Pokémon Sword and Shield were the first mainline Pokémon games to be released on the Nintendo Switch and expectations were high from the initial announcement. (It’s kind of hard to make a bad game when you basically stick to one proven formula.) This is certainly going to be at least a little divisive, but we want to make ourselves clear: we really don’t think there’s a single bad Pokémon game.
We based our rankings on how much of an impact we felt the generation had on the game series as a whole, as well as how enjoyable we found the generation overall. But we think we're up to it.īelow, you'll find our ranked list of all eight Pokémon generations and the mainline Pokémon games within them. Nostalgia, a strong preference for certain Pokémon and starters, and of course the sheer number of games can make it a difficult task. Sure, it's no easy feat to round up the very best entries in a series that spans over two decades. So we thought this would be the perfect time to rank every Pokémon generation to date, from our least to most favorite. In fact, the Pokémon game series will move into its ninth generation with the release of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet later this year.