Which Pokemon generation has your favorite roster of new Pokemon? And your least?

[Grapezard]

List of Pokémon (sprites gallery)

A simple list of all 1025 Pokémon by National Dex number, with images.

pokemondb.net

^ Check the above for a rundown. ^

Gen 1: Kanto

Gen 2: Johto

Gen 3: Hoenn

Gen 4: Sinnoh

Gen 5: Unova

Gen 6: Kalos

Gen 7: Alola

Gen 8: Galar + DLC + Hisui

Gen 9: Paldea + DLC

 

[mopinks]

a ton of my least favorite pokemon are hoenn ones so that's the worst. the rest are fine to great

 

[bry]

haven't rly seen gen 9 before just now
what's the deal with the iron pokemon looking like older ones?

 

[DNAbro]

Gen 6 to me has so many boring pokemon.

Gen 7 has a ton of my new favs so that one.

 

[ClickyCal']

Gen 5 has my most favorites overall...which makes sense with the most pokemon. Gen 7 is a very close second.

 

[Saiyaman]

Childhood Nostalgia Hype: Gen 2
Present Day Favorite: Gen 7 (Alolan Raichu > everything)
Least Favorite: I honestly don't dislike any gen, but maybe gen 4 or 6 because those are my least played.

I think they've knocked it out the park with gen 8 and 9.

 

[Phellps]

Hoenn is my favorite, Galar a close second. My least favorite... probably Paldea or Sinnoh.

 

[GamerJM]

My genwunner take is that Gen 1 is best and gen 5 is the worst, though I was looking at 9 again and wow some of those designs are dire imo. Some really uninteresting takes on preexisting mons. I guess that probably overtakes 5 for me? I guess my main issue with 5 is that in B/W1 they weren't good enough to carry a game with no returning Pokemon, whereas 9's aren't very good but there are enough ones I like that I can use them along with the returning mons and have a nice selection.

Say what you want about the 3DS games but I actually thought gens 6-7 had a pretty neat new selection.

 

[Truno]

Favorite has to be Gen 8 or Gen 3

Least favorites are Gen 9 or Gen 4.

Without Annihilape, Tinkaton, Clodsire, and Grafaiai, Gen 9 would be vile

Hoenn is my favorite, Galar a close second. My least favorite... probably Paldea or Sinnoh.

Click to shrink...

Damn word for word. Sinnoh butchered so many classic designs

 

[timrtabor123]

Best: Hoenn, they got really experimental here and I think it payed off.
Worst: Unova, so many gen 1 rehashes. Ironically I feel like Vaniluxe and Trubbish lines are among the stronger mons of the generation.

 

[Derbel McDillet]

1 > 2 > 7 > 6 > 8 > 3 > 4 (some great additions, but almost all of those cross gen evolutions are unforgivable) > 9 > 5

 

[RochHoch]

Gen 5 is immaculate

There's a couple stinkers like Cryoganal and Druddigon, but the sheer quantity of A+ designs is unreal. Darmanitan, Excadrill, Haxorus, Hyreigon, Galvantula, Volcarona, Eelektross, Reuniclus, Scolipede, Krookodile, etc. It just keeps going.

Gen 7 and Gen 8 are also excellent. Lots and lots of good stuff.

Gen 2 and Gen 6 are the weak links. 2 is bogged down by pointless babies and a ton of single stage Pokemon that Gen 4 had to come in and salvage, while 6 is lacking in quantity and has stuff like Binacle lying around.

Gen 9 is also on the weaker end. Why the heck are there so many birds, fish, and dogs, they really screwed up the variety

haven't rly seen gen 9 before just now
what's the deal with the iron pokemon looking like older ones?

Click to shrink...

They're something like cryptids that leaked in from alternate timelines, called Paradox Pokemon, they technically have no relation to the Pokemon they resemble. Scarlet has a set of prehistoric themed ones, while Violet gets the robots.

 

[Rabbit]

Alola is my favorite. Introduced Decidueye, Lycanroc, Alolan Ninetales, Oricorio, Minior, Kartana, Lunala, Silvally, and many more. Decidueye in particular is probably my favorite of all time.
Least is Hoenn or Kanto. I can only think of 4 Pokemon I like from each region.

 

[bry]

Gen 5 is immaculate

There's a couple stinkers like Cryoganal and Druddigon, but the sheer quantity of A+ designs is unreal. Darmanitan, Excadrill, Haxorus, Hyreigon, Galvantula, Volcarona, Eelektross, Reuniclus, Scolipede, Krookodile, etc. It just keeps going.

Gen 7 and Gen 8 are also excellent. Lots and lots of good stuff.

Gen 2 and Gen 6 are the weak links. 2 is bogged down by pointless babies and a ton of single stage Pokemon that Gen 4 had to come in and salvage, while 6 is lacking in quantity and has stuff like Binacle lying around.

Gen 9 is also on the weaker end. Why the heck are there so many birds, fish, and dogs, they really screwed up the variety

They're something like cryptids that leaked in from alternate timelines, called Paradox Pokemon, they technically have no relation to the Pokemon they resemble. Scarlet has a set of prehistoric themed ones, while Violet gets the robots.

Click to shrink...

ooooo got you, ok thank u for answering
i didn't know scarlet had prehistoric ones too

 

[Dougieflesh]

Fav is probably Gen 5 or 7

Least Fav is easily Gen 6.

 

[RockmanBN]

Favorite: Gen 3. It introduced the Regigods

Meh: Gen 6. There are some big stinkers

 

[Boopers]

Paldea! I love how festive all the new ones are.

 

[Pirateluigi]

Gen 3 is my favorite easily.

And while gen 6 is small it has some of my favorites ever

Gen 9 is probably the weakest. It has some good ones but the overall mix just isn't as exciting to me

 

[mnk]

V > IV > IX > I > VI > VIII > VII > III > II

V has so many good ones, and even among the ones that are copies of old ones, I often like the new versions better (Like Gigalith > Golem, Woobat > Zubat). There are still plenty of bad ones, but I prefer not to dwell on those.

II and III are just very underwhelming. They each still have a number of my top favorites (including my two favorite Pokemon overall), but so does every generation so that's not saying much.

 

[KillstealWolf]

Favourite I feel is probably Gen 3, great set of starters, great set of common mons, great set of gym leader aces, and a good variety of legendaries and mythical without going overboard on it like later gens tend to do. There's only few in there that I think are stinkers of lines that I don't like that much.

Least favourite... it might be a Gen 8, which hurts to say as UK folks, but that gen is also getting dragged down by Hisui which I think is the weakest set overall entirely. It's not overencumbered by legendaries but the starter set does very little for me, and of the gym aces... I mean most of them got sidelined by Kanto shilling so, you know, that's already not helping, and then in the regular sets err... I like Dragapult at least? Also many mons feel like they need Gigantimax forms to be complete, and a lot of the gigantimax forms aren't great either so drags it down a lot.

I'm not all that high on Gen 6 either, though a lot of that is "Boy, a lot of those Mega Designs suck", and I'm counting that as part of Gen 6 here. I feel it's only fair.

 

[Dolce]

least favorite is easy, gen 2. favorite is much tougher.

maybe gen 7 or 9.!

 

[Jimnymebob]

Gen 1 is my favourite, but as for weakest I'm not really sure. Probably Gen 7, because I don't care for the legendaries or UBs there, and the dex feels kinda small not counting those, but Gen 4 has that big stretch of not cool evolutions of older Pokemon (except Togekiss who is possibly the best Gen 4 mon) at the end of the dex.

 

[Grain Silo]

Unova is my GOAT dex by far. Lilligant, Volcarona, Darmanitan, Galvantula, Emolga, Excadrill, Chandelure...

Galar is the weakest for me. Just don't like many of the Pokemon.

 

[King Alamat]

Gen 3 was my favorite, hands down. It's rare I think all the starters are dope, there are two different pseudos and it's the generation that introduced the world to the glory of Flygon. He has built-in goggles, that's the mark of a hero! Flygon is basically a shonen protagonist with wings, how could you go wrong? On the other hand, while I wasn't one of those people who were tweaked by Black & White restricting you only to the new mons, with the benefit of hindsight, I think it's time to admit that Gen 5 was kinda booty. It's definitely the hardest for me to construct a team out of.

 

[Jimnymebob]

Unova is my GOAT dex by far. Lilligant, Volcarona, Darmanitan, Galvantula, Emolga, Excadrill, Chandelure...

Galar is the weakest for me. Just don't like many of the Pokemon.

Click to shrink...

Galar gave us stupid blue bird. Cramorant automatically disqualifies it from being the weakest.

 

[Shad]

Prefacing this post that I started with Blue when it came out in the US.

Anyway, I think my least favorite roster overall is a tie between Gen 1 and probably Gen 7. Gen 1 just has so many Pokemon I actively dislike and am sick of seeing, while Gen 7 just has such a massive disparity in quality to me. Some Gen 7 Pokemon are just fantastic like Rockruff's or Jangmo-o's line. But then you get things like Brionne or Crabominable and they just being the entire dex down.

Best dexes? Gens 5 and 9, easily. Gen 5 has not one Pokemon in it that I don't think is great in one way or another. Also my favorite overall starter line up, so I'm incredibly partial to it. Gen 9 comes in right behind it for the same reasons, though I can agree with the comment that they kinda leaned a bit too heavy into birds and dogs this gen, even if I like them all. Gen 9 can lose a few points for that reason alone. But also, Gen 9 also has my new favorite line in Quaxly's line, replacing Oshawott and his line as my favorite.

 

[Advance.Wars.Sgt.]

Gen 5 for the worst.

A reimagining of the "first 151 Pokemon", just Unova-nized. More pandering to genwunners.

Gen 6 by far has my favorite, the smaller roster resulted in much stronger designs.

 

[Grain Silo]

Galar gave us stupid blue bird. Cramorant automatically disqualifies it from being the weakest.

Click to shrink...

I can respect that. Speaking of birds, you reminded me of Corviknight. Love that one. Sirfetch'd is also a decent bird. Everything else though is a resounding meh for me. Least favorite starters, pseudo-legend and legends in a while for me too.

 

[Larrikin]

Johto easily. A solid chunk of my top 20 faves are all in there. Jumpluff is my #1 all time fave, but throw in Quagsire, Furret, Totodile, Lanturn, Ampharos, Politoed, Gligar, Shuckle, Magcargo, Espeon, Umbreon, Scizor, Heracross, Steelix, Mantine, Pupitar, and literally every legendary. Not to mention all the other pokemon in those evolutionary lines. And I think the Johto regional variants/evolutions are some of the best to. Clodsire is king.

 

[Tabaxi]

Outside of Gen 1 I think Gen 5 and 7 have the best designs.

 

[Derbel McDillet]

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

Including gen1? That's an easy pick then. Some of the most immediately iconic character designs in gaming and animation. 2 and 6 are also good.
Gen5 introduced so many, but I don't like so many of them.

 

[TheAggroCraig]

Gen 2 I guess is the most consistent for me in terms of ones I like? Gen 7 is up there too as it has some of my favorites overall, but also has many that I'm not a fan of which sadly drag it down as a whole.

Gen 5 is by far my least favorite, there's only a handful I actually like and that's being generous.

 

[Jarchafiend]

Always been Gen 5

 

[ze_]

Picking Sinnoh as my least favourite batch is the only really easy answer for me.

1, 7, and 8 would be my candidates for favourite.

 

[psynergyadept]

Gen 2 has my favorite Pokemon in Espeon so that!

I found gen 5 to be absolutely boring…only cool Pokemon(discounting legendaries) were the Axew/Dieno evolutions.

 

[Wulava]

Gen 5 has most of my favorites: Scolipede, Volcarona, Hydreigon, Galvantula, Chandelure, Reuniclus, Archeops, and Golurk.

Gen 4 is my least favorite. But I do love Skuntank, Honchkrow, Mamoswine, and Abomasnow.

 

[bleck98534]

I love almost every Pokémon they introduced in Generation 4. Its legendary Pokémon and starters are especially strong. Looking back at the list, the only one I think I actively dislike is Sunkern.

Generation 5 is surely the worst and I don't think its particularly close. None of the starters are appealing and many of the normal Pokémon aren't super memorable for me. The legendary Pokémon from this generation are also kind of lame. Its cool this generation added so many, but perhaps they spread themselves too thin since so many of the designs leave so much to be desired in my opinion.

 

[Dolce]

Gen 5 for the worst.

A reimagining of the "first 151 Pokemon", just Unova-nized. More pandering to genwunners.

Gen 6 by far has my favorite, the smaller roster resulted in much stronger designs.

Click to shrink...

gen 5 was the first generation that gave us usable bugs and more than half a ghost. as much as some Pokémon are inspired, they're so different. like Lilligant is nothing like Vileplume or Vicetreebell. Scoliopede is way diffetent. Leavanny. Whimsicott.

I would say more than 100 of the 151 are so unique as to have nothing in common with generation 1. Outside of some very top level archetypes, and some exceptions, the actual execution is miles different.

 

[defaltoption]

Favorite is probably gen 2 because it has the most mins I love but I was really surprised how much I enjoyed gen 8.

Gen 5 or 7 are my least favorite overall

 

[Nickgia]

It's either gen 1 or 5 followed closely by 4 then 3.

 

[Mekanos]

Favorite for me is 4, easily. Tons of my favorite families, my favorite starters, my favorite Pokemon (Infernape) and a bunch of kickass crossgen evos.

Least favorite is probably 1, 3, or 9. Overexposure to 1 due to the initial Pokemania wave makes them feel less special and for one reason or another 3's designs have never gelled with me broadly despite a few favorites here and there. 9's designs aren't bad but I think the batting average is lower than say, 6-8, while not having enough new Pokemon overall to make up for it. I really like SWSH, but when I think of my favorite Pokemon, not very many from gen 9 spring to mind. Lokix rocks hardcore, though.

Overall, I don't think there are any bad gens. Just ones where I have stronger preferences.

 

[PallasKitten]

Gen 3 has always been my favourite roster of Pokemon, especially if we're primarily talking about their designs.

Least favourites would probably be both gen 8 and 9 since I stopped playing mainline Pokemon games after gen 7, so they're the gens I'm least familiar with, and I've seen some downright goofy designs in both those gens when I've glanced at the rosters for those games out curiosity.

My least favourite gen out of the games I actually played though? Bit of a hard pick as I honestly wasn't a massive fan of a lot of mon designs from gen 5 onwards (though there were still some great ones). I'd probably say gen 6 though if I had to pick just one.

 

[MasterYoshi]

I'm really attached to the artwork of the first generation.

There's something about the design language in Gen 1's creatures that pretty much gen 3 and beyond lose connection with.

I think maybe it's the eyes?

 

[PG10]

Been a Pokemon fan from the start so I've had the pleasure of playing all gens from the start.

Gen with favorite roster - Kalos
Gen with least favorite roster - Alola

Overall favorite generation (probably due to nostalgia) - Johto

 

[FinalArcadia]

Gen 2 is the best because it has a lot of really cute or elegant Pokemon and I tend to like those. Also had the best legendary designs by far.

Not sure on worst. Gen 5 though has some of my absolute least favorite designs in the series with stuff like Durant and Landorus and the rest of the Forces of Nature group because they're ugly, so maybe that one. Oh, and I HATE Throh and Sawk, literally some of the worst designs this series has to offer. Funnily enough, some of my favorite designs from that gen are the ones people tend to hate on like Garbodor, which I legitimately like.

 

[Mewzard]

ooooo got you, ok thank u for answering
i didn't know scarlet had prehistoric ones too

Click to shrink...

Have a few examples:

Great Tusk:

Sandy Shocks:

Walking Wake:

I really do like the Paradox Pokemon.

 

[BradenAndEggs]

Favorite: Gen 3. It introduced the Regigods

Click to shrink...

Best region, best music, best dex, best regional crawfish Pokémon lol How does Gen 3 do it?

Really though, the noticeable change in art direction "vibe" In Gen 3's dex compared to 1 and 2 is great. It's like if Gen 5's similar type of art direction "shift" for its dex decided to cut out the fat. So many bangers in Unova… but so many of my least favorites as well…

 

[Crankafoo]

Favourite is probably Johto(2) or Hoenn(3), depending on the day.

Least favourite is easily Kalos(6). There is one design I like in that entire dex, Goomy, but they immediately ruin it with Sliggoo and then make it even worse with Goodra.

 

[Cronogear]

Call me a Pokemon boomer or whatever, but Gen 1 and it isn't close.

The argument for second place is much more interesting, but I think overall it's Gen 3.