A big uptick in quality from gen 3. Some good design choices and surprisingly good music. One of the best versions of Pokemon.

This is where I completely lost interest in the series. Its even more on-rails than ever before. It has even more Pokemon so it is now impossible for anyone who isn't a fanatic to remember them all. It's just too much to sustain itself especially when the core mechanics haven't changed nearly enough.

While the story side of things was beginning to appeal to me less and less, this was the generation in which I started to seriously get into the competitive side of things, so it lopsidedly earns a high rating.

Starting to jump the sharpedo with the series.

This is where my interest in Pokemon began to wane because, well, they're all the same thing over and over. It had started to feel like a cash cow at this point.

This is the only non-remake Pokemon game since the original Red/Blue that I actually completed all the way through to the Elite Four and final battle. I'm not sure if it's a legitimately better game than the ones before or since or if it just came out at a perfect time in my life when I was a bit bored and could carry a Nintendo DS around with me everywhere. My Infernape could kick some ass.

maybe I was just too old (14) to enjoy these for what they were upon release, but my memory is that they were clunky and awkward, with the new Pokemon feeling forced for the first time in the series. the new features took of advantage of the DS in few meaningful ways, with the additions being largely superficial. It's possible my inability to remember much leaves me unqualified to rate this, but it's more likely that the games themselves just aren't memorable enough to leave an impression.