Does anyone else still play Pokemon?

[Mai Valentine]

Despite its terrible performance, I found Pokemon Scarlet/Violet to be probably my favorite Pokemon game ever. The characters were great, the story was good, the music was amazing, the new Pokemon are awesome, and the DLC only added to it and made it even more fun. They made hunting shinies more fun, and it's so much easier to hatch eggs and EV train than previous games.

The only real critique I have is that the gym leaders should have scaled with the level of the player; and obviously the performance issues are not great (although honestly the people who complained about having problems the most were mostly the same people who manipulated save data for egg hatching).

I also played Pokemon Sword, but I found that one incredibly boring in the base game. It was saved a lot by good DLC.

Then there was Pokemon Legends Arceus, which I also absolutely loved. The catch mechanic is so much fun.

I still kind of want to play Let's Go Eevee/Pikachu but haven't had a chance to get it yet.

And finally I also have Pokemon Shining Pearl. I never played Platinum and it has been so long since I played the original D/P that playing Shining Pearl was like playing a new game, so I didn't have any issues with it.

[retro junkie]

I have went back and started, trying, to collect the original Gameboy Pokemon games, and playing. I, for some reason, am finding them more enjoyable. Something about the simplicity and strategy of those older games. I have been playing my Gameboy Pocket and this has kept that feeling and gaming alive. I have Shield for the Switch. That game is what caused me to want to go back to the originals and try them again. OI have several for the DS and 3DS.

[Mai Valentine]

I unfortunately had to sell most of my retro games when I was going through a financial hardship, so the only older Pokemon games I still have are Black and Black 2, and the digital version of Pokemon Sun on my 3DS. Luckily I had already put most of my older gen Pokemon into Black 2 and was able to transfer my Pokemon into Pokemon Home so I have a mostly full living Dex (missing a few mythicals like Zarude and Hoopa because I wasn't playing when they were distributed).

Personally it's hard for me to go back for older Pokemon games just because of the HM system. Needing a Pokemon for Cut, Flash, Rock Smash, Surf, Waterfall, Fly, etc limits what kind of team you can build, or makes you have to switch Pokemon out constantly which can be inconvenient if you're not near a Pokecenter to access the PC.

In gen 7 you had ride Pokemon which did all of the HMs for you, and the newer games have a similar set up. The Switch games also allow you to access your box from anywhere which is a huge QoL improvement.

[Bomber Man]

I have been playing more of the ds/3ds games because I skipped most of the switch Pokemon games. I am still trying to get into violet though.

I will say gen 7 feels really underrated 

[targetrasp]

The price of entry is too steep for me on the older Pokemon stuff. I wasn't interested in it when it first came out and really never jumped in until X and Y. I've been collecting them when I can find them and they're not a fortune (so far only found Pokemon Emerald and the Colosseum bonus disk). I've played most since xy and really enjoyed Arceus the most so far.