haha! i was born with a gb in my lap. i got red/blue when i was like 5 or something like that. back then i was awful at the game and it took my 4ever to beat brock and once i beat him i was too scared to go through the cerulean cave.
now i'm a pretty decent trainer, and id probs be better but i dont care about about tiers and just raise whichever ones i like. like in the sapphire run through i did last spring i went all the way through the game with my swampert, vigoroth, masquerain, and raichu. which actually made a pretty sweet team.
i would post my friend code, but we just got a new router and it doesn't like my ds :[
and it's odd that you guys are hearing bad things about 3rd gen. honestly its one of my fav's and i rarely hear people say bad things about it. in fact, i always feel outnumbered because im surrounded by 3rd gen lovers and i feel like i'm the only one who's favorite is 2nd gen.