Would love to see in-game references to the fact that
Hawaii had a king called Kamehameha.
That aside, I'm digging most of the Alolan forms -- Ghost/Fire is the change to Marowak that we always needed but never knew we did, it adds so much flavour to the inexplicably Ground-typed, otherwise bland design for a cool concept. Dark-type Meowth is less jaw-dropping but equally welcome, sneaky old cat fits the bill comfortably. Part-Psychic Raichu raises a few eyebrows but when you have a surfboard tail held up by mind magic it's all good. Alolan Exeggutor can still suck my dictionary though, bad typing as you can tell is a major peeve of mine -- no shits given about Dragon Palms, the design does
nothing to show any hint of dragonhood beyond an obscenely elongated neck
But then
the Alolan originals don't appeal to me (I think I'm in the minority in saying that)? What we've seen so far is a rather sad-looking horse, pretty cool school of fish with groan-inducing name, capsule-shaped bear with butterfly hairband AND groan-inducing name, bunch of underwhelming little fairies and plants (and fairies that refuse to be plants), sandcastles with spades in their heads, wimp ass bug, a Pikachu wannabe, Trumpgoose, old man dragon, and fugly fish. On a positive note we have puppies, koalas, a railgun beetle and funky electric god.
Compare Gen VI, where we got a T-Rex, aurora dinosaur, motorgoat, possessed sword, slew of fan favorites getting upped in awesome factor with Megas, and the best of the best -- Pancham, lord and savior.
Still waiting for a design that can sweep me off my feet. Here's to Rockruff getting a badass evo.
EDIT: Also enjoy the return to more classic baddies as opposed to blatantly hypocritical PETA equivalents and fucking fashion police.