Best Pokemon variety

[El Moose Monstero]

For those who still play, which of the generations of games gave you the greatest variety of pokemon? I don't mean which game was best, or which game you played most, I mean which game gave you the most opportunity to play with a different team each time without feeling like you were only doing it for the sake of boredom? I know you can technically play with a different team every time, but which of them made you actively want to?

I've only had limited experience, borrowing the old ones from people at various times for a month or two, but I'm playing pearl at the moment for the first time and am so far unimpressed by the new pokemon variety relative to the older ones, although that could be just nostalgia talking combined with the fact that I'm still new to pearl.

[Tribble]

Well, I liked the variety from the originals: red and blue. Sure there were only 150 pokemon available (151 with game shark) and 15 different varieties at the time, but that seemed like plenty enough to me.

[Vendetta]

The pearl/diamond whatever range has just shy of 500 mons skittering around for your catching pleasures.

[Bounty]

500 is too much. In the first-generation games you could be on a first-name basis with every single critter, and there were just enough types to memorize the vulnerable/not vulnerable table in the first few hours of play. That allowed you to get to grips with what makes a good team real quick, which is something that I missed in Pearl (or Diamond... I've got one of them, but never played past the six-hour mark).

[DaveJB]

If it was just about the possible combinations of Pokemon teams, then it would be the most recent generation, no shadow of a doubt. However, I think that the Gold/Silver/Crystal generation was about the sweet spot in terms of the variety of Pokemon available to you, as well as how quickly you could make an informed decision about what kind of team to assemble without having to run to an online Pokedex or something similar.

[Vendetta]

Of course, in the first few games the balance was also fucked by Psychic types being way too powerful, and only vulnerable to double damage from a small number of moves which were all shit anyway, and only learnable by mons that took a raping back from Psychic.

[DaveJB]

Of course, in the first few games the balance was also fucked by Psychic types being way too powerful, and only vulnerable to double damage from a small number of moves which were all shit anyway, and only learnable by mons that took a raping back from Psychic.

God, I remember that. Starmie and Slowbro were major assets against the gym owner with all the Psychic Pokemon, since they could take Psychic attacks without getting hurt too much, and deal quite a bit back in the way of Conventional and Water attacks. To this day I can't help but wonder if the developers were fucking with gamers by trying to direct them to the Ghost Pokemon instead of either of those two.

[Vendetta]

Of course, in the first few games the balance was also fucked by Psychic types being way too powerful, and only vulnerable to double damage from a small number of moves which were all shit anyway, and only learnable by mons that took a raping back from Psychic.

God, I remember that. Starmie and Slowbro were major assets against the gym owner with all the Psychic Pokemon, since they could take Psychic attacks without getting hurt too much, and deal quite a bit back in the way of Conventional and Water attacks. To this day I can't help but wonder if the developers were fucking with gamers by trying to direct them to the Ghost Pokemon instead of either of those two.

I think it was a fuckup, the Ghost types were supposed to be what beat psychic types, but all the ghost types are Ghost/Poison, so they get fucked over back

[Bounty]

The chart in the manual had them reversed too. Fun times, especially since I only found that out after finishing the game about four times.

[Vendetta]

Ghost attacks do do double to psychic types, that much is true. Unfortunately, ghost attacks are all puny, and all ghost mons are ghost/poison, and psychic does double damage to poison.

Hence the use of water/psychic types to beat straight psychic, because the water/psychic will take half damage from psychic but can fight back with water moves for normal damage, and many can learn Ice Beam, which is a beast.

[Oscar Wilde]

Fire type beats all.
Red/Blue/Yellow are classic, and Crystal/Gold/Silver are where they should have stopped making new pokemon.

[Anarchist Bunny]

I have to throw my vote into Gold/Silver/Crystal. I remember their being a healthy starting selection(maybe slightly smaller than Red/Blue/Greens) and huge mid-level range that you could really vary what you went at the Elite Four with. I'm really excited at the rumors of their being a Gen IV remake(a la Gen III Leaf Green/Fire Red), with it being heavily hinted at in Pearl/Diamond/Platinum.

However, really I'd say the variety issue really only came up in Pearl/Diamond/Platinum. There doesn't seem to be a huge difference in selection between R/B/G, G/S/C, and R/S/E. I think they sort of smoothed the edges of it in PLatinum, but didn't outright fix it. Its outrageous that until you beat the Elite Four your choices of fire pokemon are the fire Starter and Ponyta/Rapidash. There was more selection in Ghost pokemon than fire. The main problem is, they added about 100 pokemon, but nearly 40 of them were legendaries or evolutions of previous generation pokemon that are unavailable until obtaining the National Dex. I mean shit, Magnemite would of been a welcomed addition to my team, especially with the new Magnezone evolution. A lot of the new pokemon fell flat, and the old ones they let us have are rather tired and Effed out.(I will say however, the poor selection of flying pokemon did get me to use a Zubat/Goldbat/Crobat for the first time ever and was very surprised by how it became one of my more powerful pokemon).

[Vendetta]

You know, a Zubat would probably be effective in competition against any player of the first generation games, as one look at that thing makes them flashback to their appearance every three steps in every damn cave in the game, and they have a seizure and have to forfeit the game.

[Oscar Wilde]

You know, a Zubat would probably be effective in competition against any player of the first generation games, as one look at that thing makes them flashback to their appearance every three steps in every damn cave in the game, and they have a seizure and have to forfeit the game.

Or the Rocket Grunts who had hordes of the motherfuckers... Team Rocket in the games were not smart. 5 of the same damn pokemon.

[Samuel]

You know, a Zubat would probably be effective in competition against any player of the first generation games, as one look at that thing makes them flashback to their appearance every three steps in every damn cave in the game, and they have a seizure and have to forfeit the game.

Or the Rocket Grunts who had hordes of the motherfuckers... Team Rocket in the games were not smart. 5 of the same damn pokemon.

Most of the trainers did all of one type, which made slaughtering them pathetically easy. Especially the gyms...

[Qwerty 42]

I don't think it's reasonable to say that the first games had the best variety. There was only one line of dragons, and only a single line of ghosts. In fact, the all-but complete absence of ghosts (one line that was half Poison, and the only Ghost offensive move that could hit for super-effective sucked anyway) and the UTTER non-competitiveness of Bugs (the only Bug-type that learned a Bug-move that could hit for super-effective was BEEDRILL, for God's sake, and he was half-poison) led to the complete and total dominance of the Psychic-type in RBY. It was because of the lack of variety, and the lack of foresight on the part of developers in developing the stats for certain pokemon, that Slowbro became an unstoppable force with no immovable object to counter.

[DaveJB]

It was because of the lack of variety, and the lack of foresight on the part of developers in developing the stats for certain pokemon, that Slowbro became an unstoppable force with no immovable object to counter.

Slowbro? Don't be silly - as good as it was against other psychic Pokemon, a Thunder-equipped Raichu would be utterly lethal against any similarly leveled Slowbro, considering the former's advantage in special moves and speed. If anything, Starmie was far more overpowered than Slowbro.

[Noble Ire]

I've always thought that the game series hit its height with Crystal, both in terms of gameplay and the Pokemon available.
A selection of around 250 seemed to work quite well. There was a lot of variety in each of the types without too many blatant derivatives, there wasn't a pointless multitude of pre-evolved forms, and legendary Pokemon still seemed, well, legendary. That the bulk of the Pokemon you could use were from the first-generation games helped considerably; the first 151 had the highest density of monsters that were fun to play with. I've only played through Emerald, but I can't think of any memorable additions to the Pokemon canon that came with it, and the game really suffered for it.

[Anarchist Bunny]

I've always thought that the game series hit its height with Crystal, both in terms of gameplay and the Pokemon available.
A selection of around 250 seemed to work quite well. There was a lot of variety in each of the types without too many blatant derivatives, there wasn't a pointless multitude of pre-evolved forms, and legendary Pokemon still seemed, well, legendary. That the bulk of the Pokemon you could use were from the first-generation games helped considerably; the first 151 had the highest density of monsters that were fun to play with. I've only played through Emerald, but I can't think of any memorable additions to the Pokemon canon that came with it, and the game really suffered for it.

Its been quite a while since I played Ruby, but I don't remember variety being a bitch. I remember their not being enough trainers to effectively keep a team of 6 leveled up, and Gym Leaders having a 10+ level advantage on me. Which was the biggest complaint of the game to me and why I never finished it.

[Noble Ire]

Its been quite a while since I played Ruby, but I don't remember variety being a bitch. I remember their not being enough trainers to effectively keep a team of 6 leveled up, and Gym Leaders having a 10+ level advantage on me. Which was the biggest complaint of the game to me and why I never finished it.

The third-generation games had a lot of problems with them in my opinion, although that might be just in comparison with the older games. I do recall there being a relative lack of opportunities to level, but I also had issues with my team. More so than in the previous games, I tended to use a handful of Pokemon, mainly my starter, and keep the other slots filled for usage of abilities. Then again, I only made it through one and a half playthroughs; maybe I was just going about it the wrong way.

[Qwerty 42]

It was because of the lack of variety, and the lack of foresight on the part of developers in developing the stats for certain pokemon, that Slowbro became an unstoppable force with no immovable object to counter.

Slowbro? Don't be silly - as good as it was against other psychic Pokemon, a Thunder-equipped Raichu would be utterly lethal against any similarly leveled Slowbro, considering the former's advantage in special moves and speed. If anything, Starmie was far more overpowered than Slowbro.

The difficulty therein is that Thunder has its unfortunate 70% accuracy. A single miss, and Slowbro could start its Amnesia chain. Generally, too, Slowbro would be brought in to force a switch (when the opponent has a Charizard out, etc.) That way, the Slowbro could Amnesia once before Raichu has been even brought in. Coupled with its naturally high Special stat and lack of physical weaknesses, it makes Slowbro become VERY difficult to counter, Raichu or no.

[Qwerty 42]

Its been quite a while since I played Ruby, but I don't remember variety being a bitch. I remember their not being enough trainers to effectively keep a team of 6 leveled up, and Gym Leaders having a 10+ level advantage on me. Which was the biggest complaint of the game to me and why I never finished it.

The third-generation games had a lot of problems with them in my opinion, although that might be just in comparison with the older games. I do recall there being a relative lack of opportunities to level, but I also had issues with my team. More so than in the previous games, I tended to use a handful of Pokemon, mainly my starter, and keep the other slots filled for usage of abilities. Then again, I only made it through one and a half playthroughs; maybe I was just going about it the wrong way.

It seems like Monster tried to compensate for the lack of leveling opportunities by giving the player a lot of pokemon that grew quickly. For instance, Swablu/Altaria and even the generally slow-to-level fossil pokemon (Cradily especially) grew very quickly.

[Samuel]

Its been quite a while since I played Ruby, but I don't remember variety being a bitch. I remember their not being enough trainers to effectively keep a team of 6 leveled up, and Gym Leaders having a 10+ level advantage on me. Which was the biggest complaint of the game to me and why I never finished it.

The third-generation games had a lot of problems with them in my opinion, although that might be just in comparison with the older games. I do recall there being a relative lack of opportunities to level, but I also had issues with my team. More so than in the previous games, I tended to use a handful of Pokemon, mainly my starter, and keep the other slots filled for usage of abilities. Then again, I only made it through one and a half playthroughs; maybe I was just going about it the wrong way.

It seems like Monster tried to compensate for the lack of leveling opportunities by giving the player a lot of pokemon that grew quickly. For instance, Swablu/Altaria and even the generally slow-to-level fossil pokemon (Cradily especially) grew very quickly.

? I thought they all leveled at the same rate?

I have to say that second generation was better- they added in special defense and made the game go on after the elite 4.

[Styphon]

Another vote for the 2nd gen here. Existing Pokemon and their move-sets were retooled in useful ways (I found Bite becoming a Dark move rather helpful against the formerly invincible Psychics), new Pokemon and types were actually interesting (most of the 3rd and 4th gen Pokemon are just visually underwhelming to me, YMMV), and there was just SO MUCH TO DO with the two maps, the day/night cycle, Pokemon items, the ability to call trainers you met on the road and schedule a rematch... The only big problem I can think of is that I never really understood how you were supposed to hunt the damn legendary dogs.

I was very pissed when my mom "misplaced" my copy of Gold while I was at my dad's when I was a kid. I never even got to beat Ash in that big mountain with the Tyranitar.

[lance]

It was because of the lack of variety, and the lack of foresight on the part of developers in developing the stats for certain pokemon, that Slowbro became an unstoppable force with no immovable object to counter.

Slowbro? Don't be silly - as good as it was against other psychic Pokemon, a Thunder-equipped Raichu would be utterly lethal against any similarly leveled Slowbro, considering the former's advantage in special moves and speed. If anything, Starmie was far more overpowered than Slowbro.

The difficulty therein is that Thunder has its unfortunate 70% accuracy. A single miss, and Slowbro could start its Amnesia chain. Generally, too, Slowbro would be brought in to force a switch (when the opponent has a Charizard out, etc.) That way, the Slowbro could Amnesia once before Raichu has been even brought in. Coupled with its naturally high Special stat and lack of physical weaknesses, it makes Slowbro become VERY difficult to counter, Raichu or no.

Parasect was the main beast to take care of psychic types due to its auto hit sleep attack and growth ability. Also Raichu was kinda crappy compared to Jolteon and Electrode. Never used Slowbro though. My preferred water types were Blastoise, Cloister, Gyradoes and starmie/yu. I wonder what would happen if your Slowbro started amnesia and my starmie/yu started ~Double Teaming him~ Also I thought nobody actually used Charazard, I seem to recall him being the wost of the three. I think Ninetales and Arcanine were the top fire pokemon. I totally spen way too much time on this as a kid Those were happy times.