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Kotaku calls original Gen 3 games "one of the worst" ...thoughts?

Hell naw. Gen 3 isn't bad at all in my opinion. Actually, Gen 3 is my favorite of all the generations!
If I were ranking, I'd say:

1st: III
2nd: I
3rd: VI
4th: II
5th:V
6th: IV

Or something like that. I actually love them all, but Gen 3 is my fav.
 
Eh, I have never been a fan of Kotaku since most of their articles are just pointless click bait. This is just another bad opinion based article made to rake in some more views and ad revenue for the site now and then be forgotten about quickly. I don't have a problem with opinion articles even if I disagree with them as long as they are interesting, well written and have at least a somewhat original opinion about something, but this and most of Kotaku's articles have none of these qualities.
 
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Whenever someone tells me that, I jokingly say, "Ruby and Sapphire were the best-selling games for the GBA."

Your move, naysayers. ;P

Selling is not the same as quality. Mc Donalds is a good example in that one.

For me: i liked Gen III. Just like I liked every generation. Every gen has its ups and downs, and thats all based on your own opinion, so I'm not going to judge Kotaku's.
 
Whenever someone tells me that, I jokingly say, "Ruby and Sapphire were the best-selling games for the GBA."

Your move, naysayers. ;P

Selling is not the same as quality. Mc Donalds is a good example in that one.

For me: i liked Gen III. Just like I liked every generation. Every gen has its ups and downs, and thats all based on your own opinion, so I'm not going to judge Kotaku's.

That's why I said, "jokingly".
 
I saw Kotaku in the thread title and I instantly did not care about what they had to say.

Quite clever to go against the majority opinion, though.
 
Reminds me of years ago when everyone labeled Gen III as the worst generation. Funny how the opinion is swaying in its favor now.
 
Gen III is not the worst, there is no evidence.
I may kinda hate gen III for my own reasons but I don't dislike it because it's bad. It's not bad.

It's to be expected that something you love another person hates. Just ignore kotaku, most of the Pokemon fandom loves/likes Gen III so their opinion is no threat.
 
Whenever someone tells me that, I jokingly say, "Ruby and Sapphire were the best-selling games for the GBA."

Your move, naysayers. ;P

Selling is not the same as quality. Mc Donalds is a good example in that one.

For me: i liked Gen III. Just like I liked every generation. Every gen has its ups and downs, and thats all based on your own opinion, so I'm not going to judge Kotaku's.

That's why I said, "jokingly".

Oh I wasn't judging you or anything, I just know a lot of people that think that way.
Thats just what I say when people say something like that (even if it is jokingly :) )
 
I was personally very disappointed with Gen III initially because it felt like two steps forward, one step back. Yeah, it's all pretty with its colors and unique field sprites, and you've got the double battles now, but there was no day/night cycle (a huge deal to me), no Apricorn balls, the story and characters were boring, the Gen III Safari was the least interesting, and a handful of other things, not the least of which is that Gen III marked a massive shift in the fundamentals of character design for Pokemon, not just the mons but the humans and the world.

Gen I/II were more-or-less directly based off the original Capumon idea and its manga-ish illustrations, and there was very much a hard shounen art style (look at, for instance, the character portraits in the original N64 Pokemon Stadium; ripped right outta the Pokemon manga). The art style, beginning with Gen III, was completely overhauled to be much less shounen, much softer. It's not a direction I enjoy.

However, Gen III's region, Hoenn, is my favorite by far because it's so nature-y and vast, and has so much water and surfing, to say nothing of how awesome diving to the sea floor was. And I absolutely adore Contests and all the new berries and Poffins and everything like that. Additionally, it's widely agreed that Gen III has the most balanced competitive metagame thus far, which is a plus.

To be fair, I never played Ruby or Sapphire, only ever Emerald.

IMO, Diamond/Pearl is the worst by a wide margin, because of its dismally boring Pokedex and straightforward, no-frills gameplay. Platinum improved by leaps and bounds, though, and is tied with Crystal as my favorite Pokemon game.

I wouldn't necessarily call the title clickbait, anymore than any article is on the internet nowadays, but the author certainly doesn't make much of a case for claiming R/S are the worst of the bunch.
 
It doesn't surprise me at all that Patricia Hernandez doesn't like Generation 3. For most people my age (I'm 23) and older, the Hoenn games are still kind of a sore spot for us.

By 2002, the Fad had ended, and an anti-Pokémon backlash was starting to set in. Just a year earlier, the Entei movie bombed in theaters, and the Johto seasons of the anime were met with poor ratings and negative reviews, even from the target audience. Crystal was vastly underperforming in sales (6.39 million) compared to Red/Blue/Yellow (31.31 and 14.64 million, respectively) and Gold/Silver (23.10 million). Meanwhile, most of the original fans who had been there since 1998-99 were starting to hit puberty and enter Middle School, where liking Pokémon was like having a giant "Kick me, I'm a dork!" sign on your back. Enthusiasm for the franchise was wearing thin.

Ruby and Sapphire might not have actually killed the Fad, but they were the final nail in the coffin for many older fans. Those who had bought a brand new GBA and were hoping an even newer and shiner game than Gold and Silver were disappointed to find a watered-down real time clock, no references/connections to the previous two regions, most of the first 251 Pokémon completely MIA, and worst of all, no trading compatibility with the first 2 Generations. Suddenly, the teams they had worked hard to raise in RBY and GSC were gone, making their efforts all for naught.

Many people quit Pokémon for good in 2003 and never looked back. Some returned around 2010 with the much-hyped release of HeartGold and SoulSilver and many of those people would stick around for Gens 5 and 6, but the negativity surrounding the Hoenn games never really went away.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't one of those many people who quit around 2002-03, and even after playing Emerald, Hoenn and Generation 3 still don't rank all that high in my book. (Which is why I've mostly stayed out of this subforum.)
 
Looking through others' opinions, it seems like a lot of hatred towards Gen III came from the incompatibility with Gen I and II. I started playing when Gen III was new, and my first games were LeafGreen and Sapphire, so I never had those problems. Looking at it without the whole "no transfer" issue, I can't say there was anything particularly horrible. As games, they were like any other Pokemon game; fun, basic, yet a bit challenging. Objectively, I can't see what made it so much worse than all the others.
 
Looking through others' opinions, it seems like a lot of hatred towards Gen III came from the incompatibility with Gen I and II. I started playing when Gen III was new, and my first games were LeafGreen and Sapphire, so I never had those problems. Looking at it without the whole "no transfer" issue, I can't say there was anything particularly horrible. As games, they were like any other Pokemon game; fun, basic, yet a bit challenging. Objectively, I can't see what made it so much worse than all the others.

Well, that's the thing, you started with Gen 3, so you weren't really losing anything with Ruby and Sapphire. The inability to transfer older Pokémon didn't affect you because you had no older Pokémon to transfer. You didn't have to leave anything behind.

On the other hand, people who had been there since RBY were expecting another direct continuation that had everything GSC had, plus more, and when that didn't happen, they were greatly disappointed. Factor in everything else that was going on at the time (the end of the Fad, the backlash, etc), and the inability to trade was like rubbing salt in the wounds.
 
Sounds like someone had trouble beating Tate and Liza... It was one of my favorite gens because you had the changing weather, secret bases, the contests, and you had the two bikes. but i mean to each their own opinion.
 
The games(I had Sapphire) were too revolutionary for me that I stopped caring about the generation sever. I remember selling my Red version and some other games so I could buy LeafGreen and Emerald. And no I don't regret it, 3-4 years ago I bought Red and Blue cartridges in a flea market for a total of 12 bucks.
 
Kotaku is garbage but it is the worse game of the series for me, story wise, pokemon design wise, map wise it doesn't mean its bad it just means its the less good since I dont think any pokemon game has been bad yet.

Gen 3 was the only get I got bored of Pokemon, stopped watching the anime and playing the games, good thing FR and LG came out which brough my love back but was still annoyed I couldn't complete the dex because I didnt have a gamecube.

But yeah opinions.
 
Ruby and Sapphire might not have actually killed the Fad, but they were the final nail in the coffin for many older fans. Those who had bought a brand new GBA and were hoping an even newer and shiner game than Gold and Silver were disappointed to find a watered-down real time clock, no references/connections to the previous two regions, most of the first 251 Pokémon completely MIA, and worst of all, no trading compatibility with the first 2 Generations. Suddenly, the teams they had worked hard to raise in RBY and GSC were gone, making their efforts all for naught.
That was my biggest problem with the original Hoenn games: the lack of backwards connectivity. I played the games, I enjoyed them but leaving my Venusaur on Crystal to basically rot really stung and it colored my opinion of the games.

That said, I didn't hate the Hoenn games. I enjoyed them. But they did feel a bit lacking for that and various other reasons. I'm not going to say that they're the worst games in the series but they are a bit weak because of that.

Still hyped for ORAS, though. :)
 
It doesn't surprise me at all that Patricia Hernandez doesn't like Generation 3. For most people my age (I'm 23) and older, the Hoenn games are still kind of a sore spot for us. ...

Ruby and Sapphire might not have actually killed the Fad, but they were the final nail in the coffin for many older fans. Those who had bought a brand new GBA and were hoping an even newer and shiner game than Gold and Silver were disappointed to find a watered-down real time clock, no references/connections to the previous two regions, most of the first 251 Pokémon completely MIA, and worst of all, no trading compatibility with the first 2 Generations. Suddenly, the teams they had worked hard to raise in RBY and GSC were gone, making their efforts all for naught. ...

Yeah, I agree. When I stopped watching the anime? RSE. When I stopped buying the games? RSE. When I stopped following Pokemon in general for several years until XY came? Also RSE. Even now, I'm not all that enthusiastic for ORAS.

Seriously RSE was one of the reasons that I hated the GC-GBA era. The really sad thing was that I was looking forward to follow RSE, after being turned off by both Zelda and Mario. The only positive experience I had were the two games of Fire Emblem: Binding Blade and Sacred Stones. And the only Pokemon game that I wouldn't mind playing a remake version of that era would be Pokemon Colosseum/XD.
 
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IMO, Diamond/Pearl is the worst by a wide margin, because of its dismally boring Pokedex and straightforward, no-frills gameplay.

This made my hairs stand on end because Gen. 4 is my favorite. And then I read:

Platinum improved by leaps and bounds, though, and is tied with Crystal as my favorite Pokemon game.

Platinum is definitely the best game, hands down. I officially love you now.

By 2002, the Fad had ended, and an anti-Pokémon backlash was starting to set in. Just a year earlier, the Entei movie bombed in theaters, and the Johto seasons of the anime were met with poor ratings and negative reviews, even from the target audience.

That is my favorite animated movie of ALL TIME. Entei is my favorite legendary because of that movie. I swear, us Americans have no taste.

Looking through others' opinions, it seems like a lot of hatred towards Gen III came from the incompatibility with Gen I and II. I started playing when Gen III was new, and my first games were LeafGreen and Sapphire, so I never had those problems. Looking at it without the whole "no transfer" issue, I can't say there was anything particularly horrible. As games, they were like any other Pokemon game; fun, basic, yet a bit challenging. Objectively, I can't see what made it so much worse than all the others.

Well, that's the thing, you started with Gen 3, so you weren't really losing anything with Ruby and Sapphire. The inability to transfer older Pokémon didn't affect you because you had no older Pokémon to transfer. You didn't have to leave anything behind.

On the other hand, people who had been there since RBY were expecting another direct continuation that had everything GSC had, plus more, and when that didn't happen, they were greatly disappointed. Factor in everything else that was going on at the time (the end of the Fad, the backlash, etc), and the inability to trade was like rubbing salt in the wounds.

Well to be fair, not everyone who started off in Kanto was mad about Hoenn's lack of connectivity. I was 9 at the time, I didn't have any friends to trade with, so it's not like I even figured out that trading up wasn't possible until well into Gen. 4 (like around the time of Platinum? #Oops)

I loved Hoenn back then. But not now. Not for anything wrong with the games themselves. I just don't like them anymore because of overexposure to it. I watch a lot of LP's on YouTube of hacks and fan-games. And everyone uses the Gen. 3 software as a base. So after a while you don't really want to deal with Gen. 3 anymore...

I don't know about anyone else, but for me the Hoenn remakes are probably going to be right up there with the Platinum, X and SoulSilver as my favorite games. Especially if the Soaring feature is as cool as it seems.
 
That was my biggest problem with the original Hoenn games: the lack of backwards connectivity. I played the games, I enjoyed them but leaving my Venusaur on Crystal to basically rot really stung and it colored my opinion of the games.

Ruby and Sapphire tried to do a hard reboot at a time when that was the last thing older fans wanted--brand new isolated region, no references to previous games, very few of the previous 251 Pokémon, no trading compatibility, etc. The games even went so far as to remove features that had been in GSC, such as Day/Night, and new additions like contests weren't anywhere near enough to make up for that.

People who managed to stick it out for an extra year or two were "rewarded" with FireRed and LeafGreen, but at the cost of even more features--no clock, no berries, no breeding, and no Pokémon beyond Mewtwo (not even the pre/evolutions GSC introduced). Even the things RSE added, like contests and weather, were nowhere to be found, and do I even need to mention the gem-collecting ordeal you had to go through just to be able to trade with the Hoenn games? FRLG ironically felt like more backwards games than GSC.

And, completing the Pokédex was just a nightmare. Most of the Gen 2 Pokémon were ridiculously hard to get, and unless you got lucky with certain events, you needed to have a couple of non-canon GameCube spinoff games. (Good luck getting Lugia without XD. Can't just trade the one you worked so hard to catch and raise in Silver.) No wonder they dropped "Gotta Catch 'Em All" at this time.

I loved Hoenn back then. But not now. Not for anything wrong with the games themselves. I just don't like them anymore because of overexposure to it. I watch a lot of LP's on YouTube of hacks and fan-games. And everyone uses the Gen. 3 software as a base. So after a while you don't really want to deal with Gen. 3 anymore...

That's because the GBA games are the easiest to hack. Their code is cleaner than the GB/C games (very little hex editing required), yet they don't require 3D mapping skills like the DS games.
 
I loved Hoenn back then. But not now. Not for anything wrong with the games themselves. I just don't like them anymore because of overexposure to it. I watch a lot of LP's on YouTube of hacks and fan-games. And everyone uses the Gen. 3 software as a base. So after a while you don't really want to deal with Gen. 3 anymore...

That's because the GBA games are the easiest to hack. Their code is cleaner than the GB/C games (very little hex editing required), yet they don't require 3D mapping skills like the DS games.

Well that makes sense, and it's pretty obvious. But the DS games look prettier, people should get better so that they can hack it more often. I guess there's no hope of people hacking Gen. 6 anytime soon, then. LOL
 
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