Gold was my first, and it was absolutely magical - I had been exposed to Pokemon as a franchise through the cartoon and cultural osmosis, I had books and had se

Gold was my first, and it was absolutely magical - I had been exposed to Pokemon as a franchise through the cartoon and cultural osmosis, I had books and had seen the movie, but I hadn't played the first round of games. Gold was like everything I didn't know I wanted, with cool new Pokemon and then the amazing "reveal" that after the first 8 gyms I could go back to Kanto and basically play through the Gen 1 game as well. I had no idea that was coming and it just blew me away as a kid. Tons of great memories of that game. I didn't get into the next generation for whatever reason, just kinda missed me. But Diamond was also fantastic. I had three other friends with copies and we would just sit around playing battles, hunting shinies, and just overall enjoying the experience together. Those were the only two Pokemon games I played and they were both such peak gaming experiences that I'm barely interested in the rest of the franchise. How could anything top being 9 and deep diving into Gold, or being 15 or so and having a whole group playing together and just drinking mountain dew all night? Those games hit at the perfect time for me and I don't see how anything new for ever exceed those experiences.