Which remakes are your favorites?

[EvilChameleon]

Between FireRed/LeafGreen, HeartGold/SoulSilver, and OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire, which set of remakes are your favorites?

I have to be honest. Even though I really enjoyed the fact that Hoenn was remade, the games were a little disappointing compared to the Johto remakes.

What about everyone else?

 

[Norzan]

ORAS by a landslide. FRLG and HGSS didn't fixed a single issue i had with the first two gens. While ORAS could have definitely been better, they are much better remakes than FRLG and HGSS.

 

[Bolt Strike]

HGSS by far. FRLG didn't really fix anything, it just tacked on post game content. And ORAS mainly only improved the storyline and actually made the game worse in some ways. HGSS meanwhile, polished the original and added some neat new things to the experience. It could've done a lot more, but it's the only remake I think that did justice to the original.

 

[Sakuraa]

ORAS, no contest. Well actually, it's kind of by default. I never played the original gen 1 and 2 games so their remakes were my first experience with them, whereas I'd already played Emerald earlier. Though, even with the information I know about the earlier games, I still find ORAS to be better remakes.

I already loved the originals and these remakes took everything I loved from them and just made them even more amazing. The revamped story was awesome, the characters are expanded upon much more, Pokemon Contests are my life, and that ending. I'd replay this game over and over again just to be able to see that wonderful, heartwarming ending each time.

As of right now, ORAS are probably my favorite main games in the series.

 

[Lanstar]

Got to say... Playing the three remakes, ORAS was much better than the other ones to me.

HGSS had this problematic issue of everything underleveled. Getting any pokemon to level 50 for Battle Frontier games was incredibly hard to do, and you were always stuck on Mt. Silver, or waiting for calls or a time of day to reface gym leaders. Made me stop playing it after all the postgame was done, compared to the other Gen. IV games. Too much grinding to enjoy.

FRLG kept the postgame hanging at the Sevii islands. Didn't like how that ended up and not much of a plot - much like the originals. Too many "empty places" as well... Also didn't like how the extra Johto pokemon were leveled lower than the kanto ones.

Somehow, I like the incredible exaggeration they did to make ORAS loftier versions of their original counter parts: The "Primals" gave you a better sence of apocalyptic events compared to the Groudon-Kyogre of old. The "Contest Spectacular" made the normal contests into fashion shows. And the exaggerations of the characters... While there was no Battle Frontier like I wished there was, they made the games feel wonderous compared to the older ones...

 

[Muur]

I'd actually go with Hoenn, very impressive.

The Pokeathlon was awesome though.

 

[HyruleAlpha]

Generation 3 is my favorite, so naturally, I went with ORAS.

 

[Ampharos King]

The Johto remakes were my favorites, in my opinion.

Nostalgia aside, HGSS included plenty of good features:
- 493 walking Pokémon
- A Battle Frontier (granted it is a duplicate of Platinum's Battle Frontier, but at the very least there is a full Battle Frontier, unlike ORAS)
- Photo taking option
- Vastly improved Pokegear, including ability to store more numbers and find out about Pokemon swarms on Professor Oak's show
- This game introduced stat colors associated with natures in the menu: red (positive) or blue (negative).
- With the exception of Whitney, the gym battles are tougher.
- Gym Leader rematches
- Return of important areas such as the Cerulean Cave, Seafoam Islands, and Viridian Forest
- Pokeathlons
- A fully functional touch screen programmed with the menu buttons
- A Safari Zone with a relatively large amount of re-playability (and two new routes)
- 8-bit music option
- Four evil team admins, the highest in any game prior to Gen VI (if Charon of Platinum's Team Galactic isn't included)
- Expanded storyline (such as knowing about the rival's past and Giovanni)

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'll have to go with HG/SS. While I do have a soft spot for those remakes due to how Silver was my first Pokemon game, I also enjoyed those remakes the most even without that factor. Being able to walk around with my Pokemon team was great, the Pokealthon was fun, we got Gym Leader rematches, the bit expansion for the storyline was good and I liked being able to experience traveling through Johto and Kanto in new graphics. I liked the Battle Frontier as well. It was the same one from Platinum, but I was able to challenge it with different teams, so the experience was still different enough.

OR/AS would come at a good close second. I really enjoyed the new character designs, Wally had a bit more presence in the game, I grew to like May/Brendan more than I did in the originals, the way they incorporated Mega Evolution into the storyline was good, the graphics were really great, the post-Elite 4 material is terrific, the Delta Episode was a fun experience, the updated Secret Bases are great and it introduced some new features like the DexNavi. One reason why I still prefer HG/SS over these games despite all of these good points for OR/AS is because there were also pretty big disappointments for me as well. I'm still so disappointed over the lack of Mega Flygon and the Battle Frontier. I was really looking forward to trying to get all of the Frontier symbols, especially when I wasn't able to do that in Emerald. The lack of Gym Leader rematches is also pretty disappointing and I was hoping for a few unrevealed Mega Pokemon on top of Mega Flygon, instead of all of them being revealed prior to the games' release. By comparison, I didn't have much of any huge disappointments with HG/SS. The wild Pokemon being underleveled was a bother, but at least Gym Leader rematches prevented the only good way to level grind was facing off against the Elite 4. I will say that I like OR/AS more than X/Y, primarily due to the storyline and rivals being better and way more post-Elite 4 content to work with.

FR/LG would be third. Aside from a few touches like being able to play as a girl and including the Sevii islands as the post-storyline, there wasn't nearly enough new content in these remakes to keep it fresh. They were actually kind of boring from what I remember playing them after awhile, which is not something I normally say about a Pokemon game, especially one in the main series. If they had added a few more twists and expanded more on the storyline and/or post-Elite 4 content, then I think those games would have been better. That might be one reason why I wouldn't be against the idea of a FR/LG remake. At least with the space in a 3DS game, there's room for them to add a lot more to make the game more fresh than just being the original game with a fresh new coat of paint and a few touches here and there.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Heart Gold and Soul Silver without contest, Game Freak didn't bother putting Emerald stuff in (Delta Episode is not Emerald/Delta Emerald, it just has Delta in name) while Heart Gold and Soul Silver contain the Eusine and Suicune thing from Crystal. There for HG/SS is better in comparison, it also has BF unlike OR/AS.

 

[The Froakster]

HeartGold and SoulSilver are very close to my heart and soul (I made a pun). I love the Johto games more than the Hoenn games. Plus it had the Battle Frontier and ORAS doesn't. It also helps that it is in my favourite gen (Gen 4 ftw)

 

[redjirachi]

Two words: Hoenn Confirmed

 

[GreatLiver]

I have yet to have a bad experience with remakes. FRLG was great because it was the first time something like that happened. And I was 13 so thinking back to it now it's probably got a pretty heavy nostalgia factor. The Islands were a very nice addition, but I really loved Hoenn, so leaving to go back to Kanto wasn't a terribly huge draw for me.

HGSS I remember absolutely loving back when that came out. At the time the game looked so crisp and the menu interface got a phenomenal upgrade. I had never been super drawn to GS as a kid, but I felt the remakes were great. The following aspect seriously made me feel closer to the pokemon on my team just because I was constantly seeing them, which was a cool aspect. The fact that they did nothing to change the horrendous level scaling in that game though was quite a detractor though.

I waited a bit on ORAS and only got it about a month ago, but have been having a great time with it. RS were my favorite games as a kid because they came right in that tender spot where I was like 11 or so so I have a clearer recollection of actually playing through those games for the first time. Flying directly to routes is something I seriously hope remains in the games going forward, and other small improvements make the game very appealing to me. Also, for whatever reason, when I begin running out of end game content I get really into berries, and the fact that the last 4 berries just became available recently have given me the first game in which I have absolutely every berry. That's just sorta cool. Finally, I think what makes ORAS seem so great is that it's following a game that wasn't that great. XY made breeding super easy, so I was doing that for a while with it, but replaying through the actual game on my second copy is more a case of me going through the motions. I could not hardly name any of the characters or cities from that game. Coming on the heels of what struck me as such a lackluster game makes ORAS seem all the better in my eyes, so even though my judgement's probably clouded by recency bias, I've gotta say ORAS is my favorite of the three.

 

[Soki]

Even though I've never played the original gen II games, HGSS is still my favourite remake. ORAS looks good and all, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as HGSS. HGSS had so many (new) fun stuff; Pokéthlon, Pokémon following you, a battle frontier, gym leader rematches, etc and imo it also has the best music and the best looking PC's. The only new thing I enjoyed in ORAS is the dexnav and I really dislike most of their character redesigns and most of the music.

 

[Aulos]

This is actually a hard question for me to answer.

FR/LG win out in just being a sheer improvement over the originals. They are a straight-up remake and improvement of the original R/B(G) games to the Gameboy Advance hardware. While a GBA game is dated by today's standards, the improvements made keep FR/LG much more playable today. For example, the PC boxes feature, which is just very clunky with long loading times in the original G1 and G2 games was made sooo much better in G3, and FR/LG keep that update. Also FR/LG finally fixed the issue of the lack of a female protagonist from the G1 games. Leaf has always been one of my favorite designs!

...But that's it, FR/LG were very straight-to the original remakes. With HG/SS and OR/AS, Gamefreak went a completely different direction with their remakes. So it feels unfair to me to really compare FR/LG to HG/SS and OR/AS.

With that said, I have mixed opinions over HG/SS and OR/AS. HG/SS were the most necessary remakes, with G/S/C cartridges quickly becoming unsavable. They did many things right - in particular using the more powerful hardware of the DS to allow for the Kanto region to be re-expanded. But certain things about HG/SS just rubbed me in the wrong way - like the whole pretending Leaf never existed thing, and the random changing of the female protagonist. Those probably won't bother most at all, and seem very small, but those kinds of things just really bother me.

OR/AS, I'll probably just have to admit are better than the originals in every way. Although I was sad to see the Abandoned Ship replaced, because that was my favorite place in R/S/E. I also am still sour that they removed the trainer customization feature, it just feels wrong for it to not be there now that X/Y introduced it and OR/AS run on the very same online interface and everything that X/Y did.

But as remakes, OR/AS did pretty much everything right... I just still don't really like them as much, because R/S/E were always my least favorite Pokemon games.

So there you have it, I have no idea what my answer is. xD

 

[jayrachi]

That's a tough decision, all things considered. All of the remakes ended up being much greater than their original counterparts. Overall, though, I think I enjoyed HeartGold/SoulSilver the most when compared to the previous titles.

 

[Almonds]

Definitely ORAS. They improved the story and characters, and Delta Episode was amazing.

 

[Snowy]

ORAS. 3D, Soar, Pokemon Amie. And Hoenn was one of my favourite regions in the Anime.

 

[skyradiant]

OR/AS, no contest. Better story, better lore, better characters, better post-game, and better additional features. Literally the only good unique feature to HG/SS is walking Pokémon and Ho-Oh/Lugia playing a role in the storyline.

 

[ange]

HGSS, for all reasons already mentioned. HGSS was so good, that if DPPt weren't already my favorite Pokemon games, I would have those as favorites instead.

FRLG gets 2nd place, and ORAS 57th place.