Why does everyone have such a massive hate-boner towards this game? I played it for the first time about a week ago, and I actually had fun with it. The region is fun to walk around in with varied routes and towns, the distribution of Pokemon isn't too terrible, and the music's great.
My only real gripes is that the game's pretty easy with repetitive trainer battles. People are quick to point out the glitches, but you have to go out of your way to trigger these anyways, so it's not detrimental to the main quest. There are certainly better games, but it's not a pile of crap like most people make it out to be.