Red/Blue/Yellow: I started Pokemon with Red and Blue back when they were new and I still like them to this day because they're hard and glitchy; mainly Red and Blue (Yellow is a lot easier and more patched, so I don't like it as much.) No hand-holding, no easy mode, "interesting" sprites, a terrible inventory system, a very terrible PC system with both Pokemon and inventory space, and high leveled wild Pokemon. If you want to challenge yourself (and haven't played them before years ago,) play Red or Blue version. This is as hard as Pokemon ever gets and I love it. 7/10.
Gold/Silver/Crystal: Good games at the time, but they do NOT age well, and the battle mechanics are almost as broken as gen 1, especially catching Pokemon. The Johto/Kanto campaign is the best thing about the games, but gen 2 as a whole (graphics, mechanics, battle animations, TMS, sprites) was awful, even if I like Johto. Gen 2 also has the worst TMs in the entire series and most of them are unusable TRASH! (They got rid of Body Slam and Swords Dance, for Defense Curl and Sweet Scent?!) Don't get me wrong, Johto fixed a LOT of things with the series, like introducing breeding, genders, held items, a day and night cycle, etc. But Gen 1 had a much better interface, attack animations, art style, better Pokemon overall, and had MUCH better TMs; not to mention the Missingno glitch which added a ton of extra fun that gen 2 lacks. Gen 2 is also harder than gen 1 in many ways, but not in a fun way and without any Missingno hacks to make up for it. Luckily, they did remake Johto down the line, so play those games instead. 7/10.
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald: Gen 3 is when the in-game Pokemon sprites started to actually look like Pokemon and it fixed all of the ugly visuals, animations, and glitches of gen 2. If you're young or new to Pokemon and want to play the classics, start here with Ruby and Sapphire. Emerald is one of the first "all time great games" in Pokemon and I probably clocked in 2,000+ hours on that game due to the Battle Frontier. Emerald is in the top 3 of best Pokemon games ever (made by Game Freak, at least.) 8/10 for Ruby and Sapphire, 8.5/10 for Emerald.
FireRed/Not-AquaBlue: I hate these remakes. They couldn't even re-release Blue version as "Aqua Blue" there WAS no damn Green version outside of Japan, so it makes no damn sense to have a "LeafGreen." WTF is that? They are so half-assed and lazy and the games themselves lose all of the scuffed appeal of gen 1. They also got rid of the good TMs of gen 1 for the shitty TMs of gen 3, so no Body Slam, Swords Dance, Mega Punch, Mega Kick, Metronome, etc. Worse yet, cause they're still in gen 3 and the physical/special split in moves/battle mechanics hadn't been introduced, they're even less worthy of going back and playing now. The Kanto remakes are just a sanitized, boring, lame mess of remakes and I absolutely despise them. I will always play gen 1 Kanto over the squeaky clean, boring, half-assed "Green version wasn't even a thing outside of Japan" gen 3 remakes, any day. Fuck these remakes. 5.5/10.
Colosseum and Gale of Darkness, on the Nintendo GameCube: These games are actually canon, as you can't complete the gen 3 National Dex without them. They are okay games and far better than the modern console Pokemon RPG's we have today, but their over-reliance on grinding and limited Pokemon you can "snag" hurts their replay value. They're still worth playing at least once, however. 7/10.
Diamond/Pearl: Diamond and Pearl are mediocre-at-best games and not really worth playing unless you can't get Platinum. They aren't bad, but they have a ton of issues and the campaign of constantly backtracking and having to over-rely on HMs is just not fun. 6/10.
Platinum: Platinum almost entirely redeems Sinnoh. Especially the return of the Battle Frontier especially. Platinum fixes so many issues with Sinnoh, it's not even funny. Sinnoh still is one of my least favorite regions and nobody in Sinnoh is memorable (except Crasher Wake), but this is the best way to possibly play through this region, even today. As much as I dislike Sinnoh, I'd still call Platinum version the fourth best Pokemon games Game Freak ever made. 8/10.
HeartGold/SoulSilver: The pinnacle of Game Freak Pokemon games. Not perfect, but pretty close. MOST of the issues from gen 2 were fixed (not the wild Pokemon level curve, though.) Bringing over the Battle Frontier from Platinum elevates them to greatness. As far as official Game Freak releases go, HG/SS is the Greatest of All Time. Pokemon will never do better than this. 9.5/10.
Black/White: Great storyline, but a LOT of downgrades in game mechanics from HG/SS. If you can ignore ALL the things Game Freak removed in Pokemon, beginning with Black and White, then you'll enjoy these games. Downgrades aside, I'd rank Black and White as the third best Pokemon titles of all time. 8.5/10.
Black 2/White 2: Same as the first games. The World Tournament is no replacement for the Battle Frontier and I personally think BW1 had a better storyline. They tried to cram too much crap into Unova with the sequels. I actually prefer the simplicity of B/W over the excessiveness of B2/W2, not to mention the originals had a much better campaign. 8/10.
X/Y: The first Pokemon games worth skipping entirely. Half-assed and incomplete, but definitely not the first Pokemon games like this. I also hate Mega Evolutions; I know I'm in the minority but Pokemon isn't Digimon... Regardless, if you remove Mega Evolutions, then absolutely nothing about Kalos is special or memorable to the series, as a whole. 5/10.
Z: Oh wait. We didn't get a Pokemon Z; literally the ONE time it would've benefitted the generation/region to have an expansion third game, and we didn't get one... (You know what? Screw it! Let's pretend there was a Pokemon Z after all!) Great game. Fixed the Kalos region. Added more Mega Evolutions; even if I don't like Mega Evolution. Expanded the region. Added a new post-game feature. Lets you be your own Gym Leader online. Created the Player Search feature. Really was the Kalos "Platinum upgrade" to the lame X and Y. Z/10.
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire: No Battle Frontier; literally not worth paying for. Plus, I hate Kalos; all they did here was ruin Hoenn and turn it into Kalos. Kalos was bad enough as it is; why destroy Hoenn too? I know some people like these remakes, but they're TERRIBLE, in my opinion. A Kalosfied version of Hoenn with nothing to fucking do after the main campaign. Unless you count that lame Delta Episode shit, I guess. I hate these remakes too, but mainly for the lack of a Battle Frontier and for ruining what originally made Hoenn memorable just to copy Kalos in everything. ONLY play these if you've NEVER played Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald before. 5.5/10.
Sun/Moon: Only recently played these. They're so-so; kinda basic. Far better than all of gen 6, at least. 7/10.
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon: Better than base Sun/Moon, but the originals' story was better. I don't care about the Ultra Space crap and Festival Plaza freakin' SUCKS! The PSS system in gen 6 is one of the few things they did right and they replaced it with that lame-ass Festival Plaza. At least they gave us Isle Evelup in exchange, so we can perfect EV all our Pokemon (yeah, I know it was in Sun and Moon, too.) That makes these games at least slightly better than base Sun and Moon, but if you've already played those, you're not getting much extra here. 7.5/10.
Nothing else after US/UM counts as canon. Pokemon ended with Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, in my mind.
They stopped making games and just continue to push out more merchandise. The Sword and Shield fan-made glitchy crap? What is that? And yeah, no gen 4 Sinnoh remakes. Probably for the best though; I doubt they would've made a respectable remake of Diamond/Pearl/Platinum for the Nintendo Switch. Good thing we never got one!
3RD BEST. Platinum, Black 2, and White 2. 8/10.
2ND BEST. Emerald, Black and White. 8.5/10.
BEST OFFICIAL POKEMON GAMES: HeartGold and SoulSilver. 9.5/10.
But... I'll quickly go through all of the "mandatory Exp. Share which breaks and ruins the fucking games completely" Nintendo Switch dogshit they released.
Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee: 3/10.
Sword and Shield: 4/10.
Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl: LITERALLY NOT EVEN FUCKING WORTH PIRATING. NEVER PLAY THESE FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT AND BURN THESE FUCKING GAMES FROM YOUR MEMORY. 0/10.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus: 5.5/10.
Scarlet and Violet: 4/10.
there doesn't seem to be anything here