Since Gen 4, Gamefreak has released countless gimmicks to sell games. You could even argue this about Generations 2 and 3 but to me, those just seems like general improvements.
Now that we presumably have the full Gen 7 Dex, what one do you think was the most worthwhile?
On the paper, conceptually speaking Alolan forms were truly a brilliant idea and the first forms revealed really embodied how great it all could've been (Vulpix, Ninetales, Sandshrew, ...) but then it just turned into a huge mess with the likes of Meowth, Grimer and Rattata. At the end, it just appears like they gave alolan forms just to give alolan forms and without trying to come up with something good ...
I've hated mega evolution since the start. It's too much like Digimon. I wouldn't have been against a permanent evolution for certain Pokémon even if it would be a 4th stage one.
Cross generation evolutions make sense. Not really from a canon perspective but biologically. Take the first gen, everybody was so convinced about 150 Pokémon. Then we go a couple years later and literally a stone's throw away is Johto with 100 new Pokémon. In real life we don't know what Pokémon are coming next but the people in that universe should be aware of these Pokémon in other countries.
I don't like this Alola stuff. It just sounds stupid and lazy. What's so special about this place? Why wouldn't Vulpix change when taken to a snowy mountain area? Or at least if one lived there for a period of time.
Let's not forget though that every generation has used gimmicks. Like needing to trade with somebody with a different version to catch em all. Do you know how hard that is when you don't have any friends? Gen 2 was compatible with this Pikachu 2 Tamagachi thing, where you could use the IR port on the Gameboy Color to trade watts or whatever for in game prizes.
And you have gimmick Pokémon like Plusle and Minun (double battles), Chatot (DS microphone use), Pansage, Firesage and Watersage (triple battles and yes I got the names wrong sucks to be irrelevant)
Alola forms tbh, it's got me so excited for the game. It's the most realistic too, I would expect pokemon to look a bit different from different countries.
