Pokemon: Top Five of the Game Series

1. Pokemon X

If you are thinking that the reason X makes the Number One slot of the series is because it also happens to be the most recent title in the series, well, there you would be wrong.

We don't play favorites that way -- but we do suggest that if you are new to the world of Pokemon and you are already playing X or Y you take the following to heart: stop and play the previous games first, because they will not only give you an entirely different perspective of the games if you do, they will also help you to really and truly appreciate what has changed in the leap from B&W to X&Y.

We could simply say that X and Y offer a very different “feel” from that of the previous titles -- and that would certainly be true -- as its vastly re-interpreted graphical world has grown very much closer to that which is found in the television series. In fact it is a new take that as difficult as it may be to accept, in expanding the player-character perspective has resulted in an improved trigger for the player and how their imagination plays a far more significant role than has recently been the case.

Both the world in the game in terms of size, and the variety of activities that the player can participate in are vastly increased, and for the first time in the history of the series the player-character has received a bit of personalized attention that clearly has been long overdue.

Players can now customize their Pokemon trainer in terms of appearance; not simply choosing gender (which they previously could), but also the skin tone, hair color, and -- once the game progresses -- the different outfits and accessories their character wears and how cool is that?

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As with the previous generations of Pokemon, in addition to the carefully crafted set of all new species that are nicely complemented by the collection of Pokemon from previous regions, a new collection of Legendary Pokemon have also been added -- naturally enough.

Thanks to the pre-release pulicity that the games have received most of the serious Pokemon Trainers were already well aware that Xerneas and Yveltal were coming, but thanks to the widely online-posted results of recent exploration of the game code, the existence of a trio of Legendary Pokemon whose existence was merely speculated at now becomes nearly revealed!

Perhaps of more import though is the unique approach that has been taken in terms of those other region Pokemon -- for example the player can now choose from some of the classic starter Pokemon from previous generations as the game story barely progresses!

Another extra is the distribution of special starters like Torchic via WFC events -- something that in the past was unthinkable but today, in this enlightened era only makes sense.

The existence of the Dragon-Type Pokemon has long generated the widely held opinion among serious Trainers that a balancing opposing type genuinely needed to be created. This is an established fact among the tightly-knit battling community that calls itself Pokemon Trainers.

So the word that a new type was to take on a fundamental element of the base game was welcome indeed, though the form that that new and opposing type took -- the new and impressive Fairy-Type -- was probably not what you might call a widely anticipated choice.

The important thing though is the release of that new type, because it adds a new strategic element to the game and, with that simple addition, the need for even the most committed of veteran battlers to not simply update their tactics habit but essentially re-train their own basic approach to the fundamental approach to battle mechanics.

The well-established strategies from generations past still apply to be sure, and while the addition of the Fairy-Type is big news, even bigger news comes with the discovery of the new and previously unknown Mega-Evolution and its applicability across not only select Pokemon from this new region and generation, but also to select Pokemon from past generations of the series!

Add to all of that a compelling story, a new battle type (Sky Battles), and a vastly expanded online multi-player co-op and PvP set of modes taking the games to a level higher than anticipated in many ways -- that new and more refined inter-connectivity of the game now offers expanded battle and trading options yielding the best-connected game in the series yet.

Its deep story, massive and impressive array of non-story activities, and a wonderful assortment of old and new Pokemon keep you well-engaged in battles both story-based and online, offering an impressive twist on both the paths to mastery and domination and a measure of team structure that practically goads the player to find a way to satisfy all of the possible variations within what now feels like an archaic and ancient team size that surely would benefit by expanding its number by just one spot.

Pokemon X (and Y) stand out cleanly and clearly as the best of the best not merely in terms of the game series and its generations, but its very genre -- and that is saying something.

Pokemon X rightly earned its Number One slot without question, offering so very much more in terms of individual examples that take the form of manifest improvement and expansion, the variety of which creates an unnatural challenge in itself just in deciding what to highlight.

The impossible task of defining all of that renders the process numbing, so with so many different paths that we could choose from in order to advance its concussive conclusions, ask yourself the following question:

How is it that among the vastly improved elements on display we find that the most profound single aspect we can present for your consideration in defining the new generation is the social relations of the non-player-characters?

Follow THAT rabbit, Alice.

Posted: 7th Feb 2014 by CMBF
Tags: Pokemon X, Nintendo DS, Gameboy Advance, GameBoy, 3DS,