LavaLord Ranks the 57 Pokemon Game Cities

LavaLord compiled this list from April to June in 2008.

Pokemon games included in this list are:
 * Pokemon Diamond and Pearl
 * Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal
 * Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow

The List
57: Mossdeep City

Ah, how I remember the days of Ruby and Sapphire. This was the one place I utterly loathed coming to. Double battles with psychic opponents? So annoying. Then there's the chain of rumors about that rock outside the Space Center and Jirachi, I didn't believe them but they were a pain to sort through on the boards.

It's a decent city, fairly large population and a few interesting things, but nothing saves it from the sheer level of annoyance it provided.

56: The Under

I know what you're probably thinking, what's the Under? It's one of the towns in the Orre region, not one of the nice handheld targeted regions but the source for some of the console games. The Under is a "town" in that it's the place where a group of miners decided to stay after the mines were tapped out. It has only one real feature, the Under Colosseum, which isn't enough to save it for its severe lack of truly noteworthy features.

55: Twinleaf Town

A default town like any other. Oh wait, it doesn't even have the lab, why is there no lab here? Only one exit from the town, with a noted lack of a surfing route to get away. The only reason it's this high is the closeness to Lake Verity, and for your crackhead rival that lives next door.

54: Sandgem Town

I hate it when something working gets split up, it wrecks any band it happens to and doesn't do much better for the beginning of the fourth generation. Go ahead, say it. I'm a traditionalist, I think change is a bad thing until it's shown fully that it is a good thing. Splitting up the starting town into two towns, one of which is highly mediocre and the other just really the lab and a house you don't live in wasn't one of my favorite moves. That said, Sandgem is a fairly unique, if personally unfavorable, course to take. Will they make this change stick in the fifth generation or go back? Only time will tell.

53: Pyrite Town

Another random city in the Orre region, what does it have? It has trash on the ground, and everything is rusty. What do I see in this place? It starts off with actual criminals in it. Not the, "I'ma steal your pokemanz" type criminals only, people actually are crooks in the town. I'd call that a fairly good reason to bump it up, even if it cleans up later.

52: Gateon Port

As you've probably guessed by now, I really didn't enjoy the console games much. Gateon Port was one of the more agreeable towns to me from the pair though. I did enjoy the Robo-Kyogre and appreciate the ability to get a Lugia in Gen 3 and 4 thanks to the access Gateon Port grants to Citadark Island. Overall, my favorite thing about Gateon Port is definitely Mr. Verich, you'll know why once you reach the end of XD.

51: Goldenrod City

Let's face it, Goldenrod itself was hella awesome for what it was. It had the radio station back when that meant something, it was pretty good sized, it had a department store, it even had the magnet train station. It was the first normal type gym in the series, and showed that flower gardening could be stuffed into any game. Why is it this low then? One word is all the answer you need. Miltank

50: Pacifidlog Town

Yes, I've checked the spelling multiple times just to be sure, anyways it's not as annoying to me as most feel it is. It's a mostly empty raft town. Why do I rate it above several others? Because I actually saw Mirage Island, albeit only for about 30 minutes but I was still there. It's a small town, and honestly not much to see, but at least you get an immensely hopeless opportunity through it so it's worth something.

49: Phenac City

We get it now, I don't like Orre. The city is acceptable as far as designs go, though overall the "Gem of the desert" scenario has been played out too well in all kinds of previous media for it to be done in any kind of excellent light. Overall, I liked the music more than most previous cities, enjoyed the design fairly well, but just enjoyed most others so much more.

48: Fallarbor Town

Not much sticks out about Fallarbor Town, except the nice little evil house before you get to the town itself. Mind you, I liked the decorations, I really did. I hated walking through thousands of ashen spaces to get them. What can I say more than "lol only another 8k steps before I get my secret base up and running"

For the town itself, I recall Professor Cozmo living there. Then there was the Move Tutor, the only thing I didn't like was the Luvdisc fishing I had to do to deal out those Heart Scales. Overall, it had a few nice things present, with the big deal being just outside the city. That said, the big deal outside was a pain to go through.

47: Cherrygrove City

A lovely early city in some of the finest games of the series, I did enjoy it for its simplicity and for the tour. I liked the design very well but there's not much to it, the water on the west made me curious on my first playthrough but after I noticed there was nothing beyond it my interest in the town shrunk. Overall, there's not much there, but nothing to hate about the town.

46: Agate Village

The retirement community. Beautiful place to visit, though I doubt many like actually living there, what with the whole "You're now an old guy" stigma associated. Fantastic by my recollection, it even has a shrine to Celebi hidden away. Also, the place may not have much but it's at least lovely with decent music.

45: Verdanturf Town

Clean air, crisp colored grass and trees, away from all that damnable ash. It even serves as the second home for the third wheel! What does it have though? That rocky cave that's whismur infested, a few small houses and a pokemon center. It would be different if there were anything I found remotely interesting there, but alas, for all its lack of positives it has no total negatives. It just makes the meh portion of the list.

44: Solaceon Town

A city next to ruins filled with Unown, there's something most people hate. I however enjoy catching the Unown and notice that this was a significantly easier location to do so, at least personally, than previous games. It also has the Daycare nearby, but for all its positives it just doesn't have the right feel to me. For one, its shape is very unpleasing personally, though this is a deeper quirk in me than the town. It also has the seal case inside, which although very nice, provided a large amount of personal annoyance in my nature as a perfectionist.

43: Oldale Town

It's a small town. There's nothing there. Why does it get this far? Name cred alone my viewers. Old ale? Sweet, maybe next game they'll put a newbeer town in somewhere. Jokes aside, it's a quaint little town with not much going on, but it did serve its purpose as a stopping point city.

42: Sinnoh League Castle

Let's face it, it's a step up by far on the external appearance of previous leagues. The problem is, that only gets it so far. Being that it's home to some of the worst league members period, even if it has an immensely cool champion, puts it a good bit lower. I don't know why I hate it, it just doesn't feel as well done on the inside as past places were, at least compared to the severe nostalgia of the Indigo Plateau.

41: Slateport City

Ah, humble Slateport, how many things you have going for you. A museum, a shipyard and even beachfront access. What does it lack? A gym for one thing, which is a major criteria for doing well in this list, with a few exceptions. Of all the things in Slateport the thing I enjoyed the most was the bazaar over all other interesting locations. The place has a huge population and lots of other things, but it still feels too much like another filler city that has a stigma that just can't be overcome with more things.

40: Evergrande City

Not a good day to be a League location, as another falls to the list. It's another pretty face, not as much so as its junior the Sinnoh League Castle, but with its less beautiful exterior comes a more reminiscent feel. If all League locations were like this, I could be happy. It's hidden away fairly well as a secluded spot, needing the majority of the available HM's to even access, though in that little charm comes much annoyance. I don't know about the rest of you, but I hate having to carry an HM slave or two just to get through a location. It just doesn't suit me well to have to deal with such a large annoyance as those changes when I'm playing through the game to reach the single goal of beating the League, a goal which I achieve without teaching my Pokemon such useless moves as Cut or Rock Smash. Overall, the actual members of this Elite 4 are much more favorable to me, not for ease or for types, but for the more likable champion and overall better personalities and memorable attributes of its members.

39: Rustboro City

A rather large gym city in Hoenn, it's one of the less visually appealing gym cities of the region with its vast amounts of rock everywhere. This is acceptable though, as it's home to the rock gym for the region. All I can say about the gym itself is, lol Nosepass. Even more seriously though, lol female Nosepass.

Overall though, we're at the point in my list where there are no real, I HATE YOU type cities left, though there are still some uninteresting ones left.

38: Indigo Plateau

The classic league, it covers not one, not truly even just two, it goes to three including the remakes. The problems? Well, they changed up the classic group for the second generation, which while it does show some plot advancement(minimal) it doesn't hold down the same feel thereafter. Overall, I loved it in the first games, it had unique types that the gyms didn't touch, it had your rival who was always eager to drop for a well trained team, later generations killed that feeling. I did enjoy it a good bit though, so it's certainly above the other leagues.

37: Oreburgh City

So many people seem to hate this city, and I can see a good bit why. It is a complete reproduction of Pewter with two new additions, the coal mines and the revival point for fossils from Cinnabar Island. I don't mind that though, it does give a fairly solid feel and it has a load more options available with all the new fossils among other things. I didn't honestly mind searching for Roark, though it could have been done much better if they gave you a clear target and made the coal mines much larger. All in all, it was a fairly average city, though one thing that does hurt it a lot. Geodude.

36: New Bark Town

Know what's sad about this starter town? I had to actively think to try and remember exactly which game it was from. That said, I loved the starting point for G/S/C, even just for the fun times of trying to pick between the three starters. It had fairly good starting music, even if it wasn't my favorite starting point. The reason it makes it this far though was definitely being a starter town. Not much more to it though.

35: Littleroot Town

Here's exactly the problem I had with the last town, just not much there to differentiate between the two. I didn't enjoy the starters near as much as the last one, but it had a better scenic view for my personal taste. It did also bring a change for the starter in that you have an actively memorable father, which is a personal plus in my books.

34: Floaroma Town

Among all the filler things in DP I prefer Floaroma to a lot of other places for one real reason, it's pretty. Seriously though, it's got some alright music and feels very middle placement material. There's not much to the town itself, though it does have some good Team Galactic moments. It just really doesn't have any other things to it than the appearance.

33: Celestic Town

The little history town in Sinnoh, with little else to offer. I dunno, I liked this gimmick fairly well, it seemed at least a little bit fresh. You get the history of Sinnoh starting in one convenient place, with few people living there and only one in-game celebrity being from there. At least we know this is where Sinnoh's champ is from so that's something. It's a pleasant little town, very middle-ground though as far as the towns go. One thing that did hurt its score was reusing music from another town.

32: Lavender Town

I loved Lavender in the original games, it was that cool little side town that wasn't a gym town but had a really unique spot to go to. That said, the treatment of Lavender was one of G/S/C's biggest flaws in my eyes. Turning the ghost tower into a radio tower? That's ****ing stupid by all counts. That's probably my biggest complaint against it, because it really kills off all the cool that it had for having Cubone, Gastly, and Haunter in the first games. There's not much else to the town itself, as it was built almost purely around being the Pokemon graveyard.

31: Jubilife City

Another random city with no gym in the Sinnoh region. This wasn't a big deal though, as it has a service I don't personally use but others find invaluable. That being the GTS, which although being one of the most useful innovations they've added in any generation, it still doesn't help the city much in that I don't use it. It has little to offer other than a huge size and a few other items that are close to useless(Re: Lottery). Personally, I'm getting sick of the trainers school gimmick, it's getting tired just for all the same crap that it shows, now if they changed it up some it'd be different, but not until that point will it be worthwhile.

30: Pewter City

Now I know I'm gonna catch a lot of hate for this, but there's just not much to Pewter. It had the first gym you could fight in, it had the museum where you could get an Aerodactyl, but that's it. It gets big points just for being the first gym, that's what got it this far but there's just nothing else to it. That museum did nothing for me, at least in the normal portion. Overall, it's a great early city, it had the first tough battle of the games, but there's just nothing else to it.

29: Dewford Town

It has a cave and a fighting type gym, but didn't we already have an isolated island with a fighting type gym? Yeah, back in GSC we had one, only it served a more motivating story point. This town has a little dark cave to the northwest, and a gym that lights up as you beat the trainers. Overall I dislike fighting gyms, not for difficulty just for general disadvantage the type represents. I also, dislike the move Flash, as it always seemed perfectly worthless and I'm one for avoiding teaching moves to pokemon without a reason in mind. There isn't much to this little town by the sea, other than the gym and the uninspiring delivery.

28: Pastoria City

A fairly cool little city, it's got a cheap version of the Safari Zone and a decently done gym. I personally like the gym, as it's an interesting concept for design with the multiple layers of water and bridges to pass across. That said, the ability the badge grants you I never even considered making use of. Defog? I used it exactly once to pick up a crappy partner temporarily. I severely disliked the design of the Great Marsh, as it had few pokemon that were rare and even fewer worth using. The city does have the Move Relearner going for it though, so it isn't all bad.

27: Veilstone City

I very much enjoyed the little teamup for battle, it provided a nice distraction for a moment. The gym felt very lackluster but that's more of an issue of it being a fighting type gym. It has a gamecorner, which I feel by this point is getting to be a very played out idea and should be at least drastically altered into something far bigger or else it'll just start sucking more and more each generation. That said, I did enjoy the available prizes, as they were a nice break for training. The department store also feels old, and not much seems to change over the generations. Fairly average city overall.

26: Cinnabar Island

Yeah, I'm kicking myself over this one being so low too. My issue is again with what GSC did to a town. The town itself was great in RBY, it had the fossil revival point, the fire gym that you could quiz your way through to avoid trainers, a few people looking for trades, and that burnt out building filled with all kinds of poison and fire types and the Mewtwo logs. Then GSC comes along, the town is gone except the pokemon center, the gym has moved to another island away from them, and all the stuff that made the town cool was dead. Needless to say, I was disappointed severely with it. It gets major credit for being an awesome town in the first gen, and loses just as much for its ****ty transition into the second gen.

25: Cianwood City

The little corner city with only a few things going for it. It has a fighting type gym and is part of the somewhat story angle to dealing with a secret potion. The gym's interior has a very simple design, requiring strength to get through. It also had the photostudio which I made a good bit of usage of as a kid with my gameboy printer. It also has the Suicune sighting in Crystal and the Eusine battle that follows it. It's just to the west of the whirlpool islands and its close proximity puts a load of water types readily available, as well as a good bit of local trainers. In Crystal it has one other big thing, the "Pokemon Seer" though I never really cared for the service.

24: Hearthome City

Ah, the "big city" by appearance. It has a ghost type gym that you can't access for the better portion of the game, though it's a decently done design with the little lifts all through it. It has the big contest hall, and some buildings with simply amazing architecture. It also has the pokemon fanclub, though I've never seen the point to having only one per game. It has one of my favorite gym leaders though for the Sinnoh region, and that bumps it up a good bit.

23: Violet City

A very nice early city, with its aesthetically pleasing design. It has the Sprout Tower, with its numerous Bellsprout trainers and even wild pokemon running about. Its difficulty isn't an issue no matter what you pick, because even a fairly leveled Poliwag can take out 90% of the trainers on its own. The town has a "Pokemon Academy" with a named owner, Earl. The town has a flying type gym, with the leader making the confession that the pokemon are his fathers. Honestly, that makes me question how the **** Falkner can even be a gym leader in the first place.

22: Sunyshore City

A simple city, that's run on solar power. That's a little surprisingly advanced for the pokemon world from what I've seen. You get a set of ribbons from one of the citizens, one for each day of the week, which I thought was fairly nice. The gym is an electric one, with a fairly unique design and challenge to it, though it's not exactly difficult. The town also has an open air market, and a lighthouse, which makes it seem a little more full. Overall, the town itself is fairly interesting with all the little attractions to be seen and items available. Also, I hate the correct spelling of the name as it looks stupid.

21: Mahogany Town

This was the small town feel for Johto, it had little present but so much in what was there. Hell the basement of the shop alone must take up the underground of the entire city just for its size. It's directly south of the Lake of Rage, where you get the freely available shiny Red Gyarados. Its ice gym is fairly fun to deal with, I liked the ice skating so to speak. The trainers there felt very underpowered though, especially compared to Cianwood for some reason. The rocket base allowed for you to get lots of easy experience for the statue traps and the self destructing pokemon floor. That said, I didn't like the "complexity" of the bottom floor, it's just not that complex for a maze looking entrance.

20: Olivine City

Ah, the first deviant from the norm for gyms. This lovely little seaport had the first odd gym type and odd gym quality, with only its leader being present, this being after the secret potion for ampharos, and it being the newly added steel type. The town itself is fairly cool and reminds me heavily of the time I caught a Chinchou for my team fairly early to diversify types. It had the lighthouse that was hard to get to the top for time length, but very quick to get down. It had the SS Aqua to Kanto after the Elite 4, which was a very nice looking ship back in the day. It also had the battle tower next to it which is a massive plus.

19: Canalave City

Another steel gym falls to the wayside, as this one had a much more unique design with its multiple floors and annoying platforms. The Canalave had a ferry that took you to several islands at different points, the most early of which allowed you to get a Riolu. Being the gateway to a legendary pokemon catching point though is what boosts it greatly, though the library also proves interesting. It also has a move deleter that will be helpful along the way. The one thing that detracts from the glory is the annoying little building I never could get into in the northeast corner.

18: Blackthorn City

Awesome dragon city, can't say anything bad about that. It has access to the dragon's den where you can get an Extremespeed Dratini which is totally awesome. Another gym that requires strength to get through though, I can't say I truly appreciate that. The scolding Clair gets in crystal is priceless, as is the fun you can have running around with a Dragonite that never hits second. Again, there's the move deleter waiting for you, and the free items in the town are worth the few seconds to pick them up. The ice path entrance is even easier to reach than in Mahogany.

17: Mauville City

I honestly liked this city, despite it having not a lot to go on. It was small, and didn't unnecessarily exaggerate its size with a lack of content through mostly empty houses. It had a pretty good electric gym with a fairly cool leader. This is the Hoenn location for your bicycle, though I'm still awaiting the day they add a step after bicycles for travel other than the ships and train of the past. It also has a game corner, not a very impressive one personally but hey, not much can be done about that now.

16: Fortree City

One of the coolest cities ever to grace the pokemon games by virtue of its design alone. Its gym is themed appropriately as flying type, and it has nice wood furnishings for your secret base. Dealing with Kecleon inside the city itself was an interesting experience. The gyms design is fairly cool with the rotating pieces barring your path in various places. There's not much more to this city but damn if the design itself as a treetop paradise doesn't earn its place this far up the list.

15: Petalburg City

One of the early cities in Hoenn, and the spot where you first meet your worst rival ever, Wally. Now I hate to rag on Wally for being a repeat opponent, but come on. Dude's into traps. You see that male Gardevoir he hangs out with? Yeah, that hurts him and the city a lot. The main characters father being a fairly neutral gym leader would also normally hurt, but he's a normal type trainer so its cool. I liked the multi-room design of the gym with everything clearly labeled for your convenience. Overall a fairly average city with two outstanding features, but Norman being a Slaking user sold me on it.

14: Viridian City

A city that really hits home in the old games, it was the city entrance toward the pokemon league, it had the final gym and the big boss of Team Rocket as its gym leader. Let's face it though, that's pretty much all it actually had. It led the way for you to enter Viridian Forest after passing through, which proved a big disappointment if you were an anime fan and didn't know you couldn't get a Pinsir there. Otherwise, the town has one other real feature. It was the starting point to the best glitch in the series. Overall, outstanding early town, a bit irritating if you didn't realize the gym wasn't going to open until the end of the game but still a good town.

13: Fuschia City

One of the most fun individual cities, if spoiled by GSC. It was the town with the best individual place in the first games, the Safari Zone. It had a pair of the HM's, the most valuable two of them for actual battle, Surf and Strength. You could catch a ton of different pokemon varieties within the Safari Zone, with 4 very rare ones being fairly cool for design, names, and looks. It allowed you to catch Dratini, Chansey, Tauros, and Kangaskhan, most of which can be used fairly effectively on early teams. It was also the home of the poison type gym with the invisible walls that weren't so invisible depending on the system you played on. GSC saw the closure of the Safari Zone which really kept it from the top 10, as well as the trading of Koga for Janine who is so much less of an impressive ninja master.

12: Eterna City

Oh look, an old statue. That's nice.

Honestly, my favorite aspect of Eterna was definitely the gym. The motif was very nice, with all the trees and such scattered about it really reminded me immensely of the grass club from the Trading Card Game on the gameboy color. I enjoyed the hide-and-go-seek as a different type of challenge, as it provided much more entertainment as a gym than almost any other has. This also happens to be the city where you can pick up the Explorer Kit that lets you access the underground portion to gather items and make a base. It's also the Sinnoh regions bike getting location.

11: Cerulean City

Damn, another city whose placement was hurt by GSC, that'll show them for making a skeleton of Kanto! This was the town that had several very nice attractions in the older games. It had all the necessary components to catch 2 Mews and a Mewtwo in Red and Blue, of course this was removed partially in Yellow but instead you get a free Bulbasaur. You could trade for a Jynx with a Poliwhirl, which while not very useful now, it was a fairly cool pokemon to surprise other people with. The town had access to the Unknown Dungeon, which meant I spent many fond hours near Cerulean. You also got the TM for dig here, and this was the town of the original bike shop. Definitely a high amount of win in such an early town.

10: Pallet Town

The very first town in the first pokemon game. That puts it up this far on merit of its place in the game alone. It's where your first, and best imo, rival is from. It has the original professor, and the first starters. This town set the pace for the definitive early town, and towns in DP, to come and set the tone for how the starter town is, peaceful and boring. It had the exits to the south and north leading toward Cinnabar and Viridian respectively. It also had one of the easiest to not notice pokemon in the game easily within reach, Tangela just south of Oak's lab.

09: Lilycove City

The last non-gym city to grace the list. Lilycove is one of my favorite cities in Hoenn, it has a hotel and a branch of the fanclub. It also has the ever present department store, and a not-so typical museum. Nearby in the water it has a team magma/aqua base which provides a little quick entertainment during the story. In addition it has the boat, and the move deleter. Finally, it also has the master contest/all contests for the Hoenn region depending on the version. This town gives you access to my favorite decoration, the glass statue, a truly lovely addition to any secret base.

08: Ecruteak City

This city had several of the coolest spots to grace the Johto region, it had so many awesome things that it's not even funny. It was where you encountered the legendary dogs first, and where you encountered a legendary bird. It had one of the best of the Johto gyms, the ghost gym. This gyms floor inspired more positive annoyance in me than any other place in any of the games. It was frustratingly easy once you knew what to do, but until then it could prove very irritating. Then there's the set of kimono girls with the eeveelutions, which all proved to be quite interesting opponents. It also allowed you to get the surf HM for the Johto region, making it one of the more interesting of cities. It has a pair of major locations that are quite interesting in design, the burnt out tower and the Tin Tower which are key locations to the game.

07: Snowpoint City

I loved Snowpoint, overall I'd call it the best city of Sinnoh. It had the temple that contained Regigigas, a totally useless but cool idea for a legendary. It had the ice gym for Sinnoh with a leader who seemed totally stupid, "I'm in the ice gym wearing a skirt in the coldest part of any region, battle me!" She's at least fairer on the eyes than most of the gym leaders for the region. It has the boat ride to the battle area with its three little subsections. It has deep snow all around, providing for one of the very few unique walking experiences in any of the games. It also has one truly unique experience, in that there is a unique visual effect only shown on a few days of the year where diamond dust replaces the snowfall for the day, making for a very nice visual. Overall, it's an outstanding city that allows for many lovely effects and locations.

06: Lavaridge Town

Let's face it, this town had only a few real qualities. It had a nice little hotspring and the medicine store. But that's nowhere near the reason anyone remembers this quaint little town. They mostly remember it for Flannery, because let's face it, she's one of the few non-main characters to get into a load of porn. She was definitely the best looking of the Hoenn leaders and one of the best of any generation for appearance. Let's face it, a lot of it also is probably my own bias for the name.

05: Azalea Town

Bugsy! Got that Scyther had serious evil going if you didn't have a type advantage for a quick kill. That said, it was one of several majorly awesome points with this great little city. It had the slowpoke well, with all the stupid little Team Rocket members lined up to get smacked down, it also had the coolest person in the entirety of GSC, Kurt. By this point in the game I honestly wouldn't have minded actually buying a slowpoke tail just to feed it to one of my pokemon, but I guess that's just a personal quirk. Kurt was probably the coolest person in the games for the longest time, only to be outshined by certain specific pokemon and little else. He could turn an acorn into a pokeball, how ****ing cool is that? It may have taken a while to do so, but he turned something useless into something awesome and that goes really far. The last thing that Azalea had going for it was the charcoal guy, whose apprentice lost control of Farfetch'd in the woods.

04: Vermilion City

One of many waterside communities within RBY, only this one was really fun and cool. The town had a very annoying tree in it, just one. The one that was standing right in the way as you started to walk into the Vermilion Gym to smack Surge down. Then there was the gym itself, which I particularly enjoyed beating, mostly for the sheer amount of time it could take to find the damn 2nd electric lock. Surge himself was one of the more colorful gym leaders in the other medium's for pokemon, often proving himself a jerk in each appearance. The town also had two notable landmarks nearby, the harbor with the S.S. Anne, and Diglett's cave. The cave itself was a fair place to raise your pokemon, particularly if you'd already raised a Gyarados who could be used to easily catch a Dugtrio for the team. The S.S. Anne had a variety of trainers aboard, including your rival sporting a crappy French accent. One truly new thing was added in GSC that I liked a moderate amount to the city by the sea, the ability to catch a lv50 Snorlax. The final thing I truly felt helped to boost this city so very high was one particular thing I've yet to mention. In the first two games, this would be the ability to trade for a Farfetch'd known fondly as DUX. Nobody is allowed to hate the name, no exceptions.

03: Celadon City

Now this was a classic city, it had the game corner and the ever elusive Porygon to buy, it had the team rocket base beneath the game corner and even a fair glitch in the city. It allowed you to first obtain Eevee, which was quite the frustrating thought if you hadn't picked your team already. "I need speed so Jolteon would be great, but I don't have a good water type yet so Vaporeon would be good. lol Flareon." It allowed you to get 3 fairly good TM's from the rooftop and allowed you to enter Saffron using a bit of fresh water. Erika is certainly not my favorite leader of the Kanto gyms, especially after reading the pokemon special manga. The town also had one of the most useless TM's in the game, softboiled. I hated one change made that affected both towns in GSC, the addition of that crappy tea to make you look for a way into Saffron again, I place the blame squarely on Celadon. Also, 150 diploma from the apartment type place, and the glitch computer in the hotel. Lovely city overall.

02: Sootopolis City

Okay, here's the last non-kanto city and it hits the #2 spot. This was definitely one of the most unique and awesome cities in any game. It's built in an awesome location, the gigantic crater makes it all the more awesome, and has a very good ambiance to it. It has a pair of gym leaders, Wallace and Juan, one of whom also plays the role of champion at one point. The gym itself uses the ice tiles on the floor to unlock the stairs, which I didn't mind until the last set where I somehow always seemed to screw up. The city itself being in a volcanic crater is a *****in' design for it since it's actually something different. The Cave of Origin is a very nicely done place for a simple legendary encounter, as it isn't particularly complex and it isn't with ****ing Geodude. I don't mind dealing with Zubat so much since they don't go boom on you, which is why I'd say this cave is one of the best ones in the game. This cave is home to one of two pokemon, Kyogre or Groudon depending on the version. Overall, this is one of my favorite cities because it is very isolated and perfectly done in general design.

01: Saffron City

With this, the list is done. Saffron had the most intense gym leader of the Kanto set by far, and it has some of the best encounters in the game. The first thing that I love about the city, the lovely Silph co. building. It has an immense amount of easy Team Rocket punks to smack down, some easy little scientists, and a boatload of free items to get including a variety of awesome TM's. The company also is where you obtain a few unique things, a Lapras and a Master Ball. You get to beat down Gary once again, who has a fairly powerful team at this point, and you also get to beat down Giovanni for the last time before the Viridian gym. Saffron also exhibits some insanely advanced technology, given that it has a large amount of warp tiles, allowing for quick transit and a mass of maze potential. This is the city with two separate gyms, though only one is official. The first gym you can smack down in this city is the unofficial fighting gym, which allows you to face off with the Hitmon themed pokemon. After beating them both then you get to chose between Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee, or if you're playing GSC neither but you can pick up a Tyrogue from the leader of this gym in a cave in Johto. You can collect the TM's for two fairly effective moves in Saffron as well, Substitute which is excellent with the evasion clause in effect, and Psychic which could destroy almost anything in RBY. The second gym to fight against in the area is my favorite of the Kanto set, the psychic gym. The paths are all using the warp tiles, with a variety of pokemon amongst the trainers, all of them being psychic or ghost in type. The final portion of the battle was beating Sabrina, who had a powerful set of pokemon especially in Yellow. In Yellow she had only 3 pokemon, Abra, Kadabra, and Alakazam, all at lv50 which is odd given that even in GSC where you had to have already beaten the Elite 4 to access the region they are still not as high. Overall, I'd call it the best of cities, for all of the above reasons.