Hell, Gen 5 deserves credit alone for being the 1st game in the series to have unlimited TM uses.
I'm personally not a fan of the "impractical/ridiculous design" argument that some fans (typically genwunners) seem to have. These spergs shit all over Pokemon like Vanilluxe (who I love for being adorable and hilarious btw) and Emboar for being dumb, but Pokemon like Muk the shit monster and Mr. Fucking Mime are acceptable and totally believable. I'm just happy we continue to get new games every few years.
Gen 6 elitists are dumber than a bag of hammers tbh. I remember reading this thread on Reddit years ago when X/Y first came out, and these mongoloids were claiming X/Y was the best in the series because the other games were too hard. I don't remember the exact quote, but they claimed the previous games were far too hard because "experience was a finite resource" and "the gym leaders were unforgiving." I remember those 2 phrases specifically because me and my friend couldn't stop laughing for days after we read that shit.
Vanillite and Trubbish aren't the problem. The problem comes not with the
number of ugly designs, but where in the Dex they're placed and what roles they play.
One of the big reasons Emboar is a mistake is because it's a starter, aka one of the faces of its generation. All three starters in general were lambasted for their unoriginal typings (worst in Emboar's case) and poor competitive worth, especially since their Hidden Abilities weren't released in their actual debut gen while most of the other starters got theirs. Similarly, with the elemental monkeys, they come really early in the game and waste six Dex slots with their bad stats and identical designs. Most of the early-game Pokémon aren't well-regarded, the slightly better ones (Excadrill, Krookodile) come roughly mid-game, and the designs that everyone praises (the dragons, the legendaries, Volcarona, Golurk, Bisharp, Braviary) come really late in the game.
While you can make a case for XY being notable/good games because of the mechanical and gameplay changes they brought and because of their Pokédex and well-designed new Pokémon, the case you described (where people praised them because they weren't "too hard") is just stupid, and the kind of thing we're looking for here.
the card game? that shit cycles out every few sets. any card devalues as the game goes on and they bring out new cards with old pokemon all the time... dont stick to generations... it has nothing to do with generations...
Two things:
-Base Set Charizard was never playable.
-Base Set Charizard still fetches hundreds of dollars on eBay.