Shack Chat: What is your favorite Pokemon game?

This week, Pokemon fans grieved the loss of Rachael Lillis, the talented voice actor responsible for the instantly recognizable Misty, as well as Jessie and Jigglypuff. It’s always terrible losing someone that helped shape so many lives. In order to reflect on our own happy memories with Pokemon, we thought it would be a good idea to talk about our favorite Pokemon games. Now, you don’t have to catch them all to have a say here, so be sure to let us know about your favorite game too. Join us for this week’s Shack Chat!

Question: What is your favorite Pokemon game?

Pokemon Snap - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Pokemon Photographer

I'd love to put down Gold/Silver, because it's the game that totally cemented me as a Pokemon fan for life. I'd also like to recognize Pokemon GO for taking my Pokemon fandom to different places, especially as I venture into real-world gatherings of like-minded fans. However, I'm going to remember my first Pokemon spin-off as my favorite game in the series. The idea of taking Pokemon photos in the wild was crazy fun, especially as I broke my Watcher's oath to never interfere and just pelted Pokemon with Pester Balls. It was such a creative idea for the time and I spent nearly two decades pining for a sequel, which we did eventually get.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy New Pokemon Snap, but the original still hits in a special place.

Pokemon Silver/Gold - TJ Denzer, Senior Ursaring Fan

I’m not a purist about the early Pokemon games, but Silver and Gold were probably the ones that got their hooks in me the most. Ursaring is one of my favorite Pokemon, Lugia and Ho-Oh are magnificent legendaries, and the ultimate final battle of the game is against none other than Ash, his Pikachu, and several other devastatingly powerful and diverse Pokemon.

All of those are enough to make this memorable, but I also enjoyed the countless quality-of-life improvements they made with this game, including baby Pokemon, Pokemon genders and breeding, the addition of Dark and Steel types, and so much more. It’s an altogether great game with some of my favorite mons in the series. I have enjoyed many other games from the Pokemon franchise, but it’s hard to think of any one I enjoyed more thoroughly than Gold and Silver.

Hey You, Pikachu! - Asif Khan, CEO/EIC/EIEIO

The N64 era was a period of experimentation for The Pokemon Company, and one game that really stuck out to me was Hey You, Pikachu! The idea of a voice activated Pikachu certainly sounds cool, and while it wasn’t executed that well, it still was pretty fun to yell at your controller to get Pikachu to do basic tasks. Getting Pikachu to notice weed was a highlight back in the day.

Pokemon Unite - Sam Chandler, Pro MOBA Player

This answer might be a bit out of left field, but I honestly had a lot of fun playing Pokemon Unite when it first released. It managed to be an extremely approachable MOBA experience for the casual player, but dig deep enough and you soon discover enough depth to keep even the hardcore genre fans happy. I must admit, I got pretty into working out a meta team composition and the best strategies for dunking or regrouping to better control the field. It scratched that League of Legends itch in my brain that I’d been suppressing.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky - Donovan Erskine, Sinnoh League Champion

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is not only the most underrated Pokemon game, but one of the most underrated games ever. This spin-off sequel once again sees players taking on the role of a person recently turned into a Pokemon. After quickly befriending a partner Pokemon and joining the adventuring guild, you go on an expansive journey to figure out what happened to you and save the fate of the world in the process.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky tells a deeply personal story about identity, belonging, and found family. It was the first Pokemon game to tell a story that moved me to tears the first time I played it. It’s been a decade since I last replayed it, but characters like Grovyle, Dusknoir, and Wigglytuff are still etched in my memory.

In addition to a stellar narrative, the gameplay loop of Explorers of Sky is extremely challenging and equally satisfying. The procedurally generated dungeons create unpredictable chaos at every level, and my 11-year-old brain was more challenged than it had ever been in the mainline games. Lastly, I’ll shout out the boss battles, which have epic battle themes (Dialga being a standout) and kept me up late for many childhood nights.

Pokemon Gold/Silver - Steve Tyminski, Gotta catch em’ all!

What is my favorite Pokemon video game? This is an interesting question as I have grown up with the series and played practically all of them. That being said, I think my favorite in the series is Pokemon Gold and Silver for the Game Boy Color.

Gold and Silver were the first sequels in the series and added quite a lot to the formula. These games brought trainers to the Johto region and added the day/night cycle to the series. They also added day specific events like the Bug Catching contest. Some of my favorite Pocket Monsters are from the Johto region as well. They’re also the only games that allow trainers to travel to Johto and Kanto, the region in Red and Blue.

Some might say Gold and Silver have the weakest Gym Leaders and low-level trainers and they would be right but you can slightly overlook that with the addition of the Kanto Region. I have memories of my brother and me playing Pokemon over the summer as kids and going to the local comic shop to play the trading card game. Picking my favorite Pokemon game is tough but I have to go with Gold/Silver as my answer with Black/White and Scarlet/Violet rounding out the top three.

There you have it, Shackers. Those are our favorite Pokemon games – ever. How about you throw your answers in the Chatty thread below and we see what the general consensus is for the best Pokemon game. Want to catch up on the conversation, check out the Official Shacknews Community Discord server and even our Shack Chat page for previous topics.

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.