Personally I fond the 2d ones nicer, idk why bit pokemon look better in pixel art. That and modern pokemon has so many loading zones.
Tried to play sword abotehr day and damn so many loading zones,
That said I will admit things like signature moves look a lot better in 3d, its just loading times for crossing a bridge is uhhhhh
What I’m tryna say is I prefer the looks of pixel art Pokémon.
I prefer the gameplay of the 2D games but seeing Pokémon like in archeus and snap was very exciting.
Late 2d - gen4 and gen5 - was the perfect balance IMO.
And speaking of bridges, compare a modern loading-zoned bridge with Skyarrow.
I think Pokémon peaked at Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby, but to be fair, I was the prime target audience. I prefer this generation because it was 3D while still having the 2D gameplay feel. The mega evolution was still novel and consistent with the previous games. The new 3D games are so convoluted with the different Pokémon forms and moves. My preference is late 2D games (Black 2) and early 3D games (Alpha Sapphire).
I prefer the sprites as well. The pixel art had so much character and were well done (except for the rotation and scaling in gen 5). The modern models feel honestly kind of flat and simplistic. Hell, despite these creatures being like animals, there are no effects for scales or fur on their body.
In an alternate universe where Game Freak put more resources into the Pokémon themselves, we would have models like in Pokken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kFHvcOkPb8
