>>719736636
That's kind of a tough question, honestly. Pokemon as a media franchise completely devoured my childhood from age 6 onwards, but I only got access to the video games by the time gen 2 was already out. After that general Poke-mania died down a little, but I was still firmly on the hype train for gen 3 as I scoured the early Internet for fansites and news. Gen 3 in general was a magical time for the RPGs, completing the Dex felt like a huge undertaking with how many games you needed. I didn't even have a GameCube, I was completely at the mercy of my friend who did for monsters in the console games. Then gen 4 came and the series moved to DS and I was still with it, the online features combined with the monsters I had accumulated in gen 3 allowed me to finally get that full National Dex, and I also got into comp battling a bit for the first time with Battle Revolution, but by the time Platinum and HeartGold/SoulSilver came out I felt I was getting a little burned out on Pokemon. Didn't help that at that point I was already of the opinion that gen 2 was my least favourite. Then gen 5 came out and somehow Game Freak basically read my mind and fixed a lot of the little game engine issues that had made gen 4 annoying, and I LOVED the new Pokemon, an actual breath of fresh air in terms of design sensibilities after gen 4 had put all its eggs in the fatass crossgen evos and gaudy legendaries basket. In a lot of ways, gen 5 is what I think of when I'm asked what my favourite game in the series is... but in the case of OP's question about "Pokemon's peak", I'm not gonna lie and say I don't also have great nostalgia for that time around 1999-2001 when Pokemania swept over the world and my home country.