time you turned your head, there was a Pikachu. Whether you played Red and Blue wheꦆn they came stateside in 1998 or ♌didn't get into the series until later, almost every gamer has some experience with the abundant pocket monsters.
Pokémon means different things to gamers based on when they first came to the franchise. Older generations might not have clicked with the series or easily grew away from it. For those that played it at kids, it's hard to escape something that so easily captured their imagination. After over twenty years of Pokémon, one can look back and compare the games to see what the beloved ol♏derꦦ generations did better, and what the new releases improve.
10 𒁃 🎃 Worse: Catering To New Players (At The Detriment To Longtime Fans)
It's hard to not talk about contemporary Pokémon criticism without discussing this, so it's best to get it out of the way first. Looking at modern Pokémon titles through this lens can suddenly make a lot of vehement fan o😼utcry make sense. It comes down to one simple issue: the series ꦉrefuses to grow up with its established fans.
It's not like games can't do both. Features like cutscene skips, a hard mode or even a "I've played a Pokémon game before, you don't have 🍌to teach me how to catch one I've literally been doing this since I was five years old," button would go a long way in assuaging the troubles series fans have with newer releases. The most frustrating thing is that some of these ideas, like a hard mode, existed in💧 previous titles, but they had poor implementation and are missing from subsequent games.
The thought do💖esn't matter enough here. There has to be something concrete.
9 Better: Cuteness Factor 𓂃 ꦉ
Plenty of Pokémon have always been cute. What's changed is how the games let you interact with your favorite companions in some truly adorable ways. Features like Pokémon-Amie, where y🌌ou can feed and pet your Pokémon, do wonders for connecting you with your pals.
Watching a Munchlax scarf down some Poképuffs, petting your Cynda🎃quil or even high fiving a Lucario helps remind us part of why Pokémon succeded. You bond with these virtual monsters through your journey. Interacting𝓀 with them in the newer games is absolutely charming.
8 Wor🃏se: Random Feature Removal
This is another problem that defines the newer releases. Game Freak refuses to carry features across generations. Everyone loved the idea of having a Pokémon follow your trainer around as a concept, and it was implemented back in Yellow. Then it was missing until 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:HeartGold and SoulSilver.
It's simple things like this that are so frustrating about Pokémon as a franchise. Whether it's the Battle Frontier, a day/night cycle and matching music, or even difficulty options, Game Freak puts them in 🌠once and then they're never seen again. It's a shame to see a feature you adore removed from later releases. Especially when so many of them seem so easy to make standard, or were a defining feature of their debut game.
7 ꦑ Bett🐲er: Graphics
This might be aꦬ contentious entry, but it will make more sense with the entry beneath it. While the move to 3D caused a plethora of issues for the franchise, including many inexcusable ones, it's awesome to see Pokémon in 3D.
Home releases like Pokémon Stadium and Colosseum were nice to see in 3D, but were clearly spinoff titles. For many of us that have been playing Pokémon since we were kids, seeing the series move completely to 3D was a🧸 dream come true.
6 ꦡ Worse: Style
While the graphics might be an improvement, the style sure isn't. The models are incredible to see in 3D but they lack the special... something that the previous generations had. It's difficult to define what that is. Do they have more so🎶ul? More heart? The new models seem so compared to the old ones. A lot of that has to do with the statue-like default poses an♌d undescriptive animations. All the old sprite work breathes character.
Take a look at some of Ken Sugimori's original watercolor Pokémon artwork above, or compare the style of newer monsters to the old generations. As the years go on, the style changes, but somet🌳hing more is lost in that move to 3D models.
Oh, and fat Pikachu. The truest tragedy of the 🐻series' change in style over t🍰he years.
5 🥀 Better: Balance At♎tempts
Anyone who wants to disparage Red, Blue and Yellow will be quick to point out how imbalanced they were, with the overwhelming strength of the Psychic types (who had no🙈 weakness) and Tauros, who was surprisingly totally broken.
Later releases do show that Game Freak pays attention to the series's balance, as well as its competitive community. The introduction of Fairy types to alleviate the overabundance of Dragon types in previous generations is evidence of that. The same with Mega Evolutio🃏ns to strengthen some underused monsters. They're not always successful, but hey -- they're at least somewhat better.
4 Woꦰrse: Rivals 🎀
Rivals in newer generations, especially from X and Y onwar𒀰d, are absolutely awful. Is it even still right to call them rivals? Overly Kind Companions might be a better name. Or Punching Bags. Beating these children who are only kind to you the whole time, even as yo💛u knock out their monsters and take their money, doesn't feel right.
You know what did feel great? Finally beating that "Smell ya later" saying jerk who was one step ahead of you the whole time. Finally beating the trainer who intentionally picked the starter💙 that yours was weak to. Hearing that someone beat you to become champion and knowing it was him, then taking it away from him because you are The Very Best That Ever Was.
3 Better: No More ൲HMs
This is one of the best features of the newer games. Having to dedicate 🌺a slot in your party to an HM slave was beyond annoying. It did make your Pokémon feel like integral tools in your trip around the region, but no one likes having to carry around a swole, rock-smashing Bidoof they don't actually want to.
Features like the Poké Ride were awesome to see. They're a step in the🐽 right direction, as you see your trainer interact with their Pokémon in the world. A better implementation would allow the player to choose which Pokémon they get to use, but it's currently still better than an HM slave.
2 Worse: The 𒀰journey
The older generations felt like an adventure. In the first generation, you pass by and probably visit the Indigo Plateau early, only to be told that you're not good enough to enter yet. So you spend the entire game proving yourself, collecting badges and taking down a crime syndicate before you ascend to the level of champion. In Gold and Silver, you think you're done after the Elite 4, only to then go on a victory lapꦜ through your old Kanto stomping grounds.
Maybe it's because these were the early games, but it felt like you were training for a goal, and like something unexpected was around every corner. The Pokémon formula has hardly changed over the years, and now it feels artificial. Eight badges, a Team Rocket equivalent, an Elite 4. To bring the journey back, Game Freak would really have to shake it up. Here's hoping for a Breath of the Wild-esque take on Pokémon, someday.
1 Better: Capturing New💎 Fans
This is less a "doing better" and more of an "incredible they're still doing it." Pokémon captured a generation when it first released and even now, over twenty years later, each new title seem♌s to capture imaginations as previous ones did.
Despite how jaded some gamers might feel toward the franchise, for some kids, each new generation is their first Pokémon ex⛦perience. Watchiඣng their eyes light up the same way many of ours did so long ago is awesome to witness. Hopefully, that never changes.