After what felt like a million years, I have completed Pokémon White last November, before going to Tenerife on holidays. And OMG it was painful! I mean, yes, the story is decent and everything, but the game is so so horribly looking, that it makes it all just BAD. And yes, the 5th generation is made of questionable pokémon (bar my baby Emolga 🥰) but even the whole characters and cities etc look horrible and I could not even think of possibly do White 2. So no, I did not care about the story 5 years later and did not wait a single moment to jump onto Gen 6 and Pokémon X
And what a difference! I forgot how much I loved these games. I had Pokémon Y on my Nintendo 3DS (I bought it when I was in Edinburgh, with Liam who had X if I remember well) so I decided to do X this time, and also I remember Charizard X to be much cooler than Charizard Y. So I started it mid-November and it has been a fantastic game run! Smooth, beautiful to look at, moderately easy (ok, probably extremely easy, but who cares). Best part was, after I transferred all the pokémon, looking at Gen 5 dex in an acceptable form for the first time!
So, I would say that for now, X/Y get the third place in my all-time ranking, after (Heart)Gold/(Soul)Silver and Yellow. Everything was on point. I had the most fun replaying, the design was peak balance between 3D and chibi, great Pokémon and cute story. The map could have done some love, and, from what I heard, that has not been addressed in Legend Z-A, but that’s long way ahead. It was pretty short to play, to be honest, but I’m not sure whether that’s been skewed by Gen 5… But I was on such a high, that I started immediately with Gen 7 and I chose…
Pokémon Ultra Sun. This time I went on a different route: I had Sun for my Nintendo 3DS but decided to go with the same “flavour” and the enhanced sequel. The reason was simple: I was not going to deal with the day/night switch of Moon, and I the Ultra did have extra gaming scenarios and Pokémon, and I was not going to play the same generation twice. So Ultra Sun it is!
This is still on-going, I am about half-way through (I think?) and I can tell a few things already: the Alola thing gets old very quickly. Some cute re-designs like Mexican Rattata, but also lots of questionable ones, like Meowth, Dugtrio…
The graphics also start crossing the line, I liked X/Y a lot better than this more “full figure / adult” character. I still think Pokémon should stick to cartoon-like designs and avoid any “realistic” feelings. It’s Pokémon. I would rather go back to enhanced pixel art and make the games more fun.
Anyway… this will be the last “retro” game. Next is Pokémon Sword for the Switch, which I love. But feels weird to go to modern games. And I need to figure out about the “missing” Pokémon, what to do with Legends etc. Also, by the looks of it, it’s the end of the road for Nintendo emulation now with the Switch 2. I am so curious to see what will happen next. But that is all in 2026 at least! Until then… ALOLA! 👐