3rd Gen Thoughts on the 3rd generation?

[Cham]

So - what did I miss, what made Gen2 so good for all you Gen2-lovers out there?

I think what made generation 2 great for me was the feeling of not too much or not too little. I think the balance of quality and quantity was done very well. I've always thought that 250 was a good number, and not many of the monsters from gen. 2 seemed pencil whipped or thought up spur of the moment. I feel that quality started to degrade monster-wise 3rd generation and onward. The region was the most fun to explore, I would actually walk through the routes even after I had fly. The implementation of morning/day/night and time based events was a great addition to the game, as were the smaller things such as acorns and shiny monsters.
Going along with the reasons mentioned, I really do think a large amount of my 2nd generation preference is nostalgia. It wasn't necessarily groundbreaking features or additions that did it for me, it was the good memories I have tied along with the game and all the time spent with my friends playing it.

 

[Ayselipera]

I didn't mind the 3rd generation, but some of the new
pokemon I found hideous. I also didn't like how Ruby
and Sapphire ended after the Elite Four with pretty
much nothing left to do. But I thought Emerald took
care of that nicely by adding in the Battle Frontier.
Even though it wasn't as exciting as Kanto and Johto
its still a hell of a lot better then Sinnoh. Sinnoh is
easily the most boring pokemon game ever.

 

[sonofzeal]

I've always thought that 250 was a good number, and not many of the monsters from gen. 2 seemed pencil whipped or thought up spur of the moment. I feel that quality started to degrade monster-wise 3rd generation and onward.

See, I always felt the opposite. I mean, Gen3 introduced Slaking (unique, tactically interesting), Linoone (personal bias), Breloom (awesome type, great unique options in Spore+FocusPunch), Ralts (nice alternative to the overused Abra line), Aggron (hyperfocused on defense, but again that just makes it tactically interesting), Mightyena (finally, a Dark type that you can actually expect to see around), Salamence (overused, but a nice alternative to Dragonite), and Metagross (pseudo-legendaries are always fun).

Standouts from Gen2 for me are... uh... Mareep (finally, a three-stage electric), Sudowoodo (finally, a pure-rock, too bad it's pretty useless), Girafarig (interesting type combo, but underpowered), Ursaring (good solid Normal brute), Skarmory (another interesting type mix, and playable this time), and Tyranitar (pseudo-legendary ftw).

...yeah, with a few exceptions (such as Skarmory, who's in Gen3 games anyway), I'll take the Gen3 pokemon over Gen2. I was never impressed with how Gen2 introduced Dark and Steel without really giving them enough support in the form of common and useful pokemon to showcase the types; they felt, in your words, "pencil whipped". I thought Gen3 did a lot better job of integrating the new types and making them feel like an actual part of the game.

I dunno. I should give Gen2 another try. If I do, what do you recommend for a team of Gen2 pokemon that won't keep me wishing that I could have Gen1 equivalents instead? What Gen2 pokemon add new tactical variety to the game?

 

[AceOfSpades]

Generation III was definately my favorite. I played Gen. I and Gen. II, but I was so little and did not even know what was going on. Pokemon Sapphire was the first pokemon game I finished, then red, yellow, gold, and crystal. Im not saying the First two Generations of pokemon games are bad, I'm just saying that the Gen III games are the main reasons I got into pokemon. Although I do like Gen II pokemon the best, Gen III were my favorite games.

 

[KurlyFries]

ZERO OUT OF TEN.

I'm totally joking.

I thought the massively huge third gen brought about a lot of milestones in competitive battling.
Abilities, a crapload of items like white herb (not so sure about that one), Salamence, etc.

Speaking of which, they perfected the single player competitive battles (like Battle Tower) in Emerald with the introduction to Battle Frontier.

The music was fine, but the revamps of GSC music in FRLG were the best.

I LOVE MIXING RECORDS. :D

Sevii Islands were so-so. The minigames were hard to access if you just didn't want to catch a bunch of Dodrio. But as an "Oh Cool, new places to explore!" type of game element, it's kinda good.

I think it lost a lot of the Asian influence in RSE, which I thought were all really fitting and interesting in GSC.

Also, console RPGs were introduced. Not my favorite games, as well as wannabe-Eric-Johnson battle music that also got annoying after two battles. I think the best part about Colosseum and XD was Miror B's amazing theme song.

But Gen IV took everything good Gen III gave them and slapped it hard in the face, like the rehashed battle music from RSE

Overall, the Third Generation of Pokemon Games did all a new Generation should be expected to do.

 

[giro1221]

Gen 3?

i liked Gen 3, sorta... i mena it was a good game and it had some good additions, but it was dry after the main quest, because there ws no way to rebattle anyone, the optional areas were cool like the wrcked ship and sky pillar (i think i cought a lvl 48 claydol there). but Gen 1 i remember liking but the other media made it kiddy and creepy. (damn bad anime series ruined it and that dumb card game) aside form that though the first one was a big step in rpgs, and the second was a big step for the sreries as a whole. gen 4 was probably the biggest one for me, i have Peral and i play alot ive done the main story but i come back. why? because it revamped everything, it was a big refreshment when it came to ds, breeding is fun if you can beleve that. <_< maybe the new remakes of gold and silver will be worth the hype.

 

[Finnel]

R/S/E are my favorite games in the series. I'm completely in love with the soundtrack, the sprites are cute, the region is small but has a lot of things in it, and it has some of my favorite Pokémon in it.

I don't get why so many people hate it so much, sure it did remove a couple of features from GSC, but it added so many more! Running, weather, abilities, contests, natures, different environments, double battles... Can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's more!

How the Pokémon look... I do agree on there being a lot more ugly Pokémon in R/S/E than in previous games, but D/P/Pt is just packed with ugly designs and people still love that generation.

3rd gen > 1st gen > 2nd gen > 4th gen, in my opinion.

 

[Nnoitra Jiruga]

I think I only like Gen. 3's pokemon designs. Some of the designs are pretty sweet, (Zangoose, Absol, etc.)

 

[Ryu-kun]

I don't really like R/S/E, because (Deep breath) THERE IS TOO MUCH WATER... *pant* *pant*. But I do like Fr/Lg.

 

[Formula1]

I'd say my favorites are fr/lg
However, I was a bit dissappointed how 3rd went on its own storyline.
I guess after GSC Team Rocket was finished, but maybe a prequel or something but I felt like Rocket were real criminals, while Magma and Aqua were scientists gone mad.

Either way, I loved seeing Red in the cave at mount moon. There something awesome about that... I was that guy.... And Now IM CRAZY!!! or am I?
level 87 pikachu was glorius....

I didn't like the Day night thing too much though just because It forced me to time out MY DAY around pokemon.... at 9:00, I need to catch this, or that... And I can't remember any particularly rare pokemon I had to go many nights looking for just because I got tired of it quickly

I really liked the way the made loomy soil though, it was a lot more convienient putting whatever berries I wanted all around. I would have prefered having a farm of some sort though. And I didn't like the regi's that much...
I actually never bothered catching them just because I didn't really think they were that great...

The Weather was great, the double battles were excellent (though I didn't feel like I had enough....), but I can't think of an extremely interesting pokemon that I wanted in RSE besides castform which had no evolution and thus felt kinda useless : /


I'm playing FR/LG now but for the most part, the eggs are the only thing keeping me around...

 

[Yuoaman]

I like all generations equally, though GSC were the ones that I played the most so will always hold a special place in my heart...

 

[derozio]

Except R/S all the other 3rd gen games were fun to play in my opinion. FRLG were good as they were remakes of red/green and they had a good storyline and long gameplay. Emerald was very good coz of Battle Frontier and Rematches.

 

[kellogs]

It's a great generation,it was just unfortunate enough to be released after the second Gen. ,which is far superior i feel.Still very good though :D

 

[MUSION]

3rd gen is my favourite of the four by far. It has my favourite Pokemon, characters and locations. The 3rd gen legendaries are also the best imo

Unlike most, gen 2 is my least favourite. Not really sure why, I guess because I don't like many of the Pokemon it introduced.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Well, 3rd generation is the generation where I hit the peak of my interest in Pokemon honestly. It is the gen that I still feel the closest attraction to as well. It is by and by the best gen with some of the most awesome changes and new Pokemon.

 

[pokefansam]

People and R/S/E

All the time i hear about people complaining that the third generation games just suck.
And i have never found out why people think this, personaly i think that the third generation is alright.

What do you think?

 

[Maple Meganium]

G/S/C were epic. R/S felt like a regression back to a style of game more like R/G/B/Y.

While they were good, they just didn't meet up to fans expecting another G/S/C-level revolution.

 

[Bigdog]

What really made me enraged about the Third generation is that Gamefreak did not even attempt to make the games compatible with the first two generations. They would have needed to do the same process as they used for the transfer of Pokemon from the first to Second generation games. When the Pokemon are transferred to the third gen, they would acquire the abilities and the new IV/EV system much like how the Pokemon from Red would get a gender when they got transferred to the Second gen.


The Day/Night system could have been implemented with an Internal digital rather than battery operated clock, which would save the carts from death.

The Animations of the Pokemon which were introduced in Crystal should have been made standard for the games and maybe even given a few more frames.

The Poke Nav from Emerald should have been integrated into the R/S games , but with more features like a Radio and TV.

Besides that ,they were great games in their own right, but it felt like a really bad reboot of the franchise due to the colors of the versions( Red/Ruby , Green/Emerald, Blue/Sapphire) and due to Hoenn being a bad ripoff of Kanto.

In general, the games could've been alot better.

 

[Poke'Master24]

honestly, i thought they were by far the worst generation. the pokemon just honestly sucked to me compared to johto and the graphics were terrible for what the GBA could do. We lost day and night, the cell phone, and more which originally made the game feel so much more realistic. I actually picked up Ruby the other day to see if I could pal park anything and it just has a cheap feel to it. Look at the sprites of trainers in the cities, they look so fake and cheap. I just thought they were the worst ones. I'm very excited about HG/SS, but if it is one remake we actually need as opposed to want, it's the Advance Generation. Maybe it will do Hoenn some justice.

 

[Munch Dog]

They weren't horrible but the 3rd gen games are also my least favorite. It kind of felt like a step back from G/S/C imo.