#4. POKEMON DIAMOND AND PEARL
After Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl almost felt like a return to what had made Gold and Silver so good. Many features that had been missing from Gen 3 were brought back, the new mechanics introduces in Gen 3 were retained, while Diamond and Pearl also introduced new features of their own, most notable of which was online trading and battling, something that’s become a core part of the series in the years since.
But the single greatest strength of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl was the region. Sinnoh was an excellent setting, deceptively large and an absolute joy to explore with loads of hidden mysteries, secrets, various biomes, and more. The Legendaries and Mythical Pokemon in Gen 4 were also excellent, and Team Galactic’s mission to control the universe by using Sinnoh’s Legendaries to distort the fabric of time and space made for a truly high-stakes narrative foundation. Add to that an excellent soundtrack and what were at the time pretty impressive visuals – especially for the Nintendo DS – and Diamond and Pearl were, by and large, absolutely unmissable for anyone with a passing interest in Pokemon.
