8 Pokémon Games You Really Should Play

With the release of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire we’re in for some serious Pokémon fun. So let’s look at some of the Pokémon games you really should be playing.

Pokémon Red and Blue was originally released in Japan in 1996 as Pocket Monsters: Red & Green. In 1998 it finally made its way across the Pacific, thank goodness, because it helped introduce a generation to a game that would define their childhood. But to be fair that could really be said about any generation and their perspective version that they grew up on.

Pokémon Yellow, or as they call it in Japan Pocket Monsters Pikachu, was released in Japan in 1998 and finally made its way to the U.S. a year later. It may be a enhanced version of the previous games, but it still brought more players to the beloved franchise.

Pokémon Gold and Silver introduced 100 new species of Pokémon to the series, because they just needed more to keep everyone addicted, after all you were motivated to catch them all. This helped further cement Pokémon as a very successful franchise, by this time the series had already sold 6.5 million copies in Japan alone.

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire added even more species of Pokémon, 135 to be exact. Within four days of its release in Japan it sold 1.25 million copies, which is a fantastic number for 2002, when it was released. One big downside of this installment is the inability to import your Pokémon from the previous generations of Pokémon games. This didn’t stop it from selling 16 million copies worldwide.

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were released in 2006, and were the fifth installments in the burgeoning series. Once again they included even more species of Pokémon, 107 new creatures for you to enslave in your balls. This round of games utilized the innovations that Nintendo had included in their DS, using the bottom screen as a clock, calculator, map, or even a drawing pad.

Pokémon Black and White were released in 2011, and introduced 156 new species of Pokémon to the series. Since its release Black and White have sold over 15 million copies, making it one of the best selling games for the DS but still not selling as much as Diamond and Pearl with 18 million copies sold worldwide.

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are the aptly titled sequels to the beloved originals Pokémon Black and White. The sequels introduced the new Legendary Pokémon Black Kyurem and White Kyurem. The games also introduced the new Pokéwood, where you could participate in the filming of a movie featuring Pokémon and other actors.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are actually enhanced remakes of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, but you could probably get that from the names alone. Rumors of the enhanced remakes had been flying for years, and we’re finally getting them today. They were announced on May 7th, 2014 and finally in November it’s getting released. In a rare turn of events the game was released in Japan and North America on the same day, not a traditional Pokémon release as the games usually release six months earlier in Japan than the rest of the world.