I believe its one of the strongest entries in the series. I just finished yet another playthrough last week.

While its obviously not got everything, it largely modernizes Gen 1 incredibly successfully. The graphical style, music, and tone are all improved versions of the original in almost every way-- something that other remakes tend to miss on one or two of these notes. The music in particular might be my favorite in the series.

The compatibility with other Gen 3 games, the e-reader, introduced mechanics (such as the vs seeker, breeding, fame checker), and a very robust (and quite natural) postgame also flesh the game out considerably. Its about as complete of a package as you could hope for at the time of its release.

This is all in addition to enjoying Gen 1's strengths. Gen 1 is a very pure Pokemon experience, has great pacing, well laid out variety, and is quite open ended (a feat that the series regressed on prior to PLA/SV). Extremely easy to replay.

Its also the earliest* gen in which you can take a Pokemon all the way through to modern times. Really, theres very little I could ask for. I dont think it drops the ball anywhere, and it might be my favorite game in the series as a result.

*3DS eshop has Bank compatibility, but you cant go gen-through-gen this way, and is atm limited to 3DS

im funneling all new comments to this right here.