After having Sewaddle, Swadloon and Leavanny show the Bug/Grass dual-types of yester-year how it’s done, it’s time to try pushing our luck and seeing whether we can do the same for the half-dozen assorted worthless Bug/Poison Pokémon. Here’s the latest addition to this already overfull type combination: Venipede. To be honest, I don’t have a whole lot to say about Venipede or his evolved form, Whirlipede. Their main defining feature is that they’re extraordinarily ill-tempered. Beedrill were ill-tempered too, of course, but that was something they grew into – Weedle are perfectly sweet, if disturbingly pointy – and it was mainly about defending their nests from predators anyway. Venipede, on the other hand, have deep personal grudges against just about everything, which they express by repeatedly and insistently poisoning you. Continue reading “Venipede, Whirlipede and Scolipede”
Category: Unova Pokédex
Sewaddle, Swadloon and Leavanny
I knew it was coming. When Game Freak put together Black and White, they decided to abandon all existing Pokémon in favour of new ones, which meant it was once again time to get out their sheets of formulae on how to design standard, comfortable everyday Pokémon, and one of these old standards is the caterpillar Pokémon. So it is that we come to meet the obligatory caterpillar, Sewaddle, the obligatory cocoon, Swadloon, and the obligatory butterfly, Leava-
Wait. That’s not a butterfly. That’s a leaf insect.
Praise the gods, they did something different! Continue reading “Sewaddle, Swadloon and Leavanny”
Sawk and Throh
So, after I had such great fun last week with the unconventional Fighting-types Mienfoo and Mienshao, Game Freak now greets me with a rather spectacular return to normal by presenting these two: Sawk and Throh. These two aren’t an evolutionary family; in fact, they aren’t related at all, but they seem to be intended to be taken as a pair – they have similar designs and similar Japanese names (Dageki and Nageki), and are found in the same places, with Sawk being more common on Black and Throh on White – so that’s how I’m going to look at them. These two represent two different styles of combat: Throh practices judo, focussing on grappling and, well, throws, while Sawk practices karate, focussing mainly on strikes. Hmm. An opposed pair of Fighting-type Pokémon that dedicate their lives to two different types of martial art… I swear I’ve seen this before but I can’t for the life of me remember where. Oh well. I’m sure it will come to me. Continue reading “Sawk and Throh”
Audino
Aw, look at the cute widdle…
*ahem*
Today’s Pokémon is Audino, a cute, pink-and-white, vaguely mammalian, fuzzy, Normal-type Pokémon. Sound familiar? Yes, of course it does. Now, just to be clear, I have nothing against cute Pokémon; I love cute Pokémon. I don’t even have anything against this kind of cute Pokémon, taken in isolation. Clefairy? I’m a huge fan. Jigglypuff? Not a favourite, but those eyes just melt your heart. Chansey? Adorable. But like so much else, it’s been done. Repeatedly, and well. Each of those three Pokémon has a nice little theme to give it a bit of (much-needed, I might add) uniqueness. Jigglypuff has her proverbial song. Clefairy and Clefable are From SpaceTM and have mysterious powers represented by their Metronome spell. Chansey, finally, is the doctor of the Pokémon world and can heal most any injury. Audino… well, I guess Audino has the hearing thing. Continue reading “Audino”
Mienfoo and Mienshao
Today’s Pokémon are the expert martial artists Mienfoo and Mienshao. They- um. Wait, are we sure these Pokémon are even related? I mean… I know the names make it seem obvious, and I guess they both have features like a weasel or a mink, but I get the feeling that we’ve missed a second stage in the middle somehow; the evolution just seems like such a dramatic change, which isn’t normally something that happens without a reason (use of an evolutionary stone, or a Magikarp-to-Gyarados-style apotheosis). Between the two, I actually much prefer Mienfoo; she looks cute but determined, while Mienshao strikes me as arrogant and smug. It’s also undeniably weird that the Pokédex claims she fights by using the long fur on her arms like whips, which must be one of the most bizarre attack types ever, even by Pokémon’s standards (and remember that this is the franchise that gave us Lickitung, who licks things to death). Moreover, Mienshao learns few, if any, attacks that are related to these weird arm-whip things; her strongest techniques are typical Fighting-type stuff like Drain Punch and Hi Jump Kick. I guess you could interpret maybe Fake Out and Knock Off that way, but I just don’t think it adds to the design at all. Continue reading “Mienfoo and Mienshao”
Petilil and Lilligant
The thing about Pokémon games is that they come in pairs: Red and Blue, Gold and Silver, yada yada yada, with a couple of Pokémon are missing from each one, like Electabuzz from Blue and Magmar from Red. In order to finish the god-awful errand that is supposedly the game’s framing device but which everyone actually forgets about within the first hour or so (i.e. filling the damn Pokédex), you have to trade with a friend who has the other game. Since Game Freak shows no sign of wanting to give up this concept, White version doesn’t get Cottonee and Whimsicott – what White gets instead, and Black doesn’t, is these two: Petilil and Lilligant. Now, Petilil is cute and all, and while Lilligant does feel oddly reminiscent of a Southern belle to me she doesn’t look too badly done either, but tell me… aren’t you all having flashbacks to Oddish and Bellossom? Continue reading “Petilil and Lilligant”
Cottonee and Whimsicott
Whee; I get to do another Grass-type! I’m breaking from the order of the Pokédex for a bit because Whimsicott is another Pokémon I have relatively more experience with. Cottonee and Whimsicott are… fluffy… cottony balls of… stuff. Honestly I’m not sure what they are. Funnily enough, I quite like this. Pokémon don’t need to look like things, they just need to fit their powers and their character. Think back, for instance, to Red and Blue and see if you can tell me what, in the name of all that is holy, a Slowpoke is? Or, for that matter, a Nidoqueen? How about Alakazam, Marowak, Magmar, Electabuzz or Kangaskhan (hint: she’s certainly not a bloody kangaroo, I can tell you that much)? I feel that there have been, as the years go by, more and more Pokémon that insist that they need to look like something, and personally I think Pokémon that don’t really look like anything are (often) the ones that work best. Take Cottonee, for example. She looks like nothing so much as a ball of cotton with leaves, but that works. Simple designs are best when you’re looking to make something cute. Whimsicott is cute too; I’m… not exactly sure what she looks like, though it has been suggested to me that she’s a sheep, which I guess I can see. Continue reading “Cottonee and Whimsicott”
Tympole, Palpitoad and Seismitoad
I don’t want to review these Pokémon. I really don’t. Sadly, they’re sitting there in the Pokédex, right after Timburr, Gurdurr and Conkeldurr, and I don’t exactly have much of an excuse not to. So… with as little ado as possible, let’s get started on the vibration Pokémon, Tympole, Palpitoad and Seismitoad.
Understand that I do not think these are terrible Pokémon. They are not… badly designed, as such. I think Tympole and, yes, even Palpitoad are kind of cute. Seismitoad may be ungainly, but as he’s a toad Pokémon I think that’s intentional. No, the crux of my problem is that they are just rather dull. They’re not even interesting enough for me to hate properly, which makes this business of writing a blog post about them rather a trial. Nonetheless, I shall persevere. Tympole, Palpitoad and Seismitoad are tadpole and frog Pokémon, obviously. “Tadpole and frog Pokémon,” unfortunately, is an idea that was already done way back in Red and Blue by Poliwag, Poliwhirl and Poliwrath (Poliwhirl, incidentally, is the favourite Pokémon of Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of the franchise, which is something of a difficult legacy to live up to when you think about it). The Pokédex continues to classify Poliwhirl and Poliwrath as “tadpole Pokémon,” but let’s face it, they’re clearly fully-grown and looking more like frogs than tadpoles, and there’s really no question about Politoed, the alternate final evolution for Poliwhirl added in Gold and Silver. I suppose you could make the argument that Palpitoad and Seismitoad are toad Pokémon, not frog Pokémon, what with the bumps that are meant to represent a toad’s “warts,” but since the only thing that really makes a toad a toad and not a frog is that they can live happily out of water, and Seismitoad is still a Water-type, I think that’s splitting hairs a bit (yes, all right, he’s a Water/Ground dual-type; big deal). Continue reading “Tympole, Palpitoad and Seismitoad”
Drilbur and Excadrill
Okay, what’s next in the Pokédex after Conkeldurr?
…oh, gods. No, I’m not doing that. Not right after Gigalith and Conkeldurr. I can only take so much idiocy. They will live, for now.
Hey, look! I missed one out! Yeah, I’m doing that one instead.
Meet Drilbur, the mole Pokémon. Okay, I know the Pokédex says we already have a “Mole Pokémon” but be honest; none of you out there ever actually thought that Diglett looked anything like a mole, did you? If anything, Diglett and Dugtrio are actually equivalent to earthworms, not moles, since they apparently play a role in maintaining soil fertility by turning and mixing it, whereas real moles are regarded as pests. Drilbur and the evolved Excadrill can be pests too in the wrong place because their burrows can interfere with whatever the human population is trying to accomplish underground, like building subway lines, but since they’re also brilliant at building tunnels for humans they tend to be forgiven. I quite like how the two Pokédex entries for Black and White illustrate how the same Pokémon’s abilities can both help and hinder; it strikes me as quite a nice touch. I also like Drilbur’s design; he’s cute but no pushover. You’re not exactly going to run screaming, but this is clearly still not a Pokémon you want to mess with. Continue reading “Drilbur and Excadrill”
Timburr, Gurdurr and Conkeldurr
If you’ve been following my rantings thus far, you’ll know I take an extraordinarily dim view of anything that could be described as “[Pokémon] 2.0” and would have much preferred it if Nintendo had just used the Pokémon that existed already and told the creature design guys to come back when they had something interesting. This is why I was initially quite excited when I met Timburr, an impish-looking little Fighting-type whose combat style involves bitch-slapping you with a plank. I cannot help but think that this is awesome. Honestly, I can’t find very much to fault with Timburr; he’s a cool little Pokémon with a lot of attitude. The only problem I have is that his ‘thing’ seems to be helping out construction workers, which is already what Machop have always been for. Making it more blatant by giving him construction materials to carry around just seems… pointless. Now, the Black version Pokédex entry doesn’t mention this, so I missed the whole construction theme and actually got something of a “mischievous forest spirit” vibe from Timburr and thought it would be really cool if he evolved into a Grass/Fighting dual-type and graduated to bitch-slapping you with an entire tree. I mention this to make it known that my disappointment that this is not the case will surely colour my opinions of Timburr’s evolved forms. Thankfully, however, I don’t think there is a great deal of room for bias on these Pokémon… Continue reading “Timburr, Gurdurr and Conkeldurr”
Pokémaniacal 