Pokemon was after my time, but I never got the appeal of the games, knew a lot of people who insisted Pokemon Red and Blue were the best Gameboy game.
All you do is go around and collect things, game is a glorified fetch quest. And you can't even catch them all unless you to conventions that pop around once in a generation, or have friends to trade with (That would rule me out and probably most monochrome Gameboy people)
And if you did know people and wanted to break into the arena fights, you'd need to know this hidden meta around secret leveling tricks, which means tedious guide following instead of just enjoying it your way.
I think Final Fantasy Legend/Adventure is way better. Heck Tetris is better, has a solid gameplay and a goal you don't need to be an "insider" to go after.