Generic General Pokemon Discussion

Funny you should say that...

Let's have them then:

After the innovation of adding two new types in Gen. 2, Gen. 3 went for a shake up in the battle mechanics instead.  So we got abilities and double battles, the former of which made Castform and Kecleon possible, and the latter being responsible for Plusle and Minun.  So far so underwhelming...



This was my generation of Pokémon.  Coming out as it did just as I hit adolescence, it's perhaps no surprise that I really love Gen. 3's collection.  From the creepy Sableye, to the cool Blaziken (I don't care if it looks a bit Digimon, just appreciate that they made a chicken look cool), to the cute Spheal, to the absolutely batshit Ludicolo.  (Who also has entertaining youkai connotations, as does their counterpart Shiftry... but that's one for Drunka to cover.)  But if you didn't expect Absol to top the charts, you don't know me very well.  Absol is cute and stylish and sleek and elegant and mysterious...  I basically want to be Absol.



They certainly weren't all winners, it's fair to say.  Plusle and Minun combined looking like the least imaginative Pikachu clones with being utterly useless in the format they were meant to promote, dying to a single Earthquake.  Luvdisc suggests that, amazingly, they kept the person who did Pineco on for another round.  And what the heck is Medicham wearing?  Still, though.  For nostalgic reasons, or otherwise, this remains my favourite generation of designs.


Shatter my childhood memories why don't you.  Tell me why Absol's rubbish, or why Luvdisc is great.  (Don't worry if you struggle a bit with that second one.)

Formal request to use the sprite sheets next time round for your overall generation image - I had a tricky time working out who was who in the fan-art you used, especially for the bigger chaps like Aggron or Hariyama.

Balladeer wrote:

And what the heck is Medicham wearing?

Isn't it meant to be wearing hakama, like your SNK bad boy Geese Howard? Albeit with the legs being a bit more delineated with Medicham.



I could be totally wrong, mind, but I thought that was it meant to be as a counterpart to Hariyama's sumo inspirations. Speaking of him, that's a great design for a Pokémon. The humanoid fighting types can fall into the creepy category very quickly, but I've got a lot of time for Hariyama.

I've got a lot of time for Gen. III in general, actually. I like Zangoose and Seviper and their endless rivalry. I'm a fan of Electrike and Manectric, those zappy puppers. I like big 'ol menacing Aggron and goofy ghost Duskull.

As for low points, looking back at this list, we're at a similar level of quality to the previous two generations in my eyes, actually. I don't really like Castform, nor do I think the two fossil 'Mon are up to much either. Also, I blame the Internet for ruining Gardevoir - she was a good lass until Deviantart got their hands on her.

I think I had the opposite expeience to you with Gen 3, Balls Man. Having played 1 and 2 to absolute death, desperately waiting for a GBA sequel, when it finally arrived I was underwhelmed. Tired, flat sprites and the same 8-gym structure, too much surfing and worst of all, loads of humanoid Pokemon!

I still played 100s of hours of my Sapphire cart, and having now completed Blue and Crystal on 3DS VC i'm gonna give the remake another go.

Looking at the 3rd gen pokedex now, among the whole pantheon, theres actually plenty of fine designs. I was just being a spoiled teen, I guess.

I'm all about Sableye, as it happens, because he's a Hopkinsville Goblin.

On the one hand gen III is when things starting going downhill

On the other hand we got zigzagoon and mudkipz

JayMoyles wrote:

Formal request to use the sprite sheets next time round for your overall generation image - I had a tricky time working out who was who in the fan-art you used, especially for the bigger chaps like Aggron or Hariyama.

Request noted, accepted, and retroactively implemented!

JayMoyles wrote:

Also, I blame the Internet for ruining Gardevoir - she was a good lass until Deviantart got their hands on her.

Gardevoir confused the heck out of me at the time. Springing her (or occasionally him) on me just as my hormones were starting to fire - cruel, Ninty, cruel.

Drunkalilly wrote:

I think I had the opposite expeience to you with Gen 3, Balls Man. Having played 1 and 2 to absolute death, desperately waiting for a GBA sequel, when it finally arrived I was underwhelmed. Tired, flat sprites and the same 8-gym structure, too much surfing and worst of all, loads of humanoid Pokemon!

...

I'm all about Sableye, as it happens, because he's a Hopkinsville Goblin.

'Sfair, and there genuinely was too much water. Your Sableye opinions are good opinions. We have matching plushies, don't we?

OrangeRakoon wrote:

On the one hand gen III is when things starting going downhill

liez

OrangeRakoon wrote:

On the other hand we got zigzagoon and mudkipz

Bloody Mudkip! Wasn't even that good a Pokémon, and yet it got memed to space and back. Not as forgettable as Barboach, mind. I remember Cappa 'drawing' it for that forum game as a grey cylinder that still somehow had more personality than the original.

Luvdisc is a great Pokemon! Why, anyone will tell you that it's as broken as Lugia competitively! People see it in the team preview and their brains go into meltdown over the glory they know they are about to witness, it's basically cheating!

But not as much of a cheat as Weedle! Phoo, talk about OP pokemon!

I never got the internet's obsession with Gardevoir (and Loppuny). It always just felt too alien for my brain to associate it as human-like. But if we're talking disturbing Kirlia's the one that got truly ruined. If Gardevoir's a woman then Kirlia's. . . Well, you get what I'm trying to say. . . Blegh. Talk about ruining innocence.

I never saw any 'art' of Kirlia and I'd like it to stay that way ta. Speaking of Lopunny:

Look at this bunch:

Diamond/Pearl went back to Gen. 2's trick of introducing a whole bunch of new babies and evolutions.  For some reason, however, it locked away a lot of the latter until the postgame (Platinum aside).  That still gave us a bunch of new Pokémon and, for the first time in anger, forms to get to grips with.  Also: a fire-type Elite Four member with only two fire-type Pokémon.



Following on from my favourite generation of Pokémon, we have my least favourite.  From the penis on legs that they tried to pass off as a legendary Pokémon, to the evolution nobody asked for, to the prevolution even fewer people asked for, the DPdex was full of utter bobbins.  The postgame evolutions weren't immune from this either, with Magmortar being a particularly egregious example.  What even is it meant to be?  Worst of all, though, was Lopunny, a fetishised rabbit that took the worst elements of the Cadbury's Caramel bunny and added elements of Playboy and French maids.  Not just badly designed, but downright wrong.



They weren't all bobbins, however.  Empoleon's combination of Napoleon and Poseidon into a metal penguin made it the absolute boss.  A lot of the new evolutions were more successful than Ambipom, too: Honchkrow is a mafia crow whose design oozes power and class, while Gallade and Roserade are just... well, cool.  Humanoid, granted; but cool.


Is Gen. 4 your favourite?  Do you want to refute every argument I've just made?  Do you have an old and well-worn poster of Lopunny in your bedroom?  Tell us all about it!  (Not that last one, though, keep it to yourself.  And burn it.)

There are monsters I like, and I really enjoyed the games and their world/ story, but I can't argue with your complaints about the legendaries/ evolutions/ pre-evolutions. And Lopunny . . .

I'm very unfamiliar with this generation as it's the only set of Pokémon games I've not played, but it doesn't seem as though I'm missing out on much!

Honchkrow is a top boy, agreed. I like the Piplup line as well and I don't even think that's my water starter bias coming out or anything. Bonsly's a good lad too, although that could likely be down to his part in SSBB.

Bonsly was certainly among DPPt's better babies. It and Munchlax.

Certainly not Mime Jr., that's for sure.

Reset era:

If Generation 4 focussed on evolution, Generation 5 was definitely more of a revolution.  The Unova Pokédex contained 150 new Pokémon, to date the most introduced in a single generation bar 1.  That made it (I believe) the only regional 'Dex not to include Pikachu, on its own a bold move.  The question is, did it work?



Certainly on the creepier side they did!  I love the Chandelure line, especially its middle stage which looks like it's wearing a cool hat.  Cofagrigus was another favourite, partly because of the wavy movement of its arms in the free Pokédex 3D app-type thing.  Other ones I like include the smuggest starter there is and Stunfisk, the entertainingly stupid Pokémon that Bidoof wants to be, but isn't.



Generation 5 is notorious, however, for some of its inanimate object 'Mons.  I don't actually think Trubbish is any worse than Koffing or Grimer, and Klink, a pair of sentient gears, isn't much worse than Magnemite; but just adding another gear when it evolves is definitely taking the piddle, and there's no defending the Vanillite line unless you're turning them into creepy bugs..  Some of the humanoid and animalian Pokémon were missteps too.  Finally, we have one of my least favourite monsters ever.  Roggenrola has a stupid design, a stupid name, and is just... stupid all over.  Gah.


Do you secretly think Generation 5 is better than the generation it tried (for a game) to replace?  Do you think it's blasphemy to even suggest it?  Let me know!  (Also let me know if you want the sprite sheets back, I thought this one was cute.)

Nah, this works in lieu of the sprite sheet - the last one you used was a bit too stylised to the point where I couldn't recognise the Pokémon in question.

I really like Gen V. I think having to fill up a whole new 'Dex made them try a bit harder again with the designs and there's not a lot of stinkers in the list.

I particularly big ol' Stoutland, Gigalith is a cool rock boy, Drillbur and Excadrill are ace, Sigilyph is awesome, Archeops is my favourite fossil 'Mon, and it was great seeing a strong Bug again in Volcarona.

I agree with Klink - bit shit, eh? Vullaby is also a stinker. I don't like the Goths either - bit creepy, all told.

Yes. Good. I love them all.

BEARTIC BABY

Sigilyph, Volcarona, and Beartic are all quality.  (Which reminds me - we need Jas for this week!)  Gigalith's a bit nondescript for me.

I don't mind Klink so much, with its two weird faces: I just think its evolutions are a joke.  The naming, too: they're not Abra-Kadabra-Alakazam, much though they'd like to be.  They're just bobbins. The Goths are terrible, mind. Their blobby counterparts are excellent.

Fun fact: Generation V featured the first Pokémon designed by a Westerner, James Turner.  They were the Vullaby line, the Golett line, and the Vanillite line.  Fair to say he had more misses than hits.

Even more fun fact: he also designed Shadow Lugia for XD.

Balladeer wrote:

Fun fact: Generation V featured the first Pokémon designed by a Westerner, James Turner.  They were the Vullaby line, the Golett line, and the Vanillite line.  Fair to say he had more misses than hits.

Oof... has he designed any since or did Pokémon Co see sense?

I think he kept going and did some okay ones.

Without wanting to get ahead of our generational order, the ones he went on to work on were mixed, in my opinion. Some good, some bad, and some so-bad-they're-good.

A few new dudes:

From the most to the least; X and Y introduced only 69 new Pokémon.  (Not pictured: Hoopa-Unbound, Floette-Eternal, male Meowstic, or various Vivillions, Flabébés, and Furfrous.)  Instead, it chose to focus on turning existing Pokémon into the new fairy-type.  But it did have one other trick up its sleeve:

This isn't even my fin... oh.:

Mega Pokémon!  And Primals.  Suddenly, a whole bunch of Pokémon got new types, new stats., and sometimes... new hairstyles.  (No, I couldn't find a sprite sheet.  Sorry.)



Look.  I can talk about how Noivern's a cool bat-dragon-speaker hybrid, or how I like Gourgeist's cute and friendly take on the Jack-o-Lantern, or how Goomy is endearingly derp; but we all know there's only one Pokémon from Gen. 6 worth devoting much time to.  Caw caw mother••••ers.



And it all goes downhill from there, starting right at the top of the Kalos Pokédex with the two worst starter stages there are.  Then there are some hideous water types with not much going for them; and finally, Klefki.  The Pokémon that makes the Vanillish line look like the height of excellent artwork.  



Finally, there's a special circle in my personal hell reserved for Mega Evolutions.  Most of them look plain stupid, and that's bad enough.  For several Pokémon, however, it's also depriving them of an actual evolution down the line.  That's before we get to Mega Rayquaza, the most unnecessary addition to Pokémon since... well, since Mega Pokémon themselves.  (Mega Gallade is cool though.)


Have I been too hard on Gen. 6?  Is it your secret favourite?  Do you have a much-loved Mega I've maliciously maligned?  Please, tell me!  We've not got many weeks left!

No, I think you've been pretty fair to the designs in Gen VI!

There's a few standouts - I dig Greninja a lot, Hawlucha is indeed a belter and I really like Pancham and Pangoro. Xerneas is a brilliant legendary too. Beyond that, nothing really stands out to me.

Megas, for the most part, were a mistake I'd say. The designs just become overblown and ridiculous, very much in a bad way as well. There's a couple of decent ones - I like Edgelord Charizard and Mega Pidgeot is a cool bird - but as a whole I think a lot of them look pretty silly.

Yeah, Megas were pretty dumb overall. There were some cool designs and you've already pointed out the best of those.

I did like the warrior/ thief/ mage thing with the starters though.

Also, its a source of much debate just how closely pandas are actually related to bears. Pancham is pretty cool though . . .

Are they not classed as panda bears though? I never thought it was up for debate!

Also I'd never heard of the warrior/mage/thief thing for Gen VI's starters - that's dead cool.

People do colloquially call them panda bears but theyre not necessarily that closely related. Their closest known relatives are red pandas after all, who look more like racoons or something. See also: koalas.

I'm not actually that big a fan of the panda family.  Pandas are big and fluffy and cute and deserve a representative more along the lines of Snorlax, not Yakuza boy/girl over there.  The Greninja line are solid, though.

There are a few Megas I like the designs for: Beedrill, Ampharos, Pidgeot, and of course Absol stand out.  Even then, though, I feel like Absol's being deprived of an evolution at some point later.