Before I get into anything, I must admit that I cannot fairly judge D/P since I do not own a DS and have never played a game past the 3rd gen. However, I don't
want to play the new games. I may, some day, but I've checked out the Poke'dex online, and I am far from impressed. Some of the new evolutions don't seem right to me, personally. Magmar's new evo looks scary, and Sneasel lost all of its awesome when they came up with Weavile. And what's with the new Regi? Regigigas seems like a desperate attempt to think of something new. The first Regis were actually really cool! They kept the concept of a trio of legends but they mixed things up a bit from the usual water, fire, electric type thing they had going. Which was still great, it was just nice to have a little bit of a change, just once. But Regigigas... it's jsut wrong. And the sprites are wicked weird, I don't think they're trying with the games anymore. With the old programing it was difficult to creat cool images with it, so they HAD to try (I don't know about R/B/G sprites lol, but it was evident in G/S/C). Now they can throw out some half-baked images that look fine, but I don't like them. To be honest, I think the new sprites are ... well, there's just no other way to put it: UGLY. Not ugly like some of the R/B/G poke'mon game sprites ugly, but a-lack-of-character-and-nothing-like-the-original-designs ugly. (if that made any sense.) Jynx's eyes got unnaturally small, Pikachu lost it's adorable chubbiness, and Charizard seems disproportional, to name a few.
I completely agree with the whole rival team issue. The Team Rocket in the games were bad to the bone and I actually wanted to thrash them. They really were evil with evil intentions. (I'm going to side track for a moment.) Even in the show with Jessie and James specifically, they were easy to beat and a bit of a joke, BUT I could take them seriously that they wanted to be bad and wanted to please Giovanni. Now, they speak in almost all rhymes and aren't much like the Jessie and James I remember (end side track.) But then came along Team Magma and Team Aqua. They weren't "bad guys" at all; they just wanted to do what they
thought was right. There was no real enemy in the 3rd generation games, no one that was really evil. And it seemed that Aqua and Magma weren't right in the head. I mean, for the cause they had, they must have had a LOT of time on their hands! Bringing legends awake just to expande the sea or the land. Team Rocket was much more believeable: if Poke'mon were real, of course there would be that handful that would only use them for exploitation and profits. That would totally happen! Not everyone in the world is a nice person. But I doubt that there would be that many people determined to disrupt the balance of nature. Team Rocket was simply that much more realistic in my mind.
About the show...
I've seen several of the new episodes and it seems like Poke'mon isn't trying to just be Poke'mon anymore - it's trying to be cool to captivate the younger audience, a generation that didn't grow up with it and are growing up under a different influence. Even straight from the beginning with the theme song that was obviously from the 90's. I know the original one word for word and it said everything that Poke'mon was about: the journey, the battles, the glory, and becoming a Team with your Poke'mon. A little bit corny, true enough, but not sappy or soap opera-ish. Now it's more like some of the music you hear on the radio. And it does talk about some important things like battling, but it seems to focus on the battle itself and being cool. When I listen to it, it doesn't make me think of Trainers chasing the dream. I see the old shows and think of the average little Trainer trying to be the best they can be and watching their Poke'mon grow. Somehow this one seems to have ana ttitude about it, like being the best simply because it's cool, and not because you've worked hard for it. (Does this sound crazy? Yeah, probably, but hey, that's how I am.) I understand what they're trying to do, and it's working: my 10-year-old little brother loves the new face on Poke'mon as opposed to "the old, lame Poke'mon," in his words.
Again, this is my personal opinion, and I don't dare to claim it's right or the only one. But I feel pretty strong about it. The original was classic, and the second gerneration was pretty awesome too. And while the newer games have better graphics, it's lost all the charm and imagination that pulled me in from an early age. I still love Poke'mon and yeah, the 3rd gen. games are okay. I bet D/P is alright too. And I also admit that I'm the kind of person who goes for the whole dream-chasing thing and nostalgia
anyway. But Poke'mon is definately NOT the same, and I feel that it has declined in quality alright.
By the way: it sounds like natures and such are kind of obnoxious O_o I mean, I guess it helps to characterize the Poke'mon so they seem more like they have their own personalities, but I bet it gets annoying sometimes. Doesn't it?
EDIT: OMG! I'm sorry that's a really long post! D: Wow, thanks so much for anyone that has the time to read that ^^; I got really carried away... oops....
I agree, used to be the good old days,Chikorita versus falkner, everyone crowded around in anticipation...
Now it's like "OMFG I WANT ONE WITH IVS OVER 20!!!" I liked team aqua though :P just becuase im water bias...
I think 4th gen also swirled it downward...
I loved the feel of the 1st and 2nd gen, Im ok with hoenn, just becuase of the water though....
This just makes us all want a GSC remake even more..xD
Dude I've been hoping for a G/S/C remake for the longest time; I totally agree XD They redid the originals, why not the 2nd. gen.?
