I personally don't feel that any game in the KH series is nearly bad enough to pretend it doesn't exist. They all have flaws, and they all have unique features. It's mostly a matter of preference.
KH1 was exactly what you'd expect it to be: a largely experimental pioneer title with a lot of great ideas, and a couple poor ones. The combat was more clumsy than later titles', the camera was a nightmare, and the platforming, while a welcome addition, was extremely unruly. Overall, though, it was quite fun, and had a lot more RPG/exploration elements than later games. Massively overrated by nostalgia-addicted fanboys who can't help but remember how magical it was when they were ten years old.
CoM was a fantastic, but highly experimental game. The story was superb (one of the best in the series), the battle system was very deep and customizable, and the difficulty was far from easy. Its only real downfall in my opinion was that it lacked virtually any exploration (since rooms were randomly generated). Once you beat the story and leveled up a bit that's really all there was to do. And of course it was nothing like KH1, so if you went in expecting KH1 you were in for a rude awakening.
KH2 was not what people wanted it to be, but I don't feel it was a bad game by any stretch. Yes, it was easy. Yes, the Disney worlds were badly incorporated into the main plot. Yes, there wasn't a whole lot of strategy involved in combat. But even with all of that, it was a rare person that didn't enjoy KH2 the first time they played it. It's just a fun game, and the options available in combat (while never really overly useful) are staggering. The combat was also a lot smoother than in KH1. Not the strongest game in the series, but it was nowhere near as horrible as people make it out to be.
Days was also not as bad as people claim it was. I wouldn't hesitate to call it the weakest entry in the series, but it's by no means crap. Mostly the reason people complain about Days is Xion. Which, more than anything, is because everyone's still butthurt over the fact that their precious Organization members didn't get the screen time they did admittedly deserve. I will freely admit that Xion is a very poorly-made character. She is certainly a Mary Sue and a screen-hog. But since when does one Sue have the ability to turn a game that is mostly decent to utter, revolting crap? The story was still sad if you forgot about Xion's feelings and focused on Roxas. The gameplay was not affected at all. Xion did not compromise everything. I will openly admit Days was repetitive as well. That was its most glaring flaw to me. A lot of times I wanted to skip extra missions and just advance the story. However the combat was rock solid. By stripping away almost all the fluff of KH2, the combat became even more strategy-heavy than KH1's. Careful maneuvering and precise attacks were a must. Sure, the lack of battle options could lead to more repetition, but when you're repeatedly at the edge of your seat, is that a bad thing?
Birth by Sleep... I only played very briefly. I've heard it was very fun. It certainly was when I played it. The story, in my opinion, was easily one of the series' best (in contention only with CoM), and the new characters were great. I can't say much more than that, though...
Re:coded was waaaaay better than a lot of haters give it credit for. There's no arguing that it was a remake of a cell phone game that was essentially a dumbed-down remake of KH1, and the story was utter garbage, but the gameplay was so unbelievably addicting that I never even cared. The huge amount of collection quests (trying to get all the trophies/commands/keyblades/etc.) gave the game a massive amount of content, and the command system is just so darn great. System sectors are also extremely intense when you're attempting some of the harder gambles. The game far exceeded my expectations.
Nowhere in there do I see a game that 'shouldn't count.' The series has had its ups and downs, but every game contributed something.
tl;dr haters gonna hate
KH1 was exactly what you'd expect it to be: a largely experimental pioneer title with a lot of great ideas, and a couple poor ones. The combat was more clumsy than later titles', the camera was a nightmare, and the platforming, while a welcome addition, was extremely unruly. Overall, though, it was quite fun, and had a lot more RPG/exploration elements than later games. Massively overrated by nostalgia-addicted fanboys who can't help but remember how magical it was when they were ten years old.
CoM was a fantastic, but highly experimental game. The story was superb (one of the best in the series), the battle system was very deep and customizable, and the difficulty was far from easy. Its only real downfall in my opinion was that it lacked virtually any exploration (since rooms were randomly generated). Once you beat the story and leveled up a bit that's really all there was to do. And of course it was nothing like KH1, so if you went in expecting KH1 you were in for a rude awakening.
KH2 was not what people wanted it to be, but I don't feel it was a bad game by any stretch. Yes, it was easy. Yes, the Disney worlds were badly incorporated into the main plot. Yes, there wasn't a whole lot of strategy involved in combat. But even with all of that, it was a rare person that didn't enjoy KH2 the first time they played it. It's just a fun game, and the options available in combat (while never really overly useful) are staggering. The combat was also a lot smoother than in KH1. Not the strongest game in the series, but it was nowhere near as horrible as people make it out to be.
Days was also not as bad as people claim it was. I wouldn't hesitate to call it the weakest entry in the series, but it's by no means crap. Mostly the reason people complain about Days is Xion. Which, more than anything, is because everyone's still butthurt over the fact that their precious Organization members didn't get the screen time they did admittedly deserve. I will freely admit that Xion is a very poorly-made character. She is certainly a Mary Sue and a screen-hog. But since when does one Sue have the ability to turn a game that is mostly decent to utter, revolting crap? The story was still sad if you forgot about Xion's feelings and focused on Roxas. The gameplay was not affected at all. Xion did not compromise everything. I will openly admit Days was repetitive as well. That was its most glaring flaw to me. A lot of times I wanted to skip extra missions and just advance the story. However the combat was rock solid. By stripping away almost all the fluff of KH2, the combat became even more strategy-heavy than KH1's. Careful maneuvering and precise attacks were a must. Sure, the lack of battle options could lead to more repetition, but when you're repeatedly at the edge of your seat, is that a bad thing?
Birth by Sleep... I only played very briefly. I've heard it was very fun. It certainly was when I played it. The story, in my opinion, was easily one of the series' best (in contention only with CoM), and the new characters were great. I can't say much more than that, though...
Re:coded was waaaaay better than a lot of haters give it credit for. There's no arguing that it was a remake of a cell phone game that was essentially a dumbed-down remake of KH1, and the story was utter garbage, but the gameplay was so unbelievably addicting that I never even cared. The huge amount of collection quests (trying to get all the trophies/commands/keyblades/etc.) gave the game a massive amount of content, and the command system is just so darn great. System sectors are also extremely intense when you're attempting some of the harder gambles. The game far exceeded my expectations.
Nowhere in there do I see a game that 'shouldn't count.' The series has had its ups and downs, but every game contributed something.
tl;dr haters gonna hate