Ranking the best Pokémon games is no easy feat, given that many of them are considered among the best games of their particular hardware generation. Then you have to consider just how many spin-off Pokémon games have come out over the last 30 years, too!
Without further ado, then — and with those minor caveats in mind — here’s our list of the very best Pokémon games, starting at the bottom.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A should be celebrated for its fabulous real-time combat and its largely smooth jump to the Switch 2, but in condensing things down to one single location, it loses part of the Pokémon magic that Arceus and many other entries managed to amplify.
We’ll forever find filling up our Pokédex fun, and for the Switch 2 generation, this is a good starting point for the franchise. But if the Legends series is to continue, it needs to recapture its personality and fuse that real-time system with a bit more freedom.
The Switch 1 version, predictably, isn’t as evolved, but it’s generally a stable experience if you haven’t got the newer console.
While some of the slower elements of the original games have been fixed in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and The Grand Underground makes up for the comparatively weak Pokédex, the new art style and a few other stumbles make this pair of games a somewhat disappointing retread of Generation 4. If the remit here was to remain faithful to the original Gen 4 pair, we wish they’d also stuck to the pixel-art aesthetic.
Unfortunately, these are Brilliant and Shining remakes in name only, sticking very closely to the original template — which some players will no doubt welcome — but aside from The Grand Underground and the connectivity with the current games in the series, there’s very little reason to play Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl over your original DS copies.
There are still plenty more ways we’d like to see the Pokémon franchise evolve but despite some glaring technical hiccups, Pokémon Scarlet & Violet has us cautiously excited about the series’ future.
Scarlet & Violet is most fun and exciting when you’re just exploring the world, and while there are many small new details and improvements to the Pokémon formula, it still plays it safe in a few areas.
It’s a smaller step than many may have hoped for, then, especially considering what Pokémon Legends: Arceus did, but it’s definitely one in the right direction. We really hope Game Freak can figure out how to smooth out the series’ ongoing performance issues because they’re going to become a serious detriment over time.
Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! are beautiful reimaginings of a video game classic, updating a decades-old game in ways which make it infinitely more accessible and user-friendly for a modern audience, while keeping the magic first discovered all those years ago.
On the downside, the motion control mechanic is fun but flawed, forcing you to shift from one play style to another to get the best experience. Still, the game does a superb job of striking a balance between being an easy route of entry for newcomers and offering just enough post-game challenge and competitive play elements (and nostalgia, of course) to please series veterans; as a result, these newer titles really do offer something for everyone, which can’t always be said of the mainline Pokémon entries.
They might not be absolute masterpieces, but we’d urge any Poké-fans out there to give these Kanto classics a go.
Pokémon Sword and Shield succeeded in bringing some new ideas to the table, although there are areas where it could have pushed further.
What was done right was done right, but there were also elements that felt like they had come from a decade-old design document. There are moments contained within that are the best the series has ever been, but this joy is occasionally spoiled by contrasting moments that left us disappointed.
It’s an experience full of highs and lows, from the unadulterated wonder and joy of seeing a brand-new Pokémon in a stadium full of cheering crowds, to the monotonous and dragged-out dialogue we just wanted to skip. The wonders of exploring the Wild Area felt like the true evolution of the series, which subsequent entries have explored.
On the whole, Pokémon Sword and Shield were a very solid start to the HD generation of Pokémon games, although with room for improvement.
Thanks to X/Y and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire there were already some fantastic 3DS Pokémon games for owners to enjoy.
That said, Pokémon Sun and Moon felt like a new start for players who had perhaps fallen off the Pokémon RPG collectathon bandwagon. With improved character models and customisation, plus the addition of powerful Z-moves, the return of fan-favourite Gen I pocket monsters in new Alolan forms helped enthuse the franchise faithful as well as people who can only reliably recall the first 151. Extra forms, moves and activities in these Ultra editions make them the most ‘complete’ variants.
Although it’s a shame we never got to see our favourite monsters in stereoscopic 3D, this is the crème de la crème of traditional-style 3DS Pokémon games.
Pokémon Sun and Moon are some of the best Pokémon games that Game Freak has ever produced. Poké Pelago, the side quests, the absolutely stunning nature of the presentation, it’s all a sheer joy from start to finish.
Game Freak managed to carefully balance the inclusion of new mechanics without totally ruining things for the most hardcore fans. It’s got content coming out of its ears, a much more interesting story than some previous efforts, and it rewards exploration in a way no other title in the series had to that point.
Whether you’re a Pokémon fan new or old, this should be in your 3DS library.
Doing our best to avoid spouting Prince lyrics, what is there to say about Pokémon Diamond & Pearl?
The core experience holds up as well as it ever did and, at the time, these were the greatest Pokemon games ever created. As with so many video games successful enough to spawn a never-ending series of sequels, each entry is destined to settle beneath its successors, compacting down with the passing of time until they’re mere fossils — worth collecting, treasuring and remembering, yes, but worth playing when they’ve been iterated on umpteen times since?
That’s a tough question to answer, and we suppose it’s the price of success and progress, but while Diamond & Pearl might not boast the refinements we’re now accustomed to, they’re still excellent Pokémon games and deserve to be taken off the shelf and actually played with once in a while. They’re sure to make you a happy boy or a girl.
Game Freak hit the nail squarely on the head once again with Pokémon X and Y. A wonderful blend of excitement and nostalgia, it evolved the core series with its impressive polygonal 3D environments and masterful camera angles, adding a few technical adjustments along with a brand new Pokémon type to the original formula that we all know and love.
It wasn’t quite a revolution, no — and was hindered slightly by the meagre use of its host platform’s glasses-free 3D capabilities — but X and Y remain a very fine pair.
Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire ushered in the third generation of Pocket Monsters and moved the series on from the stalwart 8-bit Game Boy hardware onto the more capable, wider platform of the Advance.
The removal of the night-day cycle irked some of the Poké-faithful, but Gen III brought with it a host of new features, including 2 vs. 2 battles and the natures mechanic that gave Poké Trainers a whole new stat-filled rabbit hole to go down. The widescreen presentation of the GBA improved the look of the battle screens, and the entire Hoenn region looked incredibly lush compared to 8-bit Kanto and Johto.
This enhanced version of the original games brought over elements from the incredibly popular anime, so Pikachu takes centre stage as your starter Pokémon – he follows you around outside his pokéball and can’t be traded or evolved.
The nurses and police officers around Kanto were substituted for Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys, some Pokémon locations and appearances were altered, and various sprites and world elements were reworked to better reflect the wider brand as it had been established since Red & Blue launched.
The western version of Pokémon Yellow got a minor palette enhancement which works well if you’re playing on a Game Boy Color, although this was not a full GBC game. The changes add an extra layer of charm (and the surfing Pikachu minigame is a lot of fun), but whichever version you pick up, the original Pokémon titles remain an enjoyable gaming experience.
Simple in appearance and lacking the bells and whistles of later games, they nevertheless engross from start to finish.
While Pokémon Red & Blue are both vintage games with the occasional issue, they’re still extremely engaging and involving titles in which to drown your free time.
The gameplay is simpler by modern standards, but there’s still a wealth of intricacies and complexity to be explored if you want to train a team to pixel-powered perfection. If you were to drag everything about the game and dump it in a nice, shiny, new 3D engine, you’d be forgiven for thinking these were brand new games, and you can’t say that about many Game Boy titles.
There are certain wrinkles that were ironed out in subsequent entries, but there’s a special charm to finding those first 151 Pocket Monsters. Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee may have updated these games for the Switch generation, the depth of the originals still makes them compelling to play on original hardware. Just make sure you’ve got a mate and a link cable — you have to trap all of them!
Hang on, that’s not right.
Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire seem very similar to Pokémon X & Y, as you might expect, but the story and the environments you encounter feel — despite the fact that they are remakes — very fresh and unique. They’re not an extensive upgrade from their other 3DS counterparts, but any Poké-fan who’s played one of the series remakes in the past knows not to expect radical overhauls.
These titles should be considered as more-than-worthy accompaniments to X & Y, even though they arguably surpassed those games by pushing new ideas such as the Soar ability.
Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen were Game Boy Advance remakes of the classic games that started it all, Pokémon Red & Blue. Yes, the Game Boy originals were known as Red and Green in Japan, because reasons.
Now available on Switch, did Pokémon really ever get better than this? That’s up for debate, but vastly updated visuals, the ability to connect to various other Pokémon games to collect over 350 of the critters, and an enhanced user interface were just some of the upgrades offered in this 32-bit revamp.
For players intimately familiar with the Kanto games, this was the first opportunity (of many to come, of course) to indulge in some nostalgia and catch the original 151 all over again. Who could possibly resist? Watch out, Metapod. Or should we call you… Metapoo? Ah, the comedy! Happy days.
Pokémon Crystal is the perfect swan song to what many fans consider the best generation of Pokémon games and the series’ final Game Boy Color entry.
It featured a plethora of welcome new features over the base games — including the ability to play as a female character for the first time — plus more things to do, tweaked graphics and UI, and a slight notch up in the challenge department.
Crystal took what Pokémon Gold and Silver did so marvellously and made Johto worth exploring once more – and Kanto for the umpteenth time, for that matter. It truly proves that nostalgia is far from the sole factor that makes this game so great to pick up again.
Pokémon Black and White may not have the added nostalgia of HeartGold and SoulSilver, but they’re up there with some of the best in the series. What they lack in links to the past they gain by recreating the sense of discovery felt when embarking on that first Pokémon journey.
Black and White arguably suffer in reputation from being the only games in the series (thus far) to have direct numbered sequels set in the same region, albeit visiting new locations. Despite being shoved to the back of the queue in some people’s minds, these introductions to Gen V are still fantastic games and well worth revisiting.
Pokémon Gold and Silver have always been a highlight in the Pokémon series and even now, decades since they were originally released, they remain a truly brilliant experience. Perhaps its indicative of the series’ slow-and-steady iterative approach, but these games feel just as good as they did all those years ago.
They’re fantastic games that evoke warm, fuzzy memories for anybody who played them all those years ago. Updating the original with a gorgeous splash of colour on GBC, adding 100 new Pocket Monsters, and throwing in the entire Kanto region for good measure (thanks, Satoru Iwata), even people who adore the entire series have been known to argue that Pokémon peaked at Gen II.
Designated a mainline entry in the series by Game Freak itself, Pokémon Legends: Arceus feels like the result of the developers learning lessons for 25 years, refining the formula, and finally taking the franchise in a new, incredibly exciting direction.
Technically it may stumble in places, but with an emphasis on extremely rewarding exploration, addictive catching mechanics, a fine roster of Pokémon, and a genuine sense of scale that’s unlike anything in the series, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is up there with the greatest Pokémon games ever made in our book.
Those who brushed Pokémon Black and White 2 off as simply more of the same back in 2012 were sorely mistaken.
On a superficial level, sure, the Pokémon games have not changed much, and for good reason; the foundation that was placed way back in Pokémon Red and Blue was incredibly solid and engaging from the off. By adding more around it and tweaking things under the hood, the series has grown far beyond its humble monochromatic origins, even if the pace of change is a little more glacial than some would like.
The naming of these entries, their status as the first ‘direct’ sequels in the franchise, and the fact that they weren’t being released on the then-new 3DS console arguably did them a disservice and masked their greatness. Make no mistake though, these are two of the finest entries in the series.
Pokémon Emerald is the upgraded version of Ruby and Sapphire, and — as you might expect — it was more evolution than revolution. It included some new story elements in the Hoenn region, updated the locations where you could nab certain Pokémon, allowed you to catch a greater pool of Pokémon than in its predecessors and added the Battle Frontier — a competition island you can visit after beating the Elite Four to earn badges, buy items and get new moves to teach your ‘mon.
Perhaps a little lacking in ‘wow’ factor for Poké Fans who had been there from the beginning, Emerald was nonetheless solid entry in the Pokémon canon.
From the new characters to the addition of the Battle Frontier and an enhanced online experience, Pokémon Platinum certainly offered a lot of game for your money back in 2009.
Instead of taking the easy way out and adding only a couple of minor things, Game Freak went out of its way to add a ton of worthwhile additions that were enough to warrant a purchase even if you’d previously travelled across the Sinnoh region in Diamond & Pearl two years prior.
If you’re only going to play one Gen IV game, this is the one.
The original Pokémon Gold and Silver games are fondly remembered by Pocket Monster fans all over the world, and with good reason: they introduced features that genuinely evolved the original Game Boy games, such as breeding and an in-game clock (not to mention colour!), features that have become series staples. Add in fan-favourite monsters and these remakes were always going to be well received.
Future games would trickle in additional quality-of-life features and other innovations, but some would argue — if they’re able to get over an enduring love of the original 151 — that it never got better than travelling across the land, searching far and wide in these DS remakes.
The Game Boy originals may be a little hard to return to these days, but Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver strike the very best balance of nostalgia and that patented catch-’em-all gameplay. Magic.
That’s the end of our guide to the very best, like no one ever was. To finish up, let’s answer some common questions about the franchise.
There are Pokémon spin-offs aplenty, and you could technically include them all in the count!
For the purpose of providing a direct answer to this question, though, we’re going to go with Wikipedia’s tally of 22 titles.
Here’s a list of Pokémon games, however, which are spread across all nine Pokémon generations, and represent the core titles released on Nintendo’s hardware.
The Mega Evolution mechanic helps Pokémon deal extremely powerful moves while sporting an empowered Mega Form design.
There are five main Nintendo Switch Pokémon games, along with various DLC expansions and one standalone re-release of a GBA entry:
As for the future of Pokémon on the Switch? Pokémon Winds and Waves has been officially announced for 2027, an exclusive for Switch 2.
Pokémon games, even very old ones, are so expensive due to a simple case of supply and demand.
The old games — no longer in production — are still extremely popular. There’s little supply, and a great deal of demand, which leads to higher prices.
As an ongoing flagship release for modern Nintendo hardware, you can always expect a new Pokémon game release to sit at the highest end of the price range too!
Based on the rankings in this very article, the best Pokémon game on Switch would be Pokémon Legends: Arceus at #5!
There are so many spin-offs in the series that ranking them alongside the main games would be a bit nuts. So if you’re looking for games like Pokémon Snap, the Mystery Dungeon games, or anything else, have a look at our Best Pokémon Spin-Off Games.
Think your favourite Pokémon game should be further up this reader-ranked list? Click the star on each game image in this article, select your own score, and you’ll be playing your part when it comes to ranking each entry.
