For some reason, Pokemon Remakes are once again a hot topic in the community as speculation of 'Let's Go Johto' have been up in the air for a while now and it's approaching that time Pokemon is gonna give us another remake anytime now. Whether it'll be for the Johto games or the Unova games we'll have to wait and see. So today, I've going over the 5 remakes Pokemon has put out there and ranking them worst to best. Really, there's only one bad game in the list in my opinion and Pokemon genuinely has a good track record when it comes to remakes.

5. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl

Labeled as one of the worst Pokemon games in existence, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the 2021 Remakes for Pokemon Diamond & Pearl from 2006. Pokemon made the horrible decision to hand this project over to ILCA instead of Game Freak who've been the lead developer of the Pokemon games for over 20 years. This decision resulted in a very horrible chibi art style that the fanbase wretched over since its unvieling, the SLEW of bugs, the entire game was insanely desaturated, the incompleteness as well as lack of features and fixes Pokemon Platinum introduced to Diamond & Pearl. Basically saying, the remakes were half assed & released incomplete. Many labeling these Remakes as a cash grab/banking on our childhood Nostalgia. I 100% agree with the majority. This was the first Pokemon game I couldn't finish no matter how badly I wanted to. I had to tell myself 'if you aren't enjoying the game, don't force yourself to finish.' And then I went and dug out my copy of Platinum and played that for the next week. Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl could've been saved if it was given the Let's Go Pikachu treatment, even if the fanbase wasn't too happy with Let's Go in the first place.

4. Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee are 2018 remakes of Pokemon Yellow from 1998 AND was the first Pokemon Game to make it to the Nintendo Switch so it was carrying ALOT on its shoulders from being on a Next Generation Console AND being a remake of beloved fan favorites and that's it's downfall unfortunately. This game was a bit of a pain to play but it can be excused as a learning curve much like Legends Arceus. Let's Go forces players to play with motion controls and had a Pokemon Go capture style that just DOESNT work. Also the Pokemon Go capture style further hurt my personal experience as it completely Got rid of wild battling. Instead, in order to EXP train your Pokemon, you can ONLY battle NPCs or Capture Pokemon. Also, the motion controls ripped me out of the Pokemon experience as I'm forced to play single-Handed with on lone Joycon. I appreciate the updated character designs and graphics, how Pokemon that weren't available in the wild in the OG games such as the Starters & Eevee are now catchable too. I've sadly, never heard of anyone who enjoys this pair of games and if I have, it's over one particular thing: The Shiny hunting as Shinies spawn in the overworld. That's it!!! Plus... I'm sure the fanbase was TIRED of Pokemon at this point in time as this was the second remake of the OG Red, Blue, Yellow games AND that Kanto/Gen 1 gets way too much attention from the company that us as fans sometimes boycott Gen 1 leading to a game the majority of the fanbase glossed over & didn't feel any real anticipation to play.

3. Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire

2014 Remakes for Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire from 2002. This game did a lot right and was the definition of a remake done properly BUT the remakes still suffer from what made Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire bad: Ruby & Sapphire tell one half of a story that DOESNT make sense unless you play both games. As in, Team Aqua only exists in Sapphire while Team Magma only exists in Ruby. Two separate plotlines. Theres very clearly inconsistencies & plot holes due to how the games act so separately from one another leaving a game with a story that doesn't make the most of sense. There's reasons why nobody talks about Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire anymore sadly and it's due to how the games didn't take notes from the far superior Pokemon Emerald. All bad things aside, this duo of games did quite a few things right such as adding on a Rayquaza plotline in the Post Game, Mega Evolutions and making Wally a more prominent character while in the OG Ruby & Sapphire Wally was barely around and you often forgot he was even a rival in the first place. So many pros and cons that equal one another out, these two aren't bad games per say but it's not on my 'To Replay' list for lack of better words.

2. Pokemon Fire Red & Leaf Green

My first main series Pokemon game ever, Fire Red & Leaf Green are the 2004 Remakes for Pokemon Red & Blue from 1996. These two are ALSO the first remakes to come out of the Pokemon company. If you ask me, it was too soon for a remake BUT it made the Red & Blue experience much much better. With this game came the inclusion of Dark types, something the OG Gen 1 games lacked as the remakes were Generation 3, Shinies were brought in, event Pokemon/DLC was brought in to introduce Deoxys and last but not least the colorful and upgraded graphics added onto the experience. For a remake that came 8 years after the original games, it does everything right! It's no secret that the OG Red & Blue are practically unplayable nowadays due to how broken, unfair and buggy the gameplay is and Fire Red & Leaf Green gave us such a solid and enjoyable experience. In fact, when I began this list, I thought I was gonna rank Fire Red & Leaf Green pretty low but I'm actually blown away by how much I genuinely enjoy the games when I sat down and had to write about it.

1. Pokemon Heartgold & Soulsilver

Pokemon Heartgold & Soulsilver are the 2009 Remakes of Pokemon Gold & Silver from 1999. Yes it was another remake that came out within ten years of the OG game and honestly, it did everything right! Many hail Heartgold & Soulsilver as one of the best Pokemon games in existence, including myself if you wanna go look at my Main Series Games Ranked part in this book. Heartgold & Soulsilver did everything right and was 'ahead of its time' as many critics reviewed it as the graphics were clean, there was a day and night cycle, the vast amount of event Pokemon/DLCs, it was compatable with EVERY DS Pokemom game including Gen 5 games Black & White, the cutscenes were in 3D, it was two games in one as the games took place in two regions AND the games featured one particular feature that took about 10 more years before Pokemon would use it again which was partner Pokemon/overworld travel companions. I had SO MANY hours logged onto my copy of Silver because of the sheer amount of content the duo of games had and it just kept giving. Pokemon, you need to take notes from yourself and revisit Heartgold & Soulsilver cause this is how you do a remake the right way!

What's your favorite Pokemon Remake?