#8. Pokemon X/Y (3DS)
Pokemon X and Y represent the Pokemon franchise at its absolute, schizophrenic best. They take multiple steps forwards, and an equal number of baffling steps backwards, they are genuinely progressive and shockingly regressive, they add so much, and take away an equal lot. They can be, all at once, the most satisfying, and inane, experience in the entire Pokemon franchise.
First off, the sixth generation of Pokemon finally made the jump to a 3D aesthetic, and that did wonders for it. Kalos was a beautiful region, and with a gorgeous and stylized cel shaded artstyle, X and Y show it off to the fullest. They introduce a bunch of new Pokemon, which are, with very few exceptions, a great new batch.
They streamline the entire process of Pokemon raising and team building, add in new ways to interact with Pokemon, tailor their gameplay to competitive play, go out of their way to cut the jive and the fat that has long pervaded Pokemon, add new mechanics to the game to shake up battling, add an all new Pokemon type and completely redo the type matchup list, and feature a shockingly progressive and full featured suite of online modes- perhaps Nintendo’s best yet.
At the same time, they have an incredibly dull campaign, a game that bends over backwards to remove all semblance of challenge and difficulty, with over half a dozen Pokemon just given to you for free, they are a technical mess, with multiple framerate slowdowns, they fail to utilize the 3DS properly, with improper implementation of stereoscopic 3D, and almost no StreetPass functionality, they cut back on so many features and advances Pokemon Black and White introduced, feature an embarrassingly bad story, have the worst soundtrack in the entire series to date, have the least number of new Pokemon ever brought to the franchise, and somehow, have less post game content than any other game in the franchise except for Pokemon Red and Blue, which were the first games in the franchise.
It’s very hard to not simultaneously respect X and Y (at the very least) and to be infuriated with them. In many ways, this was Nintendo and Game Freak’s big chance to definitively move Pokemon forwards, and they blew it. But in other ways, they did deliver on a charming and endearing Pokemon adventure that still stands as one of the best games on its platform.
