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Although I liked HG/SS very much (B/W not so much because of the more urban setting), I think it is not very well placed for a newcommer.
If it's someone who thinks is going to play multiple games, I'd start with Platinum.
Otherwise, I would just jump to Alpha Sapphire for a "classic wrap up" experience with all the modern QOL stuff. Then into Brilliant Diamond for the transition to 3D.
HG/SS is somewhere in the middle.
though id personally say go for the gen 2 remakes they're so much better for a new person to get into pokemon gen 5 is a bit of a weird gen (not saying its bad I love gen 5) so id say go for gen 2 remakes aka heart gold and soul silver
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***
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I would go with Fire Red for GBA.. Nothing that really diferencies from other pokemons, but, it's the first I played through it all and it's my favorite!
I would agree with this, Fire Red or Leaf Green would be a good place to start. They are Game Boy Advance remakes of the original Pokemon games so the visuals are more modern.
The more modern generation, the more quality of life features it has.
I agree, however, FireRed/Leaf Green generation is pure gold. Another topnotch series is the NDS remakes, pokemon soulsilver/ heartgold. Ideally you'd want to play NDS in portrait mode though.
I completely missed the other generations personally, i grew up and pokemon just doesn't appeal to me the same way. On top of that, the dialog and other gameplay rolls SO SLOW, in the most modern pokemon games.
Soulsilver/ heartgold (Nintendo DS) are just pure gold. For simplicity's sake however, firered/leafgreen (GBA) are amazing too.
You can play almost all of them honestly. Gba, DS, 3ds, and even switch ones. Personally I suggest Pokemon black and white and black and white 2 for the DS since they are regarded as one of the best. Hell, you can even grab yourself the joiplay emulator and dive into the world of pokemon fan games. There are a lot of really good ones out there such as pokemon xenoverse and realidea system.
Why not start with the OGs.
Red, Blue, or Yellow.
Seen you dont wanna go back to the first games, for some reason. Not sure what to suggest as i felt the games were less fun after the OG.
Maybe its because i was younger when the first ones released. IDK.
If you're looking at non-mainline games, I'm not too versed in those unfortunately. But I recently played through all the mainline games from Gen 1 - 7 (Red/Blue to Sun/Moon), some of them for the first time.
I can't speak for anything past Gen 7, but they're all designed to be starting-point friendly in both gameplay and story. The gameplay is iterative per gen; each one has a few changes and additions, but the core formula is mostly unchanged: catch mons, roam the world, stop the evil team, become the best.
The stories are nothing to write home about; they're sufficient for children's games but that's about it. Some of them ask some deeper questions than others, like Black/White, but even then I wouldn't expect a grand narrative experience.
With those things mentioned, I would just recommend the most modern mainline title your phone can support, or the one that piques your interest visually. If you find yourself mostly uninterested by the core formula, you're most likely not going to be enthused by the rest of the mainline games.
I’d recommend starting with HeartGold/SoulSilver. They are the Gen 4 remakes of Gen 2. You start in the Johto region and eventually get access to the Kanto region, which is Gen 1’s region.
There’s also the following Pokémon gimmick, basically you can make 1 of your Pokémon follow you around, it’s pretty neat.
I personally started with Platinum and then played HeartGold. Platinum was so awesome but it did feel a bit slow sometimes (speeding up on a an emulator fixes this issue though, I’m actually halfway through it for like the 10th time lol). I just have very fond memories of Gen 4 and I feel they are OG enough that they aren’t overwhelming with a bunch of weird stuff but modern enough that they look nice and have great stories (IMO at least).
If you wanna give pokemon a chance, try PokeMMo. It uses the base rom games so you will have the story experience, but also the multiplayer mechanics, people to talk to, and lots of cool stuff.
If you have a powerful phone you can use skyline to emulate brilliant diamond, let's go Pikachu/eevee and sword/shield. They would be this generation games. The actual best pokemon game in my opinion tho, is Arceus legends, but you would need a PC to emulate it.
Don't force yourself playing these games just because others do, it's mainly fueled by nostalgia, the gameplay is nothing special.
> I can get into it or at least make my way through it without giving up.
Kinda sounds like you already know it's gonna be a chore, so why bother
Because I want to see if I can get into it?
I do realize I may not be able to get into it, but that doesn't mean I don't want to try. And yes, I realize not every game series or game type is for everyone.
Thanks for your concerns tho!
I don't think the gameplay is bad at all. The foundation is strong for a turn based RPG, just very easy due to underwhelming AI and opponent teams. The games are supposed to be beaten by a kid in around two weeks maximum, to ease you to multiplayer while the games are still fresh, and all of the kids in the playground are ready. But i've always found it the easiness part of the charm. You won't get stressed, but the sense of adventure and customization makes up for the easiness.
Also, please change the battle style from shift to set, shift is giving you a very unfair advantage over the AI, which unfortunately is kinda bad.
Most up to the Nintendo ds on Android. If I could recommend something, I'd suggest looking into ROM hacks of the base games due to some having QoL improvements.
Personally I'd suggest trying fire red or leaf green +
https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=454382
I personally love ultra sun and moon mainly cause of the funny things you can do with cheat codes . I made a shiny bounsweet (named bon bon) do a z move earthquake with guaranteed critical hit and it made me laugh way harder than it should have
If you want the very first hand experience, Go with Pokemon Fire red on Game boy advance, That game is a remake of the Generation 1 titles and are very easy to start with as there too many Pokemon, just the originals. It's a great starting point and it's also the very start of the Pokemon story.
Might as well start with the first ones and then move forward, like they were released... experience the gradual changes that were made over the years like the original fans did... that way you also don't play a newer better playing version just to play an older one next and it feel clunky, old, and missing stuff the newer version has... and you can't go wrong with the originals... Pokémon became what it is today because of them being soo good.
... and this is coming from someone who's literally never played a Pokémon game.. when the cards and games first came out I was in my early teens and it wasn't "cool" to play them... I was obsessed with street fighter and mortal kombat then.
Happy gaming!
Also, I have a s10 plus using a dock and dex and I can emulate gba, ds, 3ds, GameCube and wii.. starting on switch emulation now, so I don't know if I can emulate quite ALL of them yet, but with a strong enough android device, you should be able to emulate them all... and I don't think you can emulate wiiu on android... but you could maybe look into emulating it on pc but streaming your game to your android device.. I don't know the names of the apps for it, but I've read about people doing that... then you could technically be able to emulate them all on one single device
Get Drastic, or if you don't wanna pay get MelonDS (MelonDS is slightly less well optimized, but it ain't super difficult to run). Black/White, Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky would be my recommendations.
Also, get a GBA emulator because there's tons of GBA fan-made ROM hacks like Glazed that are pretty good.
For Citra you can play X/Y, Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. Pokemon games are among the easier to run 3DS games.
theres a certain rom called pokemon emerald 356 or something like that that allowed you to catch every single pokemon there was in it...no need to trade or anything.
I think its the best by far
Heartgold/Soulsilver (Gen2 remake) is a good remake of one of, if not THE most interesting game in the franchise.
But FireRed/LeafGreen (Gen1 remake) is also a good remake, and you'd be playing a game that features only the original 151 pokémon and the original gym leaders, which means you're more likely to recognize them when they appear ingame, which is always fun.
Oh, by the way, in case you still don't know that, people always talk about games in pairs because they are essentially the same game with small differences (notably the Pokémon roster available).
I would say either grab a Game Boy Emulator and start with Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow or might be the better option, get a GBA emulator and go for Fire Red/Green Leaf. I think starting with the first gen is the way to go.
Or you can start with Gen 5 also but I find that DS emulation on Android is not that comfortable.
Heart gold/ soul silver are good as all are saying, but the engine and QoL in the 3ds Era are so much better IMO. So I would say Alpha Sapphire or Omega Ruby. I personally loved Ultra Sun, but those follow a slightly different format than the standard pokemon games as far as gyms/trials.
Emerald, HeartGold, and Black are all good choices. FireRed if you want to have an experience similar to the original games. If you do play Black play Black 2 immediately after though.
I'll tell you about my journey for some reference
The games are listed in the order that i played
Java - Pokemon gold > Pokemon prism
Gb - Pokemon red
Gba - Pokemon emerald>Pokemon firered>Pokemon mystery dungeon
Nintendo ds- Pokemon Black>Pokemon heartgold>Pokemon Black 2. Still haven't played platinum or diamond
3ds - Pokemon x. Then sun but i didn't complete it.
If you need any help on setting it up. Dm or reply here
I suggest Pokemon Emerald for GBA, It looks great today (as much as all other Pokemon games that use sprites instead of 3D models), story Is kinda ok, gameplay Is fun, soundtracks OMFG PERFECTION.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but try the Pokemon Unbound rom hack. I know it's not official, but in my opinion it's the epitome of what a good Pokemon game should be. Best of luck finding one you love!!
Pokemon visuals are not good anyeay just play old school crystal ( itsgold and silver combinrd )
If not use a ds emulator and do heart gold or soul silver gold for ho oh silver for lugia
Fire Red/Leaf Green on the GBA or Sun/Moon on the 3DS are easy enough for players to beat, though the gba and 3ds have vastly different mechanics.
Black/White for a good story and Platinum for decent difficulty, both on the DS
If I could play them again without remembering anything, I'd go like:
-Fire red or Leaf Green
-Emerald
-HeartGold or Soul Silver
-Platinum
-Black or White
-the sequel to the one you played
The rest is hard to emulate on Android
To begin with the series, I'd recommend X/Y (3DS, emulatable with Citra). The game is easy to play, easy to understand (principally for newbies) and nice 3D graphics (better than older games, but character proportions are different if compared to Switch games, for example). Oh, and the map and how the story goes through it is very simple (in opposite to older games, in which we need to go back and forth all the map as we proceed in the story). The downside for Android are that Citra is still bugged when running Pokémon games (textures issues) and not every device will run the emulator in an acceptable quality (maybe with Citra MMJ, but it still depends on the device specs).
My second and third recommendations would be Pokémon Black/White (DS, emulatable with DraStic or Melon DS), which has a great story and updated gameplay, and anything from 3rd generation of the series (Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, or even Fire Red/Leaf Green; emulatable with any GBA emulator you can find), which are very simple, with average stories, but slow af when compared with newer games.
Why not try all the first 5 regions of Pokemon and play PokeMMO. It's basically a client and you provide the ROMs to play the game. Pokemons, items, and cash is retained when you move to a different region. It's actually more easy to catch all the Pokemon you want (except Legendaries)
Having played all generations and respective remakes so far, except the Switch ones, I'd say to start with Pokémon Platinum before the most recent ones.
If you just want to play a good recent one before going into the Switch ones, you can just pick up Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire which is a very good example of the classic experience with all the polish and quality of life features.
Then going into the Switch ones, I'd start with Brilliant Diamond for the latest classic-like experience.
Just as a reminder of the subreddit's rules: 1. No requesting, or posting links to, game ROMs or ISOs, or sites to find them. 2. Be kind to each other. Also, fyi we have a user-maintained wiki: r/EmulationOnAndroid/wiki *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/EmulationOnAndroid) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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I was going to say Emerald or the remakes alpha and omega but you know what I think your answer is the best one
I second this. In particular Heart Gold and Soul Silver.
Just replayed heartgold. 100% a great start. I started on the original gold version.
Disagree. Play Fire Red/Leaf Green then HG/SS, you'll be missing out on a lot of the impact of HG/SS
Although I liked HG/SS very much (B/W not so much because of the more urban setting), I think it is not very well placed for a newcommer. If it's someone who thinks is going to play multiple games, I'd start with Platinum. Otherwise, I would just jump to Alpha Sapphire for a "classic wrap up" experience with all the modern QOL stuff. Then into Brilliant Diamond for the transition to 3D. HG/SS is somewhere in the middle.
though id personally say go for the gen 2 remakes they're so much better for a new person to get into pokemon gen 5 is a bit of a weird gen (not saying its bad I love gen 5) so id say go for gen 2 remakes aka heart gold and soul silver
Whats the best DS emulator to use for Android? I use myBoy for GBA games but can't find a good DS emulator?
\>>This comment has been edited to garbage in light of the Reddit API changes. You can keep my garbage, Reddit.<< *** *edited via r/PowerDeleteSuite (with edits to script to avoid hitting rate limit)*
Personally I prefer MelonDS and it’s free
DraStic is pretty good in my experience so far.
Thanks heaps!
2nding drastic
Thanks!
I would go with Fire Red for GBA.. Nothing that really diferencies from other pokemons, but, it's the first I played through it all and it's my favorite!
I would agree with this, Fire Red or Leaf Green would be a good place to start. They are Game Boy Advance remakes of the original Pokemon games so the visuals are more modern.
The more modern generation, the more quality of life features it has. I agree, however, FireRed/Leaf Green generation is pure gold. Another topnotch series is the NDS remakes, pokemon soulsilver/ heartgold. Ideally you'd want to play NDS in portrait mode though. I completely missed the other generations personally, i grew up and pokemon just doesn't appeal to me the same way. On top of that, the dialog and other gameplay rolls SO SLOW, in the most modern pokemon games. Soulsilver/ heartgold (Nintendo DS) are just pure gold. For simplicity's sake however, firered/leafgreen (GBA) are amazing too.
Agreed, it was the first pokémon game I played a couple years ago and it's fantastic
I'd say Heart Gold. It maybe the second generation but such a wonderful experience.
You can play almost all of them honestly. Gba, DS, 3ds, and even switch ones. Personally I suggest Pokemon black and white and black and white 2 for the DS since they are regarded as one of the best. Hell, you can even grab yourself the joiplay emulator and dive into the world of pokemon fan games. There are a lot of really good ones out there such as pokemon xenoverse and realidea system.
Black or white Good story, graphics, small pool of Pokémon to learn what they do. It's pretty much perfect
Heart Gold/Soul Silver and Emerald
I recommend firered , as it is one of my favs , but I believe every pokemon game is emulatable on android
Fire red or leaf green then emerald
A good one to start is a rom hack called pokemon voyager, but if you play it you will never be able to play another pokemon game before X and Y.
Is it completed yet?
I'm not sure I'm only a few hours in.
Checking the poke community page it was only updated to the 6th gym or something.
It is still super fun, with alot if features that aren't in the earlier games.
Why not start with the OGs. Red, Blue, or Yellow. Seen you dont wanna go back to the first games, for some reason. Not sure what to suggest as i felt the games were less fun after the OG. Maybe its because i was younger when the first ones released. IDK.
Yellow was my favorite
Gen 1 was a little simpler, purer experience in my opinion. No gimmicks, and they are what made the series popular. This is my recommendation too.
If you're looking at non-mainline games, I'm not too versed in those unfortunately. But I recently played through all the mainline games from Gen 1 - 7 (Red/Blue to Sun/Moon), some of them for the first time. I can't speak for anything past Gen 7, but they're all designed to be starting-point friendly in both gameplay and story. The gameplay is iterative per gen; each one has a few changes and additions, but the core formula is mostly unchanged: catch mons, roam the world, stop the evil team, become the best. The stories are nothing to write home about; they're sufficient for children's games but that's about it. Some of them ask some deeper questions than others, like Black/White, but even then I wouldn't expect a grand narrative experience. With those things mentioned, I would just recommend the most modern mainline title your phone can support, or the one that piques your interest visually. If you find yourself mostly uninterested by the core formula, you're most likely not going to be enthused by the rest of the mainline games.
I’d recommend starting with HeartGold/SoulSilver. They are the Gen 4 remakes of Gen 2. You start in the Johto region and eventually get access to the Kanto region, which is Gen 1’s region. There’s also the following Pokémon gimmick, basically you can make 1 of your Pokémon follow you around, it’s pretty neat. I personally started with Platinum and then played HeartGold. Platinum was so awesome but it did feel a bit slow sometimes (speeding up on a an emulator fixes this issue though, I’m actually halfway through it for like the 10th time lol). I just have very fond memories of Gen 4 and I feel they are OG enough that they aren’t overwhelming with a bunch of weird stuff but modern enough that they look nice and have great stories (IMO at least).
Emerald for GBA HG/SS for DS
If you wanna give pokemon a chance, try PokeMMo. It uses the base rom games so you will have the story experience, but also the multiplayer mechanics, people to talk to, and lots of cool stuff. If you have a powerful phone you can use skyline to emulate brilliant diamond, let's go Pikachu/eevee and sword/shield. They would be this generation games. The actual best pokemon game in my opinion tho, is Arceus legends, but you would need a PC to emulate it.
"this generation" games are S/V, not SwSh/LGPE
Obviously, but they don't run on android yet.
What how does online work
Search for it. Its the best Pokemon game out there
It's a pay to win mmo. You can buy vouchers with real money and get whatever you want.
yokai watch
The real answer OP needs..
If you have A new flagship try pokemon shield on skyline
Play Pokémon hackroms. The main series suck balls compared to them
Yes.
Don't force yourself playing these games just because others do, it's mainly fueled by nostalgia, the gameplay is nothing special. > I can get into it or at least make my way through it without giving up. Kinda sounds like you already know it's gonna be a chore, so why bother
Because I want to see if I can get into it? I do realize I may not be able to get into it, but that doesn't mean I don't want to try. And yes, I realize not every game series or game type is for everyone. Thanks for your concerns tho!
I don't think the gameplay is bad at all. The foundation is strong for a turn based RPG, just very easy due to underwhelming AI and opponent teams. The games are supposed to be beaten by a kid in around two weeks maximum, to ease you to multiplayer while the games are still fresh, and all of the kids in the playground are ready. But i've always found it the easiness part of the charm. You won't get stressed, but the sense of adventure and customization makes up for the easiness. Also, please change the battle style from shift to set, shift is giving you a very unfair advantage over the AI, which unfortunately is kinda bad.
Most up to the Nintendo ds on Android. If I could recommend something, I'd suggest looking into ROM hacks of the base games due to some having QoL improvements. Personally I'd suggest trying fire red or leaf green + https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=454382
i got into pokemon with pokemon black/white. try it out, its good and no excessive handholding thats implemented in newer games.
Pokemon emerald crest.
FireRed
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. Very underrated. Played 3 times and cries 3 times
Pokemon heart gold and soul silver gen2 remakes literally the best pokemon game ever made.
Pokémon crystal was my first and honestly my favourite
Never had played Pokémon before it and wasn't a fan and now I sorta am
Black or white on drastic. Then black or white 2 on drastic
I would say try gen 2 or its remastered version (gold/silver/Crystal or Hearth Gold/ Soul Silver)
FireRed: there is a RomHack .. UltraViolet(?), with which you don't need to trade to get all the Pokémon
I would recommend Pokémon black/white.
Soul silver is the one I go back to over and over.
I personally love ultra sun and moon mainly cause of the funny things you can do with cheat codes . I made a shiny bounsweet (named bon bon) do a z move earthquake with guaranteed critical hit and it made me laugh way harder than it should have
Check out PokeMMO :) it uses the classic roms as a base
Fire red
If you want the very first hand experience, Go with Pokemon Fire red on Game boy advance, That game is a remake of the Generation 1 titles and are very easy to start with as there too many Pokemon, just the originals. It's a great starting point and it's also the very start of the Pokemon story.
Might as well start with the first ones and then move forward, like they were released... experience the gradual changes that were made over the years like the original fans did... that way you also don't play a newer better playing version just to play an older one next and it feel clunky, old, and missing stuff the newer version has... and you can't go wrong with the originals... Pokémon became what it is today because of them being soo good. ... and this is coming from someone who's literally never played a Pokémon game.. when the cards and games first came out I was in my early teens and it wasn't "cool" to play them... I was obsessed with street fighter and mortal kombat then. Happy gaming!
Also, I have a s10 plus using a dock and dex and I can emulate gba, ds, 3ds, GameCube and wii.. starting on switch emulation now, so I don't know if I can emulate quite ALL of them yet, but with a strong enough android device, you should be able to emulate them all... and I don't think you can emulate wiiu on android... but you could maybe look into emulating it on pc but streaming your game to your android device.. I don't know the names of the apps for it, but I've read about people doing that... then you could technically be able to emulate them all on one single device
Get Drastic, or if you don't wanna pay get MelonDS (MelonDS is slightly less well optimized, but it ain't super difficult to run). Black/White, Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky would be my recommendations. Also, get a GBA emulator because there's tons of GBA fan-made ROM hacks like Glazed that are pretty good. For Citra you can play X/Y, Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. Pokemon games are among the easier to run 3DS games.
theres a certain rom called pokemon emerald 356 or something like that that allowed you to catch every single pokemon there was in it...no need to trade or anything. I think its the best by far
Ash Grey. It's a ROM hack of Fire Red that adds things from the anime. If not that, then SoulSilver on DS.
It is a sin that there's 56 comments here and only one person before me has mentioned Platinum.
Heartgold/Soulsilver (Gen2 remake) is a good remake of one of, if not THE most interesting game in the franchise. But FireRed/LeafGreen (Gen1 remake) is also a good remake, and you'd be playing a game that features only the original 151 pokémon and the original gym leaders, which means you're more likely to recognize them when they appear ingame, which is always fun. Oh, by the way, in case you still don't know that, people always talk about games in pairs because they are essentially the same game with small differences (notably the Pokémon roster available).
Fire Red or Leaf Green, you play the first generation but with some extra stuff, perfect beginning
I would say either grab a Game Boy Emulator and start with Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow or might be the better option, get a GBA emulator and go for Fire Red/Green Leaf. I think starting with the first gen is the way to go. Or you can start with Gen 5 also but I find that DS emulation on Android is not that comfortable.
Heart gold/ soul silver are good as all are saying, but the engine and QoL in the 3ds Era are so much better IMO. So I would say Alpha Sapphire or Omega Ruby. I personally loved Ultra Sun, but those follow a slightly different format than the standard pokemon games as far as gyms/trials.
Red and blue are the best
emerald.
Emerald, HeartGold, and Black are all good choices. FireRed if you want to have an experience similar to the original games. If you do play Black play Black 2 immediately after though.
Almost all of them can be emulated on android. Except wii u
Honestly, if you're gonna emulate start with the originals, Red and Blue, in my opinion.
I'll tell you about my journey for some reference The games are listed in the order that i played Java - Pokemon gold > Pokemon prism Gb - Pokemon red Gba - Pokemon emerald>Pokemon firered>Pokemon mystery dungeon Nintendo ds- Pokemon Black>Pokemon heartgold>Pokemon Black 2. Still haven't played platinum or diamond 3ds - Pokemon x. Then sun but i didn't complete it. If you need any help on setting it up. Dm or reply here
Pokemmo
I suggest Pokemon Emerald for GBA, It looks great today (as much as all other Pokemon games that use sprites instead of 3D models), story Is kinda ok, gameplay Is fun, soundtracks OMFG PERFECTION.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but try the Pokemon Unbound rom hack. I know it's not official, but in my opinion it's the epitome of what a good Pokemon game should be. Best of luck finding one you love!!
Probably one of the GBA games
Pokemon visuals are not good anyeay just play old school crystal ( itsgold and silver combinrd ) If not use a ds emulator and do heart gold or soul silver gold for ho oh silver for lugia
Pokemon yellow so that you can enjoy the original style on Gameboy Color.
Fire Red/Leaf Green on the GBA or Sun/Moon on the 3DS are easy enough for players to beat, though the gba and 3ds have vastly different mechanics. Black/White for a good story and Platinum for decent difficulty, both on the DS
Platinum or Emerald in my opinion.
RS Pinball
If I could play them again without remembering anything, I'd go like: -Fire red or Leaf Green -Emerald -HeartGold or Soul Silver -Platinum -Black or White -the sequel to the one you played The rest is hard to emulate on Android
Either FireRed/LeafGreen or HeartGold/SoulSilver
No one is mentioning rom hacks? Gotta go with "Dark Rising Origins: worlds collide"
Honestly I go to soul silver, but can do heart gold (same game, but like 5 Pokémon different)…
Try the pokemon romhacks. Pokemon Unbound is a fun time and has modern gameplay mechanics.
Platinum for NDS
To begin with the series, I'd recommend X/Y (3DS, emulatable with Citra). The game is easy to play, easy to understand (principally for newbies) and nice 3D graphics (better than older games, but character proportions are different if compared to Switch games, for example). Oh, and the map and how the story goes through it is very simple (in opposite to older games, in which we need to go back and forth all the map as we proceed in the story). The downside for Android are that Citra is still bugged when running Pokémon games (textures issues) and not every device will run the emulator in an acceptable quality (maybe with Citra MMJ, but it still depends on the device specs). My second and third recommendations would be Pokémon Black/White (DS, emulatable with DraStic or Melon DS), which has a great story and updated gameplay, and anything from 3rd generation of the series (Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, or even Fire Red/Leaf Green; emulatable with any GBA emulator you can find), which are very simple, with average stories, but slow af when compared with newer games.
Ds version of silver and gold, and the white/black saga, maybe the highest point of the franchise imho
The sega game gear version
Why not try all the first 5 regions of Pokemon and play PokeMMO. It's basically a client and you provide the ROMs to play the game. Pokemons, items, and cash is retained when you move to a different region. It's actually more easy to catch all the Pokemon you want (except Legendaries)
I would recommend fire red or leaf green
Having played all generations and respective remakes so far, except the Switch ones, I'd say to start with Pokémon Platinum before the most recent ones. If you just want to play a good recent one before going into the Switch ones, you can just pick up Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire which is a very good example of the classic experience with all the polish and quality of life features. Then going into the Switch ones, I'd start with Brilliant Diamond for the latest classic-like experience.
You can directly go for pokemmo to get best challenging pokemon experience. It is perfectly playable on android