What are your thoughts on Gen 3 Gatr having a fat ass
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
tbh I think there's a bigger example of this for me personally, and that's Nidoking.
Feels like he's lost a lot of that wild, aggressive vibe.
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my dream pokemon aesthetic that isnt just Doing A New Style would be the design work of modern gen mixed with gen 1-2 roughness in the art. I really enjoy how monstery gen 1 feels but i cant enjoy it Too Much because I dont actually feel anything for the design thats being drawn 90% of the time. change 0 things about baxcalliburs overall design and just stylize it like gen 1 and itd be probably my favorite pseudo of all time
I love original Nidoking so much it looked so tough
my first introduction to Nidoking was actually Stadium since I played that before Gen 2 or Gen 1, and Nidoking in stadium is ANGRY
also needs some of the wacky posing and styling too, like this red/blue poliwrath doing a super sentai pose
original poliwrath in red/green and red/blue had eyes that were more distinct from its body, not sure if I like it or dislike it?
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ok actually quick addendum. do all of this still but make one crucial change: start drawing pokemon with teeth. i know its cartoony stylization but the way theyre so insistent in some of these guys ever only showing 4 teeth ever is stupid as hell to me. kids arent going to be scared that a dog has dog teeth i prommy
I swear, something was just lost in Nidokings transition to 3D.tbh I think there's a bigger example of this for me personally, and that's Nidoking.
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Feels like he's lost a lot of that wild, aggressive vibe.
Like it’s not just the posing, which is pretty dull but sadly nothing new, but even its design just lost something. Like the spikes on its back that made for a menacing outline just shrunk down way to much and the beer gut is on full display now
Spikes didn't shrink, 3D model just can't cheat and lengthen them to always stay in view regardless of angle.
They're not angled right though.
tbh I think there's a bigger example of this for me personally, and that's Nidoking.
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Feels like he's lost a lot of that wild, aggressive vibe.
Nidoking is a very special case because he's always felt like The Kanto Pokemon to me. There are obviously a multitude of more famous guys, hell he's not even the most popular Kanto Poison, but in some spiritual sense it feels like he never actually left Gen 1. It's not just the visual downgrade, it's the fact he doesn't appear in any other regional dex besides Johto or Kalos and isn't associated with any other trainer besides Giovanni. His kaiju mishmash look feels so distinctly of its time, not that they ever stopped doing kaiju references (Baxcalibur was just brought up) but there's something about the way it's done for him specifically. His whole line and its two base forms are inexorably tied to mechanics RBY was missing compared to later entries
Yeah he's like. I wouldn't say iconic because he's never really shilled, but he's THE Kanto Pokemon outside of the usuals like Charizard, Pikachu, Eevee, Gengar, Dragonite, Mewtwo
This took me down a rabbit hole. No pun intended given male Nidoran are somewhat based on rabbits.
I think that icon in the screenshot representing the Nidorans is most visually reminiscent of Nidoking and Rhydon. Probably Rhydon. It always felt more linked to Nidoking for me though. You can obviously get Nidoran much sooner in all three games. But all three members of the line are also represented by this icon. Whereas Rhydon merely adopted it after Rhyhorn was originally represented by the one for Rattata in that screenshot. Interestingly Rhyhorn is one of only three Pokemon (the others being Slowpoke and Magikarp) to change their icon upon evolution in RBY.
Anyway that monster icon represents 59 total Pokemon in RBY. No other icon represents more than 15. And you do tend to see these icons a fair amount - to switch your party order, swap Pokemon in battle, check stats, teach TMs/HMs, use HMs in the field, use potions/vitamins, etc. It even represents Mewtwo in Cerulean Cave in the overworld as a pseudo "final boss". Also represents other icons like Charizard, Gengar, and Snorlax (also in the overworld).
So you're seeing this icon a lot. Which kind of subliminally (if unintentionally) drives Nidoking home as an iconic Kanto Pokemon. He's almost by definition iconic to RBY.
I think the most iconic part would be their use in the Gyms in Gen1/2
True, I forgot about that.
As part of the rabbit hole I came across a better screenshot:
My (I guess) unpopular opinion is this is why Red and Blue will never lose their appeal. This level of goofiness is too damn charming.
Kingler with two massive claws depicted as a Kirby with fins. Exeggcute with one massive egg as a plant. Starmie as a shellfish. Pinsir as a wasp. Arcanine as a cow.
Just absurd stuff all around. But in the best way possible.
There's a level of charm you just can't match when you're doing a lot with a little. Sometimes constraints really can be one of the best assets for creativity.
And imagination just needs so little prompting. One thing I've always liked about NPC overworld sprites in GSC, for instance, is that while there's a lot of reuse there's also a lot of colour variation. Like, it's not much at all but it goes such a long way to making those different NPCs feel individualised. Even something like a Black Belt with a different colour backpack or a Pokemon Centre nurse with different coloured hair is enough of a difference to make them stand out.
Another charming aspect is the move names, too. I don't care what later games reformat them to, I'll always call them "Thunderpunch" and "FeatherDance" and "Doubleslap" and "Dragonbreath" and "Hi Jump Kick".
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til the Magnemite family also had the Pokeball symbol
TIL Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar had the monster symbol, that's a new one on me.
Also I always forget just how many different menu icons Gen II had - it obviously introduced a bunch more "category" sprites like the animal, the humanshape psychic and so on, but it's funny how a bunch of random species get a custom menu icon all to themselves. Basically anything that gets a doll correspondingly gets a custom menu sprite for its evolutionary line except for Onix (poor thing), but Voltorb, Clefairy, Gengar, Weedle, Grimer, Jigglypuff, Machop, Magikarp, Oddish, and Shellder all have to share their icon with various other evolutionary lines; only Bulbasaur, Charmander, Diglett, Geodude, Pikachu, Poliwag, Squirtle, Staryu, Tentacool, Unown, and Snorlax have icons exclusive just to them. And, uh... Zubat's line also gets a custom sprite for some reason. Slowpoke, Sudowoodo, Ho-oh, Lugia, and Gyarados also get their own menu sprites since they're overworld encounters (well, Slowpoke isn't but it's significant enough to GSC's plot to warrant a unique sprite), as does Lapras, but it shares its menu icon with Seel and Dewgong and has a separate sprite for its doll. Disappointingly Suicune, Entei, and Raikou don't get to use their modified overworld sprites as menu icons in Crystal, instead retaining the generic "animal" icon. Fun fact, another kid I knew who had either Gold or Silver genuinely thought the Nidoran in Celadon Mansion was a Suicune when he first saw it since iirc they're given the same blueish tinge.
I must have gone through much of the games without ever seeing some of those: as a kid I always thought the dragon sprite was just a thing for Lance's Dragonite and not an actual menu sprite. Figures since I don't think I ever had a Charizard or Dragonite back in the day and certainly never a Kingdra.
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Not the first time that happened. In gen 1, Snorlax had a unique sprite for its overworld encounters that just wasn't used in the party for some reason, and Bulbasaur, Oddish, Jigglypuff, and Chansey had all had new overworld sprites made for them in Yellow that they didn't get as menu sprites.
It's also kind of odd that, despite reusing other completely eyeless, seemingly inanimate sprites as menu sprite that they didn't reuse the strength boulder for the Geodude line.