New (I think) topic idea! Judge the game intro and title screens!
Red/Blue - I try very hard not to let nostalgia cloud my judgement here, but I think in terms of showing exactly what Pokémon is about and setting the mood, the original Red and Blue intro is pitch-perfect. When it then blends into the title screen and
dat music starts up, you know you're heading out on a grand adventure. For bonus points, the anime had
a great recreation of it that made the show seem so coooooool.
Yellow - No. Moving on...
Gold/Silver - Never liked it. While the very first time you fired it up it had a cool "oh man it looks like the cartoon!" vibe, the entire thing is an unfocused mess, with no sense of continuity in the visuals or the music. Actually quite a shame because I think that first shot with the Shellders at the bottom of the ocean slowly panning up is really cool. And I really have to challenge their choice of Pokémon to feature. Apart from the (brief) appearance of the three starters, they're all gen 1. I mean, why have Charizard as you epic title fade shot? Makes no damn sense.
However, the title screens are actually much better than gen I. They look gorgeous, even now. Wonderful sense of intelligent colour design about them, and the take on the main theme is nice. Unfortunately, as it doesn't mesh with the intro at all I just cannot give praise to Gold and Silver for this.
Crystal - oh my god that ditto turned into the GameFreak logo did you see that shit? And wonderful, wonderful stuff overall. Features only gen II Pokémon (wisely including a Pichu to replace Pikachu) and sets an ominous tone, hinting at what the story will be. It completely blows the Gold/Silver effort out of the water. Absolutely love it. I'm sure if I'd played this one back in the day I would have been all :O That title screen is also another really good take on the main theme. I actually think both the Gold and Silver title screens are better than the Crystal one, but as it's about how both the intro and title work together, Crystal is obviously the clear winner there.
Ruby/Sapphire - Stunning. Absolutely stunning. The dew drops on the leaves, slow pan up to a mysterious flying Pokémon zooming into the horizon, followed by an exciting bicycle chase (looks better in Ruby with the mountains in the background, btw. Sapphire's sea background is a bit boring). Just this single sequence is probably one of the best things to ever be in a Pokémon game. Which is why it is so disappointing when it suddenly shifts to a
very lazy Pokémon battle animation. The Red/Blue intro on the archaic gameboy looked better than what was achieved here. And after G/S/C's beautifully animated titles, the title screen here is just lazy. It's not even that great an arrangement of the main theme, either. What a waste.
Emerald - So take the elegant first half of the Ruby/Sapphire intro and throw a bunch of shit on top of it. GameFreak logo, now in letter-by-letter TRANSITION-O-VISION (omg!), that cycling intro now with four Pokémon fighting for screen time (so fly!), replace that lackluster, poorly-animated battle with a lackluster-poorly animated montage of the three story legendaries (so hype!), cap it all off with another really lazy title screen (stretch that dollar!) and you have Pokémon Emerald's intro!
FireRed/LeafGreen - Really hard to judge this one, to be honest. On the one hand, it's a good update to the classic intro, on the other hand, it's nowhere near as good as the first half of the Ruby/Sapphire intro and just seems a little lazy, all in all. Also, what's with the forest setting? For some reason I don't think it meshes with gengar at all. I mean, it looks nice and all but given the hardware I think they could have done more whilst still staying true to the original, minimalist intro, you know? On the upside, the title screen is a great improvement over Ruby/Sapphire, yet still lacks of the beauty of G/S/C. Also not a fan of the main theme arrangement here, either. So really I'd call this one
adequate.
Diamond/Pearl - Okay, that GameFreak logo? Wonderful. Sets the perfect tone for "Pokémon just hit the DS!". Then it just goes into a weak-ass montage, the only purpose of which seems to be "it looks just the same! But now in 3D! Isn't that just swell, guys?" before doing a really lazy walking animation with the boy and girl trainers with the starters. Like, if you're not going to bother to animate the thing properly, why even bother? Then, shot of A MOUNTAIN that looks scary but has zero context before fading into a title screen is actually quite a bit better than the R/S/E ones. I like the title theme, too. I mean, I get the impression they were going for this really ominous feel about the whole thing but like with Gold and Silver they failed by having an intro that was all over the place in terms of audio and visuals. The use of dual screen was also really lazy. Just a static logo up top? Why even bother? Weak overall.
Platinum - "Take what we did with Diamon and Pearl and make it good" is the brief I imagine the intro guys were handed this time around. The environment montage is kept brief, with some characters haphazardly thrown on top, but when we get to the trainers split across the two screens, both running, with the suggestion they're about to battle... my, it just looks so exciting, doesn't it? And instead of ominous scary mountain with zero context, we get an ominous man we can at least presume is the bad guy. People around these parts say Platinum is the only way to play gen IV. Judging by the intro screen, they may be right. Anyway, overall quite strong.
HeartGold/SuperiorSilver - If you're going to do an all-over-the-place intro like with Gold and Silver, I think what HG/SS does is probably the only way you could do it and make it work. It's not
brilliant, but it does the job it's supposed to. The environment montage is thankfully a lot quicker paced that it was in D/P/Pt, and the 2D art is vibrant. There's a severe lack of 2D animation, though, with the first half of R/S's intro still putting the rest of the series to shame. But then we get to the title screen, and I gotta say it is ugly. I hate those 3D models of Lugia and Ho-Oh. They look so amateur. This is counter-balanced by it having the first decent arrangement of the main theme since the GBC days. So, uh, I dunno. Bit of a mixed bag this one, really. Decent, not special.
Black/White - I think in many ways we could say that B/W was - well, not a reboot - but definitely a conscious 'new beginning' of the Pokémon series, and I really think this intro captures it. Ignoring how it's entirely confined to one screen (booooooo!), the intro begins with a beautiful, ominous (and, until you beat the game, slightly confusing) hand-drawn sequence that highlights the greater emphasis on plot this installment brings. It sets
the tone, guys! Then explodes into a fast-paced game footage highlight real showing off so many of the new features in such a short amount of time. Honestly, I love it. Really effective. This then fades into a title screen that has an actually-decent 3D model and yet again another decent arrangement of the main theme (seriously, why was it so difficult on the GBA?). Very good indeed.
Because this is NeoGAF I'm now going to have to rank them.
Crystal > Red/Blue > Black/White > Platinum > FireRed/LeafGreen > Ruby/Sapphire > HeartGold/SoulSilver > Diamond/Pearl > Emerald > Gold/Silver >>>>>>> Yellow
However, if I get to split the Ruby/Sapphire intro in half, the first half is the best overall and the second half would come after FireRed/LeafGreen. I'm not allowed to do this however because
it's about how the intro and title screen work together to really set the tone.
Now feel free to let me know you've already all discussed this and I just wasted half an hour typing that all up.