It appears another "gigaleak" has gone down, involving Nintendo. According to sources online, it appears that Game Freak has been hacked, resulting in internal data from the company being leaked to the public. Those involved in the hacking community or those within general Pokemon related groups...
Which is exactly why I stopped playing after Gen 2, which was the peak of the series IMO. If you want to see everything the series has to offer, just play Gold/Silver (or their remakes on the DS). No reason to waste time and money on any other Pokémon game.
Pokemon Black/White 1 & 2 are as close to that as you want. Great story, amazing songs that i still hum to this day, and the designs are as solid as Gen 1 and 2.
Gen 4 was peak IMO, both the new Pokemon were excellent as well as the best remakes ever made. Gen 4 has Platinum and HeartGold SoulSilver which are the best games in the series.
Radical Red and Polished Crystal are peak, in my opinion. I can’t go back to the lack of special/physical split, it’s just awful.
I kinda agree, but B2/W2 was actually peak Pokémon. You should give those games a go, it’s samey but polished to rubbish-bag shiny perfection.