3rd Gen You couldn't transfer Pokemon up from the older gens

[Palamon]

Generation 3 was the first Pokemon game where you couldn't bring up your old favorites. In generation II, you could use the time capsule. However, in Gen 3, there was no backwards compatibility. People were pretty upset by this back in the day, but what about you?

 

[NikolaP]

I started in gen 3, so having no transfer capabilities is normal to me. Getting the option in gen 4 was exciting, but I didn't have any cartridge gen 3 games to use for it for a long time. I transferred a decent amount from gen 4 to gen 5, but some transfers I've since regretted (I miss Palkia and the lake guardians in my old Pearl save file).

Somehow, even after all these years, having transfer still feels like something "extra" and not that important or integral. Granted, I'm that kind of sentimental where I won't ever transfer things like my in-game team because I feel they belong in their original game, so I only transferred legendaries, and bred babies from my favourite individual Pokémon to take to the next game.

 

[Nah]

It didn't really bother me back then.

But since this was basically the only time transfer between generations was not possible, was there a reason for it? Like was it a technical issue or something else?

 

[pkmin3033]

I think I was kinda bothered by this back then because I'd worked really hard on my Pokedex and I really wanted to transfer my Legendaries over, because catching the Legendary Beasts in particular was a pain in the backside and it felt like all my hard work was going to waste. The continuity in the franchise has always been important to me and having it rudely interrupted, whilst it didn't irritate me as much as it has in recent years, was still annoying.

 

[Sydian]

it didn't bother me since i didn't have gen 1 or 2 games at that point. it was a bummer when i did get them and wanted to hang on to my teams, but c'est la vie. but i'm also not big on transferring pokemon out of their native generation anyway, so there's that too. i totally understand the disappointment, though. especially considering if you were able to trade between gen 1 and 2 (within capabilities) you would think the newest generation and the gameboy ADVANCE could do it.

 

[Momoro]

Absolutely. I was honestly devastated, I loved my teams in Generation 1 & 2 and the fact that I couldn't transport them up to Generation 3, (Which would have allowed me to then transport them to a higher generation VIA the Pal Park) made me honestly bitter. But I'm happy with Pokemon Bank, which is compatible with a wide rang of games, (Not just talking about one generation.)

...Oh, yeah, Pokemon Home. (Which I still don't prefer, but OKAY.)