Best first Pokemon game?

KN4THX

@mattrixk The early Pokemon games on Game Boy Color were fairly easy. Red, Blue, Green, Yellow. I think there is an option in some emulators to show better colors but can't remember if that was Retropie or PC. The majority of the Pokemon games are simple RPG games where you can level up your Pokemon and trade them around if you want as well as gain new or drop old abilities. It has a weakness/strength element where water easily beats fire, lightning easily beats flying, etc which makes it fun to have a diverse party and sometimes near impossible to beat an enemy with the wrong matchup in rare cases unless you power level a bit.

The Game Boy Advance Pokemon games were along the same style but the graphics were SNES quality or better. There are the same basic puzzle elements(so to speak) as the GB versions where you can't pass certain obstacles without beating a gym and getting earning a special move like CUT to cut down trees/bushes blocking your path so they might need a little help at certain spots. Earned badges also make sure your higher level Pokemon follow orders properly so you have to progress before you get too high. I never got that high that quick though. You can't really get a game over in these over since you save in town (hopefully) along the way and you can heal for free at Pokemon Hospitals, so that's a plus.

Pokemon Yellow on GBC let's you start out with Pikachu so that's pretty cool.

If he likes the characters and button mashing there is a Pokemon Pinball game for the Advance. I never played it but different characters make an appearance and scenery changes and all you have to do it try to hit the ball. Not sure if that would be fun enough for him but I've always wanted to try it as I love pinball games

Pokemon Snap! for N64 isn't an RPG and let's you ride around on a guided cart/train car and you just have to sit back and just ride along and throw fruits to attract Pokemon close enough to take a picture for Professor Oak. Your goal is to get a good enough quality photo of each type of Pokemon to turn in. There's a little puzzle element here and there that may need some adult tips along the way. You can check this video out for a quick rundown.

That's all I remember as I played Red on GB back in the day (I was probably way too old but it was new and fun to catch Pokemon) but playing later games I got bored because they all seemed like the same exact game with very minor changes. Hope that helps a little.

lilbud

I'd say Gen 4: Diamond, Pearl and Platinum

Platinum was my first pokemon game, and still my favorite. (This will probably be a little ramble-y)

Gen 4 is when, I think, the franchise started picking up steam again. Gens 1, 2 and 3 had one hell of an impact on the culture, but they were too early for most of the 2000s kids.

Gen 4 came at the perfect time, this generation was at the perfect age, and the DS was the perfect system. It was relatively cheap ($130 here in the states.) And while the first three gens were great, the Game Boy was about the go into the sunset. So the combination of a new system, a new region, very little ties to previous gens (Gen 2 could access all of gen 1 as the post game.) Gen 4 could be seen as the start of something new for Pokemon.

Perfect storm, in my eyes at least. The DS was perfectly in reach for many of that age (cheaper than the PSP by a good amount.) Hell, I remember saving up for a DS Lite when it came out. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that everyone had a DS back in 2007. Schoolyards were full of students trading pokemon (while a few kept watch for teachers.)

I feel that the 4th generation is one of the more accessible generations of pokemon, besides the first one. No extra crap, no special features to worry about. Just a simple RPG. The rules are laid bare for you in the beginning, and they are stuck to until the end.

sergioad

@mattrixk If you can expend a little more I suggest you to get a normal OG 2DS with Pokemon sun and moon since it ditched the national dex while still being able to have / catch older gen pokemon and there are not Hidden Machines at all being replaced by poke rides being the best mainline game for a newcomer to get in (and more because after battling a pokemon once in the next battles you get an effective, very effective and not effective indicator in each of your pokemon's moves) and a good start before sword and shield comes

Why not the ultra versions having more pokemon to catch and a widely expanded bj endgame? Because on those the aether story arc while there it got downplayed being in my opinion one of the strongest moments in the story

BadFurDay

If you have a Nintendo Switch play Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu. You can play the game while your son follows you around, which might be good if he'd struggle to play the game on his own. You do get to battle together and the game is very easy even compared to the original, it is a remake of the original if you didn't know. I've only completed Pokemon Yellow and Fire Red and personally prefer the original 151. I am a 90s kid so it was at the perfect time for me along with the TV show and first movies.

Parabolaralus

@BadFurDay said in Best first Pokemon game?:

If you have a Nintendo Switch play Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu. You can play the game while your son follows you around, which might be good if he'd struggle to play the game on his own. You do get to battle together and the game is very easy even compared to the original, it is a remake of the original if you didn't know. I've only completed Pokemon Yellow and Fire Red and personally prefer the original 151. I am a 90s kid so it was at the perfect time for me along with the TV show and first movies.

I was going to say the same thing about Let's Go on the Switch.

CapNinja

Every pokemon is a good pokemon to start. I really liked the Ultra Sun, and if he likes drawing, Pokemon Art Academy is a safe bet. The best of both worlds.
Try to separate some 15 pokemon for every generation to see the ones he likes more and then go for that generation.
Or go for the first generation and move on, he will like the feeling of his companion moving on with him. I've lost my save on ultra sun last year with all pokemon, carried from Y and Yellow with more than 400 hundred hours accumulated between games, trades from all the world, gifts from close friends... And guy, I still miss my fella Haxorus. More than legendaries, and she was nothing special...
Well, good luck and catch'em all. If you want, later I can send you my friend code and then a special gift.

ellohir

The original Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow are brilliant. The graphics show the limitations of the GameBoy though, but if he's young enough maybe he won't mind. There's also the Pokemon Firered and Leafgreen, that are remakes for the Gameboy Advance, though they change a few things from the original games.

If you want to get a more "updated" look at the original games, you can also try romhacks. There is a romhack called "Pokemon Red Full Color Hack" that brings the color sprites from later games while maintaining the adorable pixelated look: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1385/

And if you prefer the GameBoy Advance graphics, "Pokemon Throwback" is a romhack that makes the original Red and Blue games with the Firered graphics: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1981/

sergioad

@BadFurDay said in Best first Pokemon game?:

If you have a Nintendo Switch play Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu. You can play the game while your son follows you around, which might be good if he'd struggle to play the game on his own. You do get to battle together and the game is very easy even compared to the original, it is a remake of the original if you didn't know. I've only completed Pokemon Yellow and Fire Red and personally prefer the original 151. I am a 90s kid so it was at the perfect time for me along with the TV show and first movies.

Both sun / moon and Let's go Pikachu / Eevee are great start, choose the one you are the most comfortable with price wise and in terms of content

chris57528

My first game was pokemon light platinum (https://romsworld.online/pokemon-light-platinum-rom/), and this game has all our favorite Pokemons with a handful of rare Pokemons to train and fight with. To have countless Pokemon battles and challenges, get our Pokemon Platinum.

A Former User

@mattrixk Going over the history of this I would say the best first Pokemon game I ever played was Crystal, I played and beat yellow before Crystal but Crystal had the held items in addition to 2 newer types

also bug type Pokemon while they existed in the previous gen, they weren't as weak in gen 2 and they had better attacks like Fury Cutter and Megahorn so the gen 2 games were far more balanced, and they didn't have as many exploits if any either.