I like the concept of HMs. I like them better than pokeride or whatever it was called. But the execution was poor to begin with, and got steadily worse and worse for some reason.

I like the idea that you can't just build whatever team you want; you must also take into account being able to use HMs to get around as well. This makes team building more challenging. However, bogging down your team with a bunch of shit, especially stuff like defog, is going way too far. Moreover, this only applies to the main story. Just give us items to replace HMs in the postgame.
Every HM should be a reasonably good move for in-game use, and lead to fun overworld gameplay.

Also, I'm replaying Blue and after the one essential cut tree in front of Surge's gym, there are randomly cut trees scattered around. Why? What does that add to the game? Nix that shit.

(cont)