I feel like Mega Houndoom might have been one of the first Megas designed. It was obviously meant to abuse the sun and we all know that sun (along with rain and sand) was strong in Gen V due to being permanent. They probably changed the weather mechanics after making him. Mega Houndoom was just...like one generation too late I guess
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"Worst Pokémon Ever"
- Thread starter SapphSabre777
- Start date
At the risk of being called a hater, this one:
Now, there is nothing wrong with Pikachu's design. I like Pikachu. I like Raichu even more. Which brings me partially to my rant.
Pikachu represents the status quo, of an unwillingness to change, even though it is really the logical thing to do, of being mired in the past. Raichu is a logical mascot at this point, being the mature form of Pikachu, and should be Ash's Pokémon at this stage, and should have a Mega Evolution by now, being Ash's partner. But because of the fact that Nintendo probably doesn't want his final form to outshine him, any designs that Game Freak make (and it wouldn't surprise me if they did, just in case) will likely never see the light of day. And Raichu really deserves one. But the worst part is that Pikachu is shoved in our faces generation after generation after generation, while Raichu is treated like he doesn't exist, even though he is better competitively, and is IMO, a better design (which is natural, since it is the final form). To me, it represent a case of "what if"? What if Nintendo didn't wait until doing it now might be too controversial? What if Pikachu evolved as Ash grew in Gen III or IV?
He is really too cute to represent how cool Pokémon really is, and every single fucking time I see him in any official or corporate capacity, or his form or head as an icon, it just reminds me how my father thinks that Pokémon is for little children, and wish that it was a Charizard, a Tyranitar, or even a Hydreigon that was there instead, or at least Raichu, who can at least look totally brutal in battle, and can be something worth respecting. Have you even seen a Pikachu ever intimidate anything or anyone? Maybe Team Rocket at some point...
And Pikachu, other than having 20 more in Attack, and 10 more in Special Attack with the Light Ball, is otherwise completely inferior, with paper thin defenses. At least Raichu has half-decent Special Defense. A Mega Raichu would give this classic Pokémon design a much needed new breathe of life, but so long as Nintendo continues to try to keep Raichu out of the spotlight, Pikachu for me will continue to be an embarrassment even! How can I when he can't even take a hit?
I know that plenty of people will disagree with me for nominating Pikachu for this position, since at last Raichu is at least half decent, while Minun/Plusle, Emolga, and Dedenne are outclassed at best, while being outright useless at worse (at least Pachirisu had some deserved limelight briefly), but I have a thing against Pikachu, so long as he continues to get more spotlight than he deserves. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Raichu didn't exist, and wasn't thus being ignored, but Pikachu does have an evolution that is. Some people hate Lucario for the same reason, but say what you want, at least Lucario has the power to back up being shoved in our faces, and is very much worth using!
Okay, rant over///
Now, there is nothing wrong with Pikachu's design. I like Pikachu. I like Raichu even more. Which brings me partially to my rant.
Pikachu represents the status quo, of an unwillingness to change, even though it is really the logical thing to do, of being mired in the past. Raichu is a logical mascot at this point, being the mature form of Pikachu, and should be Ash's Pokémon at this stage, and should have a Mega Evolution by now, being Ash's partner. But because of the fact that Nintendo probably doesn't want his final form to outshine him, any designs that Game Freak make (and it wouldn't surprise me if they did, just in case) will likely never see the light of day. And Raichu really deserves one. But the worst part is that Pikachu is shoved in our faces generation after generation after generation, while Raichu is treated like he doesn't exist, even though he is better competitively, and is IMO, a better design (which is natural, since it is the final form). To me, it represent a case of "what if"? What if Nintendo didn't wait until doing it now might be too controversial? What if Pikachu evolved as Ash grew in Gen III or IV?
He is really too cute to represent how cool Pokémon really is, and every single fucking time I see him in any official or corporate capacity, or his form or head as an icon, it just reminds me how my father thinks that Pokémon is for little children, and wish that it was a Charizard, a Tyranitar, or even a Hydreigon that was there instead, or at least Raichu, who can at least look totally brutal in battle, and can be something worth respecting. Have you even seen a Pikachu ever intimidate anything or anyone? Maybe Team Rocket at some point...
And Pikachu, other than having 20 more in Attack, and 10 more in Special Attack with the Light Ball, is otherwise completely inferior, with paper thin defenses. At least Raichu has half-decent Special Defense. A Mega Raichu would give this classic Pokémon design a much needed new breathe of life, but so long as Nintendo continues to try to keep Raichu out of the spotlight, Pikachu for me will continue to be an embarrassment even! How can I when he can't even take a hit?
I know that plenty of people will disagree with me for nominating Pikachu for this position, since at last Raichu is at least half decent, while Minun/Plusle, Emolga, and Dedenne are outclassed at best, while being outright useless at worse (at least Pachirisu had some deserved limelight briefly), but I have a thing against Pikachu, so long as he continues to get more spotlight than he deserves. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Raichu didn't exist, and wasn't thus being ignored, but Pikachu does have an evolution that is. Some people hate Lucario for the same reason, but say what you want, at least Lucario has the power to back up being shoved in our faces, and is very much worth using!
Okay, rant over///
Delcatty for me. I mean, first, its absolutely appalling, mind-numbing, horrific, incomprehensible, unacceptable, intolerable badness. Even though it's, you know, evolved, it has no stat over 70 and 30 less points in BST than Ponyta, who is actually a lot better than Delcatty. Having an attack stat over 65 can help. Anyways, I really hate it for the absolutely wasted potential gimmickiness of Normalize. I mean, I know its far from Pure Power, and would definitely harm most offensively-based Pokemon. But I mean, who wouldn't want to surprise-paralyze Gliscor with Thunder Wave and stuff? Wouldn't it at least be interesting if we got Normalize on a decent Pokemon who could use it decently? Instead, we get this ability exclusive to a Pokemon that is horrendously outclassed in PU and its pre-evolution.
Oh, and its literally a housecat. I mean, at least Purugly had its obesity and a solid speed tier to make it semi-less-forgetabble.
Oh, and its literally a housecat. I mean, at least Purugly had its obesity and a solid speed tier to make it semi-less-forgetabble.
Delcatty is one of those Pokemon that seems to be destined for mediocrity. I'm not sure how much better it would be with a mega evolution.
So you say Delcatty is the worst and Normalize is worthless?
This legit never gets old. The sped-up music helps that, especially how it's coincidentally timed to be at the perfect point with Rampardos coming in.
I mean it's still a gimmick, but it worked in a tournament...
This legit never gets old. The sped-up music helps that, especially how it's coincidentally timed to be at the perfect point with Rampardos coming in.
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This is Gimmick ... If only he attacked Gengar before with Cresselia & Stone Edge Hitmontop, he would have won
I don't really have any Pokémon that I consider the worst, the ones I have can be salvaged into a less terrible thing:
The reason Treecko is here because it's the absolute worst of all starters I ever played. It gets absolutely crushed in the first gym by Nosepass unless you evolve it, its level-up movepool is virtually nonexistent and loses to the many weaknesses it has (in fact, anything not x4 weak to grass can mop the floor with it), including random Wurmples and Taillows on the early routes.
ORAS tried to buff it a bit, but got a lot of things wrong - most of its level-up moves (anything not named Giga Drain) have terrible base power, useless coverage, run on its weaker offensive stat or any combination of the three. And you have to hold off evolving a dead teamslot in order to get Giga Drain to begin with.
Onix's saving grace is that it can evolve into something amazing since Gen 2. This is one Pokémon with a terrible design - it's pretty much just a bunch of rocks glued together and something resembling a face drawn onto it (Grimer's and Voltorb's lines are also pretty bad, but not that bad). Thing is, it's obscenely overrated in how strong it is, all of its stats but Defense being absolute garbage. The guides want you to catch something with a Fighting-Type move to beat it (which is unnecessary due to Onix's nonexistent offensive presence) and it even managed to get into the high ranking teams of Pokémon Stadium (where top OU Pokémon like Alakazam, Starmie and Tauros run around). I have to admit there's something charming to it being so laughable, though.
Pidgeot gained a Mega Evolution, which fixed the fact that it had absolutely nothing going for it among all the Normal/Flying types. None of its stats were exceptional, its abilities were useless and it didn't even learn any good moves. Even among Gen 1, Dodrio had more offense and speed, Fearow came early and had similar benefits as the former. Even Farfetch'd was better because it was an in-game trade who can learn Slash!
Unpopular Pokémon I don't mind:
I don't see anything wrong with Pikachu - it's the mascot Pokémon, but at least they don't try to hype it up like they did with Lucario and Zoroark. Having access to Focus Blast, Grass Knot, Encore etc. also makes it pretty fun to play.
This one's got a bad rep due to the Anime, where the writers wanted to make a Pokémon (and Trainer) so bad that people forget they used to hate Pikachu (at least that's what I concluded). It's got a solid performance in-game and competitively, so there's nothing wrong with it, as well as being able to evolve into a Steel-Type. So yeah, it's bad as a character and not as a species.
Putting these two together because they both got flak for being bad designs and concepts. I simply like ridiculous concepts like these which could probably come from someone at Gamefreak pointing at a thing and telling Sugimori "I bet you can't make that a Pokémon".
The reason Treecko is here because it's the absolute worst of all starters I ever played. It gets absolutely crushed in the first gym by Nosepass unless you evolve it, its level-up movepool is virtually nonexistent and loses to the many weaknesses it has (in fact, anything not x4 weak to grass can mop the floor with it), including random Wurmples and Taillows on the early routes.
ORAS tried to buff it a bit, but got a lot of things wrong - most of its level-up moves (anything not named Giga Drain) have terrible base power, useless coverage, run on its weaker offensive stat or any combination of the three. And you have to hold off evolving a dead teamslot in order to get Giga Drain to begin with.
Onix's saving grace is that it can evolve into something amazing since Gen 2. This is one Pokémon with a terrible design - it's pretty much just a bunch of rocks glued together and something resembling a face drawn onto it (Grimer's and Voltorb's lines are also pretty bad, but not that bad). Thing is, it's obscenely overrated in how strong it is, all of its stats but Defense being absolute garbage. The guides want you to catch something with a Fighting-Type move to beat it (which is unnecessary due to Onix's nonexistent offensive presence) and it even managed to get into the high ranking teams of Pokémon Stadium (where top OU Pokémon like Alakazam, Starmie and Tauros run around). I have to admit there's something charming to it being so laughable, though.
Pidgeot gained a Mega Evolution, which fixed the fact that it had absolutely nothing going for it among all the Normal/Flying types. None of its stats were exceptional, its abilities were useless and it didn't even learn any good moves. Even among Gen 1, Dodrio had more offense and speed, Fearow came early and had similar benefits as the former. Even Farfetch'd was better because it was an in-game trade who can learn Slash!
Unpopular Pokémon I don't mind:
I don't see anything wrong with Pikachu - it's the mascot Pokémon, but at least they don't try to hype it up like they did with Lucario and Zoroark. Having access to Focus Blast, Grass Knot, Encore etc. also makes it pretty fun to play.
This one's got a bad rep due to the Anime, where the writers wanted to make a Pokémon (and Trainer) so bad that people forget they used to hate Pikachu (at least that's what I concluded). It's got a solid performance in-game and competitively, so there's nothing wrong with it, as well as being able to evolve into a Steel-Type. So yeah, it's bad as a character and not as a species.
Putting these two together because they both got flak for being bad designs and concepts. I simply like ridiculous concepts like these which could probably come from someone at Gamefreak pointing at a thing and telling Sugimori "I bet you can't make that a Pokémon".
These two fucking things are the worst. Chikorita is by far the worst Starter Pokemon ever, being weak to three Johto gyms and resisted by five* (both of which include the first two gyms.) Even Pikachu at least hits Misty super effectively. Charmander isn't far off, though, as it's also weak to the first two gyms in its respective region, but it at least has an advantage against one Kanto gym.
I think what makes Charmander worse, though, is how much people fucking love Charizard. See, Chikorita is a poor starter choice objectively and I dislike its design subjectively (especially of its final evolution), but I have yet to see someone who likes Chikorita argue that it's a good starter choice. However, people masturbate to and give blowjobs to Charizard so much that it's blinded them to the fact that Charmander is objectively a terrible starter in RGBYFRLG. Charizard fangasms are so prevalent that the subjective criteria of "OMIGAW BADASS AWESOME DRAGGIN THAT TURNS BLACK WHEN ITZ SHINEE" shields them from the objective criteria of early gym matchups. Look, if you like Charizard, fine, but at least acknowledge that Charmander is a terrible starter choice when looking at objective criteria.
Other terrible 'mons:
Pikachu - worse starter than Charmander, but on the plus side, Raichu has fairly consistently been a pretty good in-game 'mon (I used Raichu on my most recent Y run and it put in work.) Pikachu's popularity has caused Raichu to become the biggest case of wasted potential in this entire franchise.
Flareon - I will go on with calling this thing Shitvee. We all know Shitvee is absolute trash competitively, but even on in-game runs, you don't want to use it because literally every Eeveelution is better. Even Umbreon, with its highest offensive stat an incredible base 65 Attack, is a better choice because at least it royally fucks over the abundance of Psychic-types in-game (and has bulk to actually take hits) whereas with Shitvee, you're getting a mediocre Fire-type that's slow and not even particularly bulky. If you really want to use Shitvee on your next FRLG run, well, here's your steps:
Step 1. Go to Celadon City, grab Eevee
Step 2. Purchase Fire Stone
Step 3. Go to Route 7, catch Growlithe (FR) or Vulpix (LG)
Step 4. Use your Fire Stone on Growlithe (FR) or Vulpix (LG) instead
Step 5. Purchase Thunder Stone
Step 6. Use Thunder Stone on Eevee and just use Jolteon instead of Shitvee
*-note: I included Morty in the count for gyms that resist Chikorita, as all of Morty's Pokemon resist Grass.
But Treekco evolves into Sceptile which is awesome...I don't really have any Pokémon that I consider the worst, the ones I have can be salvaged into a less terrible thing:
The reason Treecko is here because it's the absolute worst of all starters I ever played. It gets absolutely crushed in the first gym by Nosepass unless you evolve it, its level-up movepool is virtually nonexistent and loses to the many weaknesses it has (in fact, anything not x4 weak to grass can mop the floor with it), including random Wurmples and Taillows on the early routes.
ORAS tried to buff it a bit, but got a lot of things wrong - most of its level-up moves (anything not named Giga Drain) have terrible base power, useless coverage, run on its weaker offensive stat or any combination of the three. And you have to hold off evolving a dead teamslot in order to get Giga Drain to begin with.
Onix's saving grace is that it can evolve into something amazing since Gen 2. This is one Pokémon with a terrible design - it's pretty much just a bunch of rocks glued together and something resembling a face drawn onto it (Grimer's and Voltorb's lines are also pretty bad, but not that bad). Thing is, it's obscenely overrated in how strong it is, all of its stats but Defense being absolute garbage. The guides want you to catch something with a Fighting-Type move to beat it (which is unnecessary due to Onix's nonexistent offensive presence) and it even managed to get into the high ranking teams of Pokémon Stadium (where top OU Pokémon like Alakazam, Starmie and Tauros run around). I have to admit there's something charming to it being so laughable, though.
Pidgeot gained a Mega Evolution, which fixed the fact that it had absolutely nothing going for it among all the Normal/Flying types. None of its stats were exceptional, its abilities were useless and it didn't even learn any good moves. Even among Gen 1, Dodrio had more offense and speed, Fearow came early and had similar benefits as the former. Even Farfetch'd was better because it was an in-game trade who can learn Slash!
Unpopular Pokémon I don't mind:
I don't see anything wrong with Pikachu - it's the mascot Pokémon, but at least they don't try to hype it up like they did with Lucario and Zoroark. Having access to Focus Blast, Grass Knot, Encore etc. also makes it pretty fun to play.
This one's got a bad rep due to the Anime, where the writers wanted to make a Pokémon (and Trainer) so bad that people forget they used to hate Pikachu (at least that's what I concluded). It's got a solid performance in-game and competitively, so there's nothing wrong with it, as well as being able to evolve into a Steel-Type. So yeah, it's bad as a character and not as a species.
Putting these two together because they both got flak for being bad designs and concepts. I simply like ridiculous concepts like these which could probably come from someone at Gamefreak pointing at a thing and telling Sugimori "I bet you can't make that a Pokémon".
Piplup is one of the cutest pokemon...
Ok, I can see why you don't like Garbodor...
These two fucking things are the worst. Chikorita is by far the worst Starter Pokemon ever, being weak to three Johto gyms and resisted by five* (both of which include the first two gyms.) Even Pikachu at least hits Misty super effectively. Charmander isn't far off, though, as it's also weak to the first two gyms in its respective region, but it at least has an advantage against one Kanto gym.
I think what makes Charmander worse, though, is how much people fucking love Charizard. See, Chikorita is a poor starter choice objectively and I dislike its design subjectively (especially of its final evolution), but I have yet to see someone who likes Chikorita argue that it's a good starter choice. However, people masturbate to and give blowjobs to Charizard so much that it's blinded them to the fact that Charmander is objectively a terrible starter in RGBYFRLG. Charizard fangasms are so prevalent that the subjective criteria of "OMIGAW BADASS AWESOME DRAGGIN THAT TURNS BLACK WHEN ITZ SHINEE" shields them from the objective criteria of early gym matchups. Look, if you like Charizard, fine, but at least acknowledge that Charmander is a terrible starter choice when looking at objective criteria.
Other terrible 'mons:
Pikachu - worse starter than Charmander, but on the plus side, Raichu has fairly consistently been a pretty good in-game 'mon (I used Raichu on my most recent Y run and it put in work.) Pikachu's popularity has caused Raichu to become the biggest case of wasted potential in this entire franchise.
Flareon - I will go on with calling this thing Shitvee. We all know Shitvee is absolute trash competitively, but even on in-game runs, you don't want to use it because literally every Eeveelution is better. Even Umbreon, with its highest offensive stat an incredible base 65 Attack, is a better choice because at least it royally fucks over the abundance of Psychic-types in-game (and has bulk to actually take hits) whereas with Shitvee, you're getting a mediocre Fire-type that's slow and not even particularly bulky. If you really want to use Shitvee on your next FRLG run, well, here's your steps:
Step 1. Go to Celadon City, grab Eevee
Step 2. Purchase Fire Stone
Step 3. Go to Route 7, catch Growlithe (FR) or Vulpix (LG)
Step 4. Use your Fire Stone on Growlithe (FR) or Vulpix (LG) instead
Step 5. Purchase Thunder Stone
Step 6. Use Thunder Stone on Eevee and just use Jolteon instead of Shitvee
*-note: I included Morty in the count for gyms that resist Chikorita, as all of Morty's Pokemon resist Grass.
Chikorita...er...okay? It's basically a replica of bulbasaur but less poison involved.
Charmander....no...
I'm tempted to let my Stormtroopers do the talking...
Well, as long as we're going for the 'worst starter' awards...
Delphox's design has got to be the worst of the final-stage-starters. It's just plain boring and bland with desaturated colours and ridiculous hair fluff things sticking out it's ears - talking of which, the proportions of those ears are just nonsensical compared to it's tiny face. As much as people make jokes about Braixen being a furry it's design at least had some fun elements and a promise of something better than... whatever the heck this is.
I've ranted about it before, but Snivy is by a long shot the worst starter I've ever had to use in-game. Even below Chikorita - Meganium at least has quite a few high points in Kanto; dominating a lot of the gyms and getting access to Petal Dance. It's something I find pretty underrated; it's still one of the worst starters but it's not as useless as people make it out to be - it's tankiness can pull through. So yes, as I said, Chikorita's high point is in almost half of Kanto. Snivy's high point is defeating a gym leader's fucking Palpitoad and beyond that, I can't fathom a single use for it. It has bad matchups throughout the entire game, it has the weakest offensive stats of any starter, it's defences are nothing to write home about, it literally learns nothing but Grass and Normal moves (until BW2 where it gets Dragon Pulse and Iron Tail through tutor, but really, why would I bother?); and the only good stat it has? Speed. Great. Fantastic. A fast grass-type with no other good qualities, what am I supposed to do with this?
But you know what? I wouldn't consider any of the starters anywhere near the 'worst pokemon ever' margin. There's a very, very large group of Pokémon even more worthless than Snivy (unbelievably), and Serperior at least redeems itself outside of in-game thanks to Contrary. Things like the elemental monkeys, Luvdisc and no-evolution Onix really don't deserve to be rated higher than everything that has been baby's first Pokémon.
Delphox's design has got to be the worst of the final-stage-starters. It's just plain boring and bland with desaturated colours and ridiculous hair fluff things sticking out it's ears - talking of which, the proportions of those ears are just nonsensical compared to it's tiny face. As much as people make jokes about Braixen being a furry it's design at least had some fun elements and a promise of something better than... whatever the heck this is.
I've ranted about it before, but Snivy is by a long shot the worst starter I've ever had to use in-game. Even below Chikorita - Meganium at least has quite a few high points in Kanto; dominating a lot of the gyms and getting access to Petal Dance. It's something I find pretty underrated; it's still one of the worst starters but it's not as useless as people make it out to be - it's tankiness can pull through. So yes, as I said, Chikorita's high point is in almost half of Kanto. Snivy's high point is defeating a gym leader's fucking Palpitoad and beyond that, I can't fathom a single use for it. It has bad matchups throughout the entire game, it has the weakest offensive stats of any starter, it's defences are nothing to write home about, it literally learns nothing but Grass and Normal moves (until BW2 where it gets Dragon Pulse and Iron Tail through tutor, but really, why would I bother?); and the only good stat it has? Speed. Great. Fantastic. A fast grass-type with no other good qualities, what am I supposed to do with this?
But you know what? I wouldn't consider any of the starters anywhere near the 'worst pokemon ever' margin. There's a very, very large group of Pokémon even more worthless than Snivy (unbelievably), and Serperior at least redeems itself outside of in-game thanks to Contrary. Things like the elemental monkeys, Luvdisc and no-evolution Onix really don't deserve to be rated higher than everything that has been baby's first Pokémon.
Delphox's design is LITERALLY the only reason I never chose Fenniken. I loved both Fenniken and Braixen but Delphox is...like eh...Well, as long as we're going for the 'worst starter' awards...
Delphox's design has got to be the worst of the final-stage-starters. It's just plain boring and bland with desaturated colours and ridiculous hair fluff things sticking out it's ears - talking of which, the proportions of those ears are just nonsensical compared to it's tiny face. As much as people make jokes about Braixen being a furry it's design at least had some fun elements and a promise of something better than... whatever the heck this is.
On the converse side, Quillidan is literally my most hated middle starter evolution because of bad design
And the ironic thing is that Onix has an interesting movepool. Dragonbreath, Curse, Rock Polish, in addition to the typical STABS of Dig or Earthquake and Rock Slide or Stone Edge. But that 45 Attack (and ick! 35 SpA!!!) makes it so that there are just better Pokémon of it's typings.I don't really have any Pokémon that I consider the worst, the ones I have can be salvaged into a less terrible thing:
Onix's saving grace is that it can evolve into something amazing since Gen 2. This is one Pokémon with a terrible design - it's pretty much just a bunch of rocks glued together and something resembling a face drawn onto it (Grimer's and Voltorb's lines are also pretty bad, but not that bad). Thing is, it's obscenely overrated in how strong it is, all of its stats but Defense being absolute garbage. The guides want you to catch something with a Fighting-Type move to beat it (which is unnecessary due to Onix's nonexistent offensive presence) and it even managed to get into the high ranking teams of Pokémon Stadium (where top OU Pokémon like Alakazam, Starmie and Tauros run around). I have to admit there's something charming to it being so laughable, though.
Ahh, Onix. It was once considered one of the most epic and iconic Pokémon out there. A giant rock snake, with the powers to summon earthquakes and rockslides. It used to be the biggest of all Pokémon, measuring 8.8 metres in the Pokédex, and at some points more than 30 metres in the Anime. Its head is the size of a small car, with a blade-sharp horn that smashes through boulders with impunity. A favourite battle tactic of Onix is smashing into the ground like a cobra snapping at its victim, burrowing through the ground at the speed of a subway train (80 km/h according to several dex entries), then it surfaces below its opponent, throwing it sky-high. Its roar can be heard from miles around, even when it is underground. Onix is a beast in all its depictions, used by Gym Leaders and Elite Four members alike. It turned a high-stakes televised battle around in the first episode of the Anime. Holding the Eviolite, it has the highest Defense in the games.
Speaking of the games, though, they completely failed to capture Onix' magnificence. With a BST of 385, the designers didn't have much to play with. They had to feature its formidable bulk somehow, and did so by pouring almost half its Base Stat points into Defense. Its second-highest stat is Speed, for some weird reason. That leaves it with horrible HP (Base 35, same as Hoppip and Togepi and famously worse than Caterpie), atrocious Attack (Base 45, same as Pidgey, Jigglypuff and Wurmple), and Special stats worse than Sentret (which has the same Sp.Def but 5 more Sp.Atk).
Onix was designed to be this big, badass brute competing with Golem, Aerodactyl and Rhydon for the Rock Pokémon champion belt, but specced to be an armour-clad Weedle. Well, maybe not quite Weedle, but Taillow has roughly similar stats to Onix when Defense is disregarded (Onix has 15 more Sp.Def, otherwise Taillow has the same or higher stats in every category bar Defense).
In conclusion, Onix is far from a bad Pokémon overall. But it probably has the biggest discrepancy between its portrayal in games as opposed to other media, and is gravely misrepresented by its awful stats. Had Onix been as good in the games as the movies, dex entries and Anime suggest, giving it an evolution would have been unthinkable. Steelix would have been Gen II's equivalent of Mega Rayquaza.
Speaking of the games, though, they completely failed to capture Onix' magnificence. With a BST of 385, the designers didn't have much to play with. They had to feature its formidable bulk somehow, and did so by pouring almost half its Base Stat points into Defense. Its second-highest stat is Speed, for some weird reason. That leaves it with horrible HP (Base 35, same as Hoppip and Togepi and famously worse than Caterpie), atrocious Attack (Base 45, same as Pidgey, Jigglypuff and Wurmple), and Special stats worse than Sentret (which has the same Sp.Def but 5 more Sp.Atk).
Onix was designed to be this big, badass brute competing with Golem, Aerodactyl and Rhydon for the Rock Pokémon champion belt, but specced to be an armour-clad Weedle. Well, maybe not quite Weedle, but Taillow has roughly similar stats to Onix when Defense is disregarded (Onix has 15 more Sp.Def, otherwise Taillow has the same or higher stats in every category bar Defense).
In conclusion, Onix is far from a bad Pokémon overall. But it probably has the biggest discrepancy between its portrayal in games as opposed to other media, and is gravely misrepresented by its awful stats. Had Onix been as good in the games as the movies, dex entries and Anime suggest, giving it an evolution would have been unthinkable. Steelix would have been Gen II's equivalent of Mega Rayquaza.
Am I the only person who rates Delphox among the best final-stage starter designs? Talking about Kalos starters, Greninja is the most overrated design by a long shot and it occurs to me that the love of its design comes entirely from its 3D model. It's doing something ninja-y in its model, so of course people loved Greninja more because the 3D models presented Greninja at the most flattering angle. Look at Greninja in Pokemon Amie and watch the luster of its 3D model suddenly fade away. Hell, I can't even get behind Greninja's design with its anime appearances as its design makes it look like it shouldn't be bipedal, and yet somehow... is. Delphox's anime appearances do it far more justice than any of its in-game models (which I never found to be that bad). They were going for a mage look and they pulled it off. Also, if you wanna talk about Delphox's ear floof (which I personally adore, it adds a more "Fire-type" appearance to Delphox and YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH FLOOF, FIGHT MY FURRY ASS), I refer you to Greninja's tongue scarf. Then again, this is probably a continuation of my trend of liking unpopular starters (Venusaur, Sceptile... I actually think Typhlosion and Infernape might be the only exceptions)Well, as long as we're going for the 'worst starter' awards...
Delphox's design has got to be the worst of the final-stage-starters. It's just plain boring and bland with desaturated colours and ridiculous hair fluff things sticking out it's ears - talking of which, the proportions of those ears are just nonsensical compared to it's tiny face. As much as people make jokes about Braixen being a furry it's design at least had some fun elements and a promise of something better than... whatever the heck this is.
Chesnaught is decent. It's an improvement over Quilladin, at least.
Personally, I believe all of these final-stage starters to have worse designs than any of the Kalos starters: Blastoise, Meganium, Feraligatr, Swampert, Empoleon, Torterra, Emboar, Samurott. Yeah, I just hated on Swampert. Come at me.
I think Chesnaught is actually the best designed of the final evolutions of the Kalos starters. I dislike Greninja's tongue scarf that could of been so easily a scarf made of bubbles (Like, I don't know THE OTHER TWO FROGS YOU CAME FROM?!) and look a lot less disgusting. Delphox is alright, but is so so bland and I really dislike the Fennekin line.
Time to rant over Fennekin's family!
Fennekin is alright. It is my second favorite of the Kalos starters (Froakie is adorable.) and looks nice. It does fox and fire type well I think without resorting to actual flames on the body. Braixien is what I hate. When I played X, I had no knowledge of how the starters evolved. I expected Fennekin to stay a quadruped, and become a sleeker or more aggressive looking fox. The I got.... that mess. I have never been so disappointed in-game. The ear tufts are outrageous, that dress is ugly, I hate the random stick thrown in, and it's just UGLY. Quiladin almost looks good in comparison to it. Delphox is alright because it takes anything that was good on Braixien and makes it look decent at least. It certainly isn't the best final starter though, but it at least looks natural.
Edit* Torterra is one of my favorite final stage starters and I will ignore the opinion of anyone saying it looks bad. Give me my turtle T.rex mega already!
Time to rant over Fennekin's family!
Fennekin is alright. It is my second favorite of the Kalos starters (Froakie is adorable.) and looks nice. It does fox and fire type well I think without resorting to actual flames on the body. Braixien is what I hate. When I played X, I had no knowledge of how the starters evolved. I expected Fennekin to stay a quadruped, and become a sleeker or more aggressive looking fox. The I got.... that mess. I have never been so disappointed in-game. The ear tufts are outrageous, that dress is ugly, I hate the random stick thrown in, and it's just UGLY. Quiladin almost looks good in comparison to it. Delphox is alright because it takes anything that was good on Braixien and makes it look decent at least. It certainly isn't the best final starter though, but it at least looks natural.
Edit* Torterra is one of my favorite final stage starters and I will ignore the opinion of anyone saying it looks bad. Give me my turtle T.rex mega already!
Delphox is okay to me (we can make 'what does the fox say' jokes) but snivy is quite bad. I like seperior just I don't like how Snivy was so overated and everyone choose him...Well, as long as we're going for the 'worst starter' awards...
Delphox's design has got to be the worst of the final-stage-starters. It's just plain boring and bland with desaturated colours and ridiculous hair fluff things sticking out it's ears - talking of which, the proportions of those ears are just nonsensical compared to it's tiny face. As much as people make jokes about Braixen being a furry it's design at least had some fun elements and a promise of something better than... whatever the heck this is.
I've ranted about it before, but Snivy is by a long shot the worst starter I've ever had to use in-game. Even below Chikorita - Meganium at least has quite a few high points in Kanto; dominating a lot of the gyms and getting access to Petal Dance. It's something I find pretty underrated; it's still one of the worst starters but it's not as useless as people make it out to be - it's tankiness can pull through. So yes, as I said, Chikorita's high point is in almost half of Kanto. Snivy's high point is defeating a gym leader's fucking Palpitoad and beyond that, I can't fathom a single use for it. It has bad matchups throughout the entire game, it has the weakest offensive stats of any starter, it's defences are nothing to write home about, it literally learns nothing but Grass and Normal moves (until BW2 where it gets Dragon Pulse and Iron Tail through tutor, but really, why would I bother?); and the only good stat it has? Speed. Great. Fantastic. A fast grass-type with no other good qualities, what am I supposed to do with this?
But you know what? I wouldn't consider any of the starters anywhere near the 'worst pokemon ever' margin. There's a very, very large group of Pokémon even more worthless than Snivy (unbelievably), and Serperior at least redeems itself outside of in-game thanks to Contrary. Things like the elemental monkeys, Luvdisc and no-evolution Onix really don't deserve to be rated higher than everything that has been baby's first Pokémon.
Step aside fellow Crapmons
Enter Grumpig, the face of mediocrity. I went through the whole of Ruby thrice without realizing this guy even existed (and that was after discovering Chimecho). When I did, I wasn't impressed.
Design-wise it's a full cut below the rather amusing Spoink, a cartoony baby pig bouncing on a spring and balancing a pretty pink pearl on its head. Upon evolution it promptly sprouts legs, rendering the spring tail a boring minor detail, while the big pearl inexplicably splits into 3 small black ones scattered across the guy's body. Though supposedly centric to Grumpig's concept design, they look carelessly tacked on in the randomest spots with no integration whatsoever, the end result looking more like huge shiny moles. And the rest of him is exactly what you'd expect to see in an unstylized regular pig.
Speaking of concept design - any idea what Grumpig is based on? Me neither, but Bulbapedia's best guess ("apart from being a pig...") is the Biblical phrase about "casting pearls before swine". Of course, it doesn't really amount to anything symbolically - Grumpig just uses his "pearls of wisdom" to be more psychic-y or something. To top it all off, none of the Pokedex entries give a clue as to why Grumpig has its name - no bad temper or anything, they just named it like that because they could. How the hell was this entire concept even conceived?
In battle it's not memetically bad like Luvdisc or Spinda, but still too weak to escape PU. I cannot imagine who, beyond the oddball attracted to mediocre things, would ever feel the urge to get a Grumpig. If you do, by the way - you can't find it anywhere in the wild in any version except Black 2's Reversal Mountain. Good luck.
Enter Grumpig, the face of mediocrity. I went through the whole of Ruby thrice without realizing this guy even existed (and that was after discovering Chimecho). When I did, I wasn't impressed.
Design-wise it's a full cut below the rather amusing Spoink, a cartoony baby pig bouncing on a spring and balancing a pretty pink pearl on its head. Upon evolution it promptly sprouts legs, rendering the spring tail a boring minor detail, while the big pearl inexplicably splits into 3 small black ones scattered across the guy's body. Though supposedly centric to Grumpig's concept design, they look carelessly tacked on in the randomest spots with no integration whatsoever, the end result looking more like huge shiny moles. And the rest of him is exactly what you'd expect to see in an unstylized regular pig.
Speaking of concept design - any idea what Grumpig is based on? Me neither, but Bulbapedia's best guess ("apart from being a pig...") is the Biblical phrase about "casting pearls before swine". Of course, it doesn't really amount to anything symbolically - Grumpig just uses his "pearls of wisdom" to be more psychic-y or something. To top it all off, none of the Pokedex entries give a clue as to why Grumpig has its name - no bad temper or anything, they just named it like that because they could. How the hell was this entire concept even conceived?
In battle it's not memetically bad like Luvdisc or Spinda, but still too weak to escape PU. I cannot imagine who, beyond the oddball attracted to mediocre things, would ever feel the urge to get a Grumpig. If you do, by the way - you can't find it anywhere in the wild in any version except Black 2's Reversal Mountain. Good luck.
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All of these pokemon have some bad points but I like all of the starters designs. I like Grumpig and I like Chesnaught...
There are some really strange pokemon out there, some with actual good gimmicks but...
It's normal type, yet it is based upon a. Japanese cryptic which is basically a poisonous snake with wings. Why is it normal type? Why does it have such a bad move pool? We will never know.
There are some really strange pokemon out there, some with actual good gimmicks but...
It's normal type, yet it is based upon a. Japanese cryptic which is basically a poisonous snake with wings. Why is it normal type? Why does it have such a bad move pool? We will never know.
And it precedes gligar in the dex. I spent waaaay too much time in gen 2 trying to evolve one into gligar not knowing better (both have pointy tails and wings).All of these pokemon have some bad points but I like all of the starters designs. I like Grumpig and I like Chesnaught...
There are some really strange pokemon out there, some with actual good gimmicks but...
It's normal type, yet it is based upon a. Japanese cryptic which is basically a poisonous snake with wings. Why is it normal type? Why does it have such a bad move pool? We will never know.
I can sort of see why you think that (can I? I don't know. All I know is that it's kind of the mistake I would make.)
I think it didnt help I had Silver, which means it didn't show in the pokedex "catch here."
I actually used one once in Emerald, and let me tell you, it was...
... okay. It got me through the game; less than impressive movepool and stats but it works. If you don't wanna go through the torture that is Ralts and Abra this is what you can settle for, though I admit it's a little unimpressive coming off of Spoink. Then again, aside from Ralts and Abra I don't think Hoenn has any better (non-legendary) psychics. Battle of the Grumpig and the Girafarig; which one is slightly more useful?
I like spoink and Ralts. Abra, i can see why you'd not like 'im with teleport being so annoying and all.
Also, did you know there is a mod of one of the pokemon games (I think it's Emerald or something) where all the people are Dunsparces!
Oh no no; I'm not saying I don't like Abra and Ralts. On the contrary, Ralts is one of my favourite Pokémon and Abra... well it's not up there with my favourites but I still really like it. I'm simply referring to how hard it is to find Ralts due to low encounter rate or catch Abra due to... well, as you said, teleport; and then how training either can be difficult when Abra has no moves until you evolve it (unless you have a TM but you probably don't have a suitable one before level 16), and how Ralts is a struggle due to initially having no move and even when it does get some it's very weak until it's final evolution. Spoink/Grumpig is a more simple tale; not particularly hard to catch or train. Though of course, it's not as fast or powerful or generally useful as Gardevoir and Alakazam so that's the trade-off.
Have you ever ran into the route where Wally catches Ralts in Emerald and encountered it first time? Wally was so lucky...