Im going to say pokemon gold.
I still remember getting it on christmas morning after beating the joys of pokemon red... those were the days. And it feltl ike it had just the right amount of pokemon, just under 500 is WAY too many pokemon, and some of them look terrible because of the creators running out of great ideas. Johto had some of the coolest pokemon designs, and i dont really care that its graphics arent as amazing as DPP or R/S/E.
And because it has totodile as a starter :P