Don't know anything about Pokemon Go yet. But I swear those games Pokemon Fire Red, Light Platinum and others on GBA - those were golden!
I found them so addicting back then. If you don't care about the graphics and just want a good pokemon game which allows you to catch 'em all, go to gyms, train/level up your pokemon, make your pokemon learn new moves as they level up and evolve - then it's a must play for you!