#1. Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (NDS)
Okay, so go back to Entry #4. Read everything I said about Pokemon Gold and Silver. Take all of it, bring it to the DS, with updated graphics, the best artstyle Pokemon has had till date, an updated soundtrack, even more features, one of the best and most intuitive UIs not just the series, but any game has had, ever, and, incredibly enough, even more content than the originals.
Make it the perfect Pokemon game, really, with no feature missing. Where every single Pokemon game adds some features and subtracts others, make this the ultimate game. Day and night? Here. Custom Pokeballs? Yep. Berry farming? Uh huh. Pokemon following you behind you, like Pikachu in Yellow? Yep, it’s back. Natures, Abilities, EVs, IVs? It’s all here. How about Pokemon contests? They’re back, in an all new and amazingly addictive variant. Safari Zone? Yep. Game Center? Back here for the final time, before it was gutted once and for all. Headbutting trees, the Bug Catching Contest, the Suicune quest, all of it returned, in all of the game’s remade glory.
I’m not even done yet- the ability to go back to Kanto and win another eight gym badges? Here. The second Pokemon League Challenge? Of course it’s here. The battle with Red? It’s here, better and more atmospheric than ever before, with his Pokemon even more beefed up than they were in the original games. The entire post game content of Emerald is here, because in addition to everything I just listed, HeartGold and SoulSilver also feature the Battle Frontier.
All of this, and more- every single starter and legendary Pokemon up to Diamond and Pearl (and in many cases, including them) was obtainable here. The old, classic tale of Gold and Silver was modernized, brought to current standards, made mechanically relevant again.
This is just me focusing on the content, though. Everything about this game was top notch. The graphics were amazing. The soundtrack is second only to OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire’s. The game has a tight, integrated level curve that never goes off balance, except for the very end, where it throws the biggest threat in your entire Pokemon career so far right at you. The wonderful ability to have two items hotkeyed at once, plus always have your Running Shoes active. There was just so much that these games did right.
Like with Gold and Silver, Game Freak held nothing back here. They went all in. They created the ultimate Pokemon game, a game so good that it will never, ever be topped, not unless Game Freak legitimately believes that the one it is making then is the last game in the series as well. In the process, they made not just the best Pokemon game ever, and probably the best and classiest example of a game remake ever- they also ended up crafting what can legitimately be called one of the greatest games ever made, the best handheld game of all time, and a pinnacle of well thought out RPG design.
Take a bow. Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver are the best Pokemon games of all time.
Bonus: Check out this feature in video format below.
