The good, the bad, the ugly: Gen II

The good: the region (more traditional setting compared to Kanto)
The bad: "Team Rocket" and the Elite Four (way too underleveled)
The ugly: leveling up past a certain level is TEDIOUS

 

Good: Lots to do and a whole lot got added to the games.
Bad: Like Hrae says, it was a bit empty at times.
Ugly: Leveling up sucked

 

The good:

• Full-color graphics to the extent that the Game Boy Color could handle.
• The item bag being split into different categories for certain types of items.
• Breeding
• Being able to visit Kanto after winning the League (by defeating the Elite Four+Lance)

The bad:

• Most of the 'new' Generation II Pokémon were considerably slower than what was generally available out of Red/Green/Blue/Yellow.
• Most of the wild Pokémon in the middle portion of the game (a significantly long time) were between levels 15-20, even at the point where your party should be above level 30.
• Having to have an open slot EVERY SINGLE TIME you get a gift Pokémon from any NPC. Was the "automatic deposit if party is full" feature from Gen. I really that sophisticated (or bug-ridden) that it couldn't be carried over to Gold/Silver/Crystal?

The Ugly:

• Evolutionary stones are INSANELY scarce and difficult to obtain. I don't see why this had to be like that, since Celadon's Department Store was able to sell Leaf, Thunder, Fire, and Water Stones no problem in Generation I
• The 'new' capture formula made all of the original "basic three" Pokéball variants (Poké, Great, and Ultra) considerably weaker than they were in Generation I.
• The Legendary Beasts were made roaming.

 

Alright, I’ll mention the one positive no one else has brought up yet. They fixed all the technical issues from the first 3 (Or 4 if you count Green) instalments. The bad? Spending 4-12 hours grinding for the Elite 4.

 

The good:

Lets start first and foremost with the soundtrack. I feel like there's nothing more nostalgic than listening to Gen II's many soundtracks, as even as I'm typing this, many of them pop into my head. They're so... memorable and iconic, I think.

Gen II also, imo, had excellent quality in Pokémon. Game Freak really turned the cuteness factor up quite a few notches here by introducing things like the Togetic line, Chinchou line, Teddiursa... so on and so fourth. It really seemed like this generation was really the generation for all the cute Pokémon to exist.

The bad:

Perhaps it is just me, but I do feel like Gen II can feel rather slow-placed at times. The reason why this appears to be the case is because if you're picky with who you want on your team, you're likely not going to find much variety until at the very least until either the 7th or 8th Gym, and that requires quite a bit of progressing. In fact, one of the reasons why I stopped playing my VC Gold version was because of exactly this. Level-grinding can feel like a real chore and so can looking up who to add to your party, which sucks the fun out of the game.

The ugly:

Nothing really comes to mind as far as the ugly goes. Gen II as a whole are pretty solid games while missing a few marks here and there with Pokémon variety issues, but overall it's not a big deal.

 

My only complaints about it were that there weren't any really good level grinding spots after beating Jasmine. There's a huge section of the game where all of the wild Pokémon were relatively the same level, making it difficult to progress. Aside from that, the male sprite looked like he didn't have a shirt. Random, but yeah, that's always bothered me.

It was the first time a female player character was introduced, although I wish they would have added that in Gold and Silver too, not just Crystal. Some of the most loved mechanics were added to the game in this generation, like shiny Pokémon and breeding. This one is a bit of a personal opinion, but I really think that the starters of this region were probably the best ones of any region.