I was pretty interested in Hitmontop at first. It was neat to find out how he and the two Hitmons from Red and Blue were legitimately linked as species thanks to Tyrogue, and the way to obtain any of the Hitmons was kind of cool to 12-year-old me. Plus, I thought that he was kind of funny-looking. Later, in third-gen, he started to get all of these neat things like the Intimidate ability. Why? Heck if I know why he gets it, it's Intimidate, one of my favorite abilities! :D (Again, perspective of like 15-year-old me)
Then, for senior year in college, I worked with some of my friends to establish a Pokemon League there, and I decided that I was going to be the Fighting Gym Leader after hearing about Keldeo and his brothers. (FTR, this was before 5th-gen came out, so we were still playing DPPt. I even named my Poliwrath "Not Keldio".) I had most of the team figured out: Infernape, Machamp, Poliwrath, Breloom, and Lucario. I was considering either Gallade or Heracross for the last slot until I was reading a Monotype thread on these forums, and one guy kept advocating the use of Hitmontop in that case. It looked like a good idea: I could give him several cool moves to work with Technician, including some priority moves as a precursor to Lucario. So, I went ahead and did that.
Now I wish I hadn't.
Hitmontop was pretty much boned 9 times he appeared out of 10. I might have been using him wrong all along, there's a good chance I was, but there was maybe ONE battle where he actually shined. He managed to put the kabosh on a SubRoost Aerodactyl by using Mach Punch over and over, waiting for Aerodactyl to Roost, then beating it with Close Combat. That was the one time he was really good. Otherwise, I would try to send it against something to land a priority attack on, and the opponent would switch to something bulky, or a ghost, or Dusknoir (who is both). I might have been able to at least do damage to some of the more frail Psychics or something, but Hitmontop was deadweight to a Ghost-type because of one fatal mistake I made.
If you do intend to raise a Hitmontop, NEVER LET HITMONTOP USE PURSUIT!!! Let me reiterate: HITMONTOP + PURSUIT = BAD IDEA!!! I know it looks enticing to do that, because Hitmontop has Technician, so a weak move like that should get boosted. It's also another Dark attack along with Machamp's Payback and Lucario's Crunch, so that's attractive, too. Unfortunately, Hitmontop is not a Pokemon that can actually USE this damn move. Scizor can use it. Tyranitar can use it. Metagross, Weavile, Houndoom, and even Snorlax can actually utilize Pursuit effectively. Why? All of these Pokemon can be potential threats for things that Dark attacks hit hard, so they may feel pressure to retreat, only to wind up the victim of Pursuit. Things that can use Pursuit well: Pokemon that already scare Ghosts and Psychics.
What kind of Ghost or Psychic is going to run from Hitmontop? He's a Fighting Pokemon, and while he may have some bulk, he's pretty weak and slow for a Fighter. That means you could either just kill him / deal heavy damage (Psychic) or burn him to slowly wear him down and weaken his pitiful attacks further (Ghost). And because those Pokemon were usually staying in on Hitmontop, Pursuit was pretty much the only thing Top COULD do. Fake Out only works the turn he first enters battle, and Mach Punch and Close Combat were both Fighting attacks, with one of those dropping his defenses. Pursuit's not going to bail Hitmontop out of that noise; it does barely any damage to things that are going to stay in. I REALLY wish I had chosen a different fourth move, like Bullet Punch or Sucker Punch. Hell, Stone Edge would've been a better move to use than Pursuit.
On a less angry note, I have also realized since the days of GSC that the concept for Hitmontop is stupid anyway. Punching and kicking, I can understand being themes for fighters. But now they want to do a third branch to what has been revealed as a family. What did they do? Anthropomorphic Beyblade! ...why? What does a top bring to this? How does that even? I guess they wanted to visually state that Hitmontop's meant to be a balance between Attack and Defense, since those stats determine how Tyrogue evolves. But statwise, that doesn't make much sense: although Defense must be higher than Attack to be a Hitmonchan, Chan is still a more offensive Pokemon than Top. Top's Attack and Defense are balanced, but it's the lowest power of the trio and the highest Defense, so... statwise, I'm confused whether to call it a success or a failure. But artwise, you're complimenting spring-kicking and piston-punching with... spin-kicking? I dunno, I might have gone with grappling or sumo wrestling or something else for the third branch.
TL;DR, I used to think Hitmontop was neat. Then, I tried to apply the theory and found it severely lacking in practice. Again, that might be me not knowing how to train the damn thing, but it's just not my cup of tea. Hitmonbottom can kiss mine.
And remember, HITMONTOP SHOULD NOT USE PURSUIT!