This marks the start of our journey into Hoenn, the "Advanced Generation" of Pokemon. Jumping from the pixels of the Game Boy Color to the more sophisticated Game Boy Advanced, the third generation heralded many changes to the franchise as a whole. Leaving staples that were common in the first two generations, like the presence of Kanto and Team Rocket, the third generation tried to blaze its own story with a pair of games completely and wholly unrelated to the Johto and Kanto games, starting the tradition of each generation being its own region. The third generation would also see remakes of the original Red/Blue games with the same engine, for the Fire Red & Leaf Green versions.
While initially the response was somewhat divisive, I embraced the third generation whole-heartedly. Having being on break between the second and third generations for a fairly long time, I came across the third generation on perhaps one of the most unlikely sources -- trading cards -- relatively around halfway when the third generation was going on. And after everyone started playing Pokemon in school again, I got into the franchise once more. Between the manga, the anime and the games, the third is perhaps the generation that I have the most fond memories of. I was older than I was when I experienced the first two generations, so I know a fair bit more of the intricacies of the game, but was young enough to not be a cynic about games as a whole. So yeah, if the third generation is as biased as the first generation... sorry? (Not really sorry.)
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#252-254: Treecko, Grovyle & Sceptile
- Types: Grass [all three]
- Japanese names: Kimori, Juputoru, Jukain
- Categories: Wood Gecko [Treecko/Grovyle], Forest [Sceptile]
As a kid, Treecko was the last starter I experienced. Having gone through the game first with Mudkip and discovering that it becomes a Water/Ground type (and it learns... Mud Slap, I think, at a relatively low level) and Torchic becomes a Fire/Fighting type because it learns Double Kick, I thought Treecko was going to become a Grass/Dark because it learns Pursuit at around the same time that its cohorts learned their future second type's moves. Thought I'd share that funny misconception of my youth.
Treecko then evolves into an amazing-looking and sleek dromaeosaurian monster called Grovyle, and Grovyle's pretty damn cool. It's a sleek dinosaur that honestly plays into the whole "dinosaurs are actually feathered" deal way, way before feathered dinosaurs became the proper and popular way to depict the beasts... except, of course, instead of actual bird feathers, Grovyle uses long, tapering leaves. And as shown amazingly in the anime, Grovyle's arm leaves are able to extend into arm blades. It's a rather cheap and often-recycled trope to use curved blades that extend from the sides of one's arm, but it's still very cool. Also always loved the long ponytail-style hair that trails from behind its head, and I'm always a big fan of how Grovyle and Sceptile, despite being based visually upon theropods, still looks gecko-y somewhat from their expression if not their clawed leaf-blades and claws. If there's one thing I feel Grovyle doesn't quite do well is that it reduces the club-like tail that both Sceptile and Treecko have to two piddly leaves, which I felt ended up being somewhat of a disconnect... a minor one, though, because as a whole Grovyle might probably be my absolute favourite of all mid-stage evolutions.
The three Hoenn starters, for the generation they debuted in, had their own signature moves. Grovyle and Sceptile's was Leaf Blade, which had an insanely cool animation in the third generation -- newer ones just have a floating green sword materialize and slash the enemy, which is less cool than the actual leaves being animated to form an X-shaped slash onto the enemy.
Grovyle, of course, finally evolves into the mighty Sceptile. I used to be really confused with its official art, not realizing that the tail was supposed to be a huge dinosaurian tail with pine leaves growing out of it. Sceptile looks more upright than Grovyle, and sadly the distinctly-separate leaves on Grovyle's arms are drawn as if they're just blunt claw-like extensions of Sceptile's body... but I've always found Sceptile to be cool nonetheless, with those weird seed pods on its back apparently being able to be launched towards the enemy and explode. Sceptile looks pretty dang cool, and I've always loved how its default expression is a lazy one, but anyone who saw Sceptile in the anime or in Pokken knows that this dude can just slash and hack with blinding speed, turning its arm-blades into the same leaf blades that Grovyle can. Overall, while it probably isn't quite as exciting as Blaziken and Swampert are, I actually like Sceptile a fair bit and over the years it's actually replaced Blaziken as my second-favourite Hoenn starter, having gone through several runs with it.
5/6.#255-257: Torchic, Combusken & Blaziken
- Types: Fire [Torchic], Fire/Fighting [Combusken/Blaziken]
- Japanese names: Achamo, Wakashamo, Bashamo
- Categories: Chick [Torchic], Young Fowl [Combusken], Blaze [Blaziken]
See, I used to really like Blaziken as a kid. And I still do.... just probably not quite as much as I used to. But I've grown way, way too fond of little Torchic that sometimes I feel bad evolving it to its final form. Because Torchic is just so fucking adorable, a baby chicken-bird with near-rudimentary arm-wings, and just so absolutely precious in both anime and games with how it is tottering about. It's easily one of the more popular starter Pokemon due to its appearance alone, which is a shame that it ends up deviating so much as it evolves. Apparently a fire-breathing chicken called Basan exists in Japanese culture, which is neat. Torchic was also prominently featured in the anime and manga, partnered with main female character May in the anime and basically acts as the 'cute' mascot. I can't really blame them, Torchic is pretty cute!
5/6 for Torchic.
And then we get Combusken, which is truly the most awkward-looking middle-stage evolution among all the starters that have came before and have came after. From the gigantic bulb-like thighs to the splayed-out airplane arms with weird claws, to the strangely phallic head and a bill that looks pretty strange, I've always disliked Combusken, and only really forgave it because it's a stepping stone from the adorable Torchic to the badass Blaziken. It's also in Combusken that we start to realize that the line is based on chickens. Kung fu chickens, in fact, since Combusken becomes a Fire/Fighting type. It's a neat pun on the whole concept of cock-fighting, and considering Pokemon as a franchise is often compared to cock-fighting... well, I guess it's appropriate? Combusken itself is honestly boring and honestly if it's standalone I'd complain about it much more... especially considering that it unfortunately resembles a completely different definition of a cock.
2/6.
Blaziken is a pokemon that I had to see in action in the anime, manga and games to really appreciate. When I first saw its official artwork on the side of a TCG booster pack, I was dumbfounded to see what a dumb-looking thing it is. What are those white-hair-things that taper backwards? Why are its legs look like weird furry pillars? Why does it have a gundam V-crest on its forehead? Of course, Blaziken in any sort of animated version ends up being cool. It's often characterized as an over-the-top fighter, uppercutting enemies and doing some crazy burning kicks that wouldn't look out of place in a high-blooded manga like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or Fist of the North Star. A humanoid chicken with the ability to wreath its chicken-leg-arms in flame, delivering powerful kicks (the move Blaze Kick used to be unique to Blaziken), is pretty damn neat, and I end up really warming up to it due to its role in the Pokemon Adventures manga, and especially its incarnation in the Pokken games where it just goes ATATATATATATATATATA in hilariously hammy fashion.
It's highly popular in the community for good reason. It's pretty cool, as far as humanoid Pokemon go, and I've always loved humanoid Pokemon that looked somewhat animalistic too. Again, while the main official artwork might be a little underwhelming, Blaziken has stolen my heart as soon as I first evolved my horrible-looking Combusken in my Ruby playthrough. Perhaps it's just that I've been used to it over time, or that the weird hair-wing things aren't as weird as they look in other poses... eh. While I really wished they incorporated more chicken-esque aspects to it instead of making it look like a generic overdesigned shonen enemy, Blaziken skirts the line enough between merely being complex and cluttered. I do feel that as an evolutionary line, these three are perhaps one of the least smooth evolution, design-wise, among the starters. Overall, despite my criticism, I am actually very much fond of this fire chicken.
4/6.#258-260: Mudkip, Marshtomp & Swampert
- Types: Water [Mudkip], Water/Ground [Marshtomp/Swampert]
- Japanese names: Mizugoro, Numakuro, Raguraji
- Categories: Mud Fish [all three]
"Do u liek mudkips?" is a now-rarely seen meme... but, yes, I do like Mudkip. It is my most often-picked starter Pokemon in the Hoenn games, and I played variations of the Hoenn games more than any other generation. And for the most part, it's simply because Mudkip is just so fucking adorable. And I have nothing towards Treecko or Torchic, since I love them both as well, and both their final forms are pretty damn cool... but I've always loved Mudkip, Marshtomp and Swampert. They're all adorable while both Marshtomp and Swampert look like they can kick ass without losing the adorableness like so many other Pokemon do (looking at you, Blaziken, with your 110% badassery).
Mudkip takes an already interesting animal, the mudskipper -- amphibian bony fishes that can live and move out of water with rudimentary leg-like fins. Obviously the designers took a lot of liberties with Mudkip, as other than being found in swamps and having fins, Mudkip looks more like a weird cute frog or newt baby more than a mudskipper fish. Still, I've always thought that it added to Mudkip's charm, because just look at that precious derpy-ass face. Between its eyes and its huge head-fin and its orange cheeks, I've always loved Mudkip. The adorableness of Brock's Mudkip and Ruby's Zuzu in the anime and manga respectively honestly solidified Mudkip as my absolute favourite in a generation where I'm real big fans of Blaziken and Sceptile as well. In fact, generation III and I might be the only generations where I can unironically say that I truly love all three starters. Mudkip just ends up being the favoured child. Its dex entries note that it senses stuff with its fins, and actually has the strength to lift boulders and crush rocks, noting that even as a kid Mudkip's destined to become something far more powerful than just an adorable frog-fish baby.
Also, shiny Mudkip is a lovely, lovely shade of pinkish-purple. How can you not adore him? You can just imagine this little smiling buddy just trotting along with his precious little legs behind you. I feel like he gets along with fellow huge-smiley-face-adorable-swamp-creature Wooper, because like Wooper, Mudkip evolves into a Water/Ground Pokemon, Marshtomp.
Marshtomp is another one that I have a soft spot for, although I kind of am somewhat pissed that it ends up going to a green-blue shade for no real reason, while both Mudkip and Swampert share the same shade of blue. Still, I have always liked the jolliness of Marshtomp's face (even though the current 3D model has caused him to be the spawn of a new meme where Marshtomp's face is the "face of no mercy" or some shit like that). He's just so happy to stand on two legs! His fins are more pronounced and his tail's split into two, and it's far more readily adapted to land life, and likes the mud a lot. While perhaps nowhere as cool-looking as the likes of Charmeleon or Grovyle, Marshtomp always looks pretty happy and jolly with its bwaaaa face and its happy hands and I love him. Marshtomp and Swampert used to be the only users of Muddy Water (i.e. a dirtier Surf) but they've learned to share it with other muddy, swampy Pokemon like their buddy Quagsire.
And then he evolves into the burly Swampert, which just looks like a monster. It has that awesome mixture of looking like a brute while still looking cute enough, and I've always sort of preferred more un-traditional definitions of cool, which in retrospect is probably my favourite starters tend to deviate to the likes of Torterra, Swampert and Venusaur. Swampert is a neat creature that's essentially a bigger Mudkip, but with Marshtomp's more developed arms. It looks like it tends to spend its time on all fours, but can go bipedal when needed. Also loved how the little eyes are part of the head-fins. Always loved how the dex entries like to play up Swampert's strength and the insistence that it's faster than a jet ski when swimming, and that it can break rocks with a single punch. And as someone who's used Swampert a lot, the bugger is a pretty hard-hitting monster. Always been a big fan of Swampert, and always will be. One of the pokemon among the many of the ones I like that I have such a strong, strong attachment to.
6/6.#261-262: Poochyena & Mightyena
- Types: Dark [both]
- Japanese names: Pochiena, Guraena
- Categories: Bite [both]
From the third generation onwards, we'll get two 'early-game mammals' per game, and one of them tends to not be a pure Normal-type. Poochyena is the first of this trend, with it and its evolution Mightyena both being pure Dark-types. While a simple look at them might suggest that they're simply a dog and a wolf, Poochyena and Mightyena are in fact based upon hyenas, which are actually closely related to cats... their faces just look like dogs, especially the brown hyena. Taxonomy! It's confusing sometimes. Regardless, though, Poochyena is an adorably, scruffy little buddy that definitely looks like what a Dark-type (or asshole-type) mammal would be. It is known as the 'bite pokemon', and it chomps down on its prey and hunts them to exhaustion, and I've always enjoyed how it looked so fierce yet still adorable. I'm a big dog person, of course, which might lead to my own bias towards liking Poochyena, but it is a neat-looking little hyena pup. And while hyenas tend to be characterized as 'villainous' animals (thanks, Disney) I do appreciate that neither Poochyena or Mightyena portray hyenas as scavengers -- actual hyenas are pack hunters, and they don't scavenge any more than lions do.
These two, incidentally, are one of the very first third-generation Pokemon I've seen, popping out of that aforementioned booster pack I bought without any knowledge of the third generation. I was like "a dark-type wolf Pokemon? Neat!" This was, bby the way, fresh off the second generation, where Dark is still hyped up as such a big deal. Nowadays Dark's one of the more common types. And considering how much the third generation shaped me as a fan of this franchise, I have definitely something to owe to these pups. Shame that they were extra-shit in the Generation III games due to having a powerful physical stats, while Dark-type moves were all considered Special.
Poochyena evolves into Mightyena, which... which honestly is far too lupine to really make me instantly go 'yep, that's a hyena' if not for the name. Its dex entries even highlight traditionally lupine features like being loyal to its 'alpha' and skilled trainers. And honestly, that's okay in my books -- keeping it ambiguous and taking traits of different beasts is neat. It's a simple design appropriate for a more badass, grown-up version of the cute little shaggy pup you captured in your first route. It's neat, and I really like how they managed to make Mightyena's black coat look both ruffled yet somewhat majestic. I'm not the biggest fan of the weird markings around Mightyena's eyes that resemble weird tattoos, but the alternative is making him just become a boring cartoon dog, and Mightyena already somewhat looks like a boring cartoon dog even with those markings, so. Overall, a pretty neatly drawn pair of hyena-dogs.
4/6.
Poochyena evolves into Mightyena, which... which honestly is far too lupine to really make me instantly go 'yep, that's a hyena' if not for the name. Its dex entries even highlight traditionally lupine features like being loyal to its 'alpha' and skilled trainers. And honestly, that's okay in my books -- keeping it ambiguous and taking traits of different beasts is neat. It's a simple design appropriate for a more badass, grown-up version of the cute little shaggy pup you captured in your first route. It's neat, and I really like how they managed to make Mightyena's black coat look both ruffled yet somewhat majestic. I'm not the biggest fan of the weird markings around Mightyena's eyes that resemble weird tattoos, but the alternative is making him just become a boring cartoon dog, and Mightyena already somewhat looks like a boring cartoon dog even with those markings, so. Overall, a pretty neatly drawn pair of hyena-dogs.
4/6.#263-264: Zigzagoon & Linoone
- Types: Normal [both]
- Japanese names: Jiguzaguma, Massuguma
- Categories: Tiny Raccoon [Zigzagoon], Rushing [Linoone]
This is the more traditional normal-type rodent, and we get a more down-to-earth one in Zigzagoon, which is a fun little raccoon with furs that spike outwards in a zig-zag pattern. It always runs in a zig-zag pattern, hence its name, which I always loved as a little detail that sets it apart from actual real-life raccoons, something that I thought was a brilliant little addition without being too fancy for an early-game Pokemon. I've always liked Zigzagoon a bit more over many other early-game route Pokemon, simply because of how clean the design is. And while Zigzagoon isn't the only Pokemon with the ability Pickup, it was the first that I experienced the ability with, and I loved the idea of this little bastard trailing behind me and stealing things from people's trash or something like that. We've dabbled on Abilities in the past, but the third generation's big improvement, beyond graphical and mechanical stuff, is the addition of Abilities for every single pokemon -- something that'll shape the generations to come.
Zigzagoon evolves into Linoone, which is a mean-looking bastard that, instead of running in a zig-zag line, it runs in a straight one and can only turn at sharp, right angles. It also has really sharp, mean-looking claws. Linoone is based on some sort of a weasel or mongoose, and it looks fierce yet still somewhat cool, a neat, stark contrast to the cute-and-unthreatening-housepet Furret and the feral-rabies-spreading-screeching-scum Raticate. Linoone isn't my cup of tea because while I'm inherently appealed by dogs like Mightyena I don't care much for rodents, but I appreciate Linoone and Zigzagoon for what they are -- a cute normal-type rodent that evolves into a cooler one. Nothing particularly impressive, but it doesn't do anything really wrong either.
3/6.#265-269: Wurmple, Silcoon, Beautifly, Cascoon & Dustox
- Types: Bug [Wurmple/Silcoon/Cascoon], Bug/Flying [Beautifly], Bug/Poison [Dustox]
- Japanese names: Kemusso, Karasarisu, Agehanto, Mayurudo, Dokukeiru
- Categories: Worm [Wurmple], Cocoon [Silcoon/Cascoon], Butterfly [Beautifly], Poison Moth [Dustox]
Instead of having two competing Bug-types, one of which is more heroic and cute and the other all mean and stingy and poisonous (Caterpie/Ledyba vs Weedle/Spinarak in the past two generations), the third generation made the 'cute flying' early-route bug and the 'evil poison' early-route bug part of the same evolutionary line. They all start off as Wurmple, an adorably spiky little caterpillar that evolves into one of two pupal stages depending on its own personality value (i.e. basically random), Silcoon or Cascoon, which will determine the final form that it takes. Wurmple looks neat, taking a different trope of caterpillar compared to the likes of Caterpie, being spiky and looks like it's the type of caterpillar that will make your arm itchy by touching it. Also love the two stingers on its tail, although I'm not sure about the weird butt-mouth. It's not as bad as Magmar's butt-head since these actually look like they belong on an insect face as some sort of pedipalp deal, but eh.
I remembered the Wurmple line being somewhat controversial because they're just rehashes of the same caterpillar-pupa-butterfly deal that Caterpie was in the first generation, but I've always thought that it's kinda neat for each region to have its own ecology. A lot of people look at the later-generation Pokemon and go "pfft, do we need another Caterpie or Pidgey?" and my answer to that is.... yes. As long as they're drawn well, yes. Of course Hoenn will have Wurmples and Zigzagoons and Taillows instead of Caterpies, Rattatas and Pidgeys. It's a whole different region!
Silcoon and Cascoon are pretty similar, with the differences being their colour and eyes. Silcoon is white and looks like it's tired of life and just really need a proper night's sleep, while Cascoon just looks just so fucking goddamn angry at the world. I've always loved how the older sprites and the official artwork shows that Silcoon and Cascoon both have 'spikes'. Or, well, silk anchors to the branches and leaves around it, something real butterfly and moth pupae often have. Unfortunately, for some bizarre reason, despite Silcoon and Cascoon all being consistently portrayed with 'spikes', since the transition to 3D, they are just shown as weird spheres with the spike-things retracted. Which is not a design choice I'm particularly fond of. I mean, it's not like this has ever stopped them from animating Diglett's little dirt pile, right? Like, I get it, the anime does it... but I didn't like it in the anime either.
While Silcoon's just your boring old cocoon, I've always loved the description of Cascoon never forgetting anyone who attacks it while it's in its helpless pupal stage, wanting to hunt down whoever did it for payback once it has emerged as a Dustox. Also love how Silcoon and Cascoon adapt different types of butterfly/moth pupae, being different from what they did with Metapod.
Silcoon evolves into the Bug/Flying Beautifly, this generation's version of Butterfree and it's based very evidently on the swallowtail butterfly due to the forked hind-wings. Beautifly is also very colourful, with its wings having a neat mixture of yellows, reds and blues. Combine that to the neat fun of having more humanoid eyes mixed with the very anatomically-accurate-to-real-life curled proboscis, and Beautifly actually makes a better butterfly pokemon than Butterfree ever did. Of course, you'd think that Beautifly is a happy little butterfly buddy that drinks nectar and spreads pollen, right? It's so cute, and friendly, and in the anime it's a happy butterfly dude, but... "despite its appearance, it has an aggressive nature. It attacks by jabbing with its long, thin mouth to drain the prey's fluids." So yeah. This adorable little beauty is a psychotic, territorial murderer that literally drinks the blood and fluids of its enemies, actually making Beautifly the more brutal one out of the pair. I've always loved this bit of detail, and while it's all happy and friendly in the anime, Beautifly being a cute face hiding a monstrous personality is present even in its Japanese name, Agehunt. Yeah, this butterfly hunts.
Beautifly is a Pokemon that I've never paid that much attention to, having already had a first love in early-route bugs in Butterfree... but one that I grew to appreciate so much during a relatively recent Nuzlocke of Pokemon Sapphire. One of my longest-running monsters is a Beautifly (I think he's named Aizen) who surprisingly kicks a lot of ass. So yeah, thanks, Nuzlocke challenges, for making me appreciate this previously-under-appreciated pokemon.
Cascoon, meanwhile, evolves into the Bug/Poison Dustox, adapting different traits of months compared to Venomoth -- who honestly is more of a butterfly, really. See, the easiest way to differentiate butterflies and moths is to see how they fold their wings, and Venomoth folds his wings similar to butterflies. So Dustox is actually our first real moth Pokemon. Dustox, like real moths, are easily drawn to light, have powerful radar-antennae, likes to destroy trees when feeding and spreads toxic dust. It's neat, and it is apparently based on Actias artemis, the Japanese moon moth. I guess so? I do like Dustox a lot, from its funky triple-dotted eyes to its fat moth antennae, and its fan-like wings. Dustox's neat, but I've never really taken all that much to him. I think it's the amount of colours for what's supposed to be a more drab Pokemon. The purples and greens clash too much, I think, and looking at shiny Dustox, who simply replaces the greens with yellows, it's such a shame the designers didn't go that way instead.
Overall, a bunch of neat bugs that look both natural enough to be early-route Pokemon, but at the same time differs enough to be unique.
5/6.#270-272: Lotad, Lombre & Ludicolo
- Types: Water/Grass [all three]
- Japanese names: Hasubo, Hasuburero, Runpappa
- Categories: Water Weed [Lotad], Jolly [Lombre], Carefree [Ludicolo]
After we pass through most of the early-route essentials (well, there's Taillow as the early-route bird) we quickly go into a particularly hilarious critter with the unique typing of Water/Grass. It's actually surprising that this is the case -- we never really had any other aquatic plants other than this lilypad? Anyway, I love Lotad. It's one that I encountered very early on in my first playthrough of Sapphire (Lotad's Sapphire-exclusive), just outside of Petalburg City, and I did a brief double take since I was playing the game relatively blind, and I was like "what the fuck is this thing?" It's a cute little... weird blob with a duck face, the most adorable pair of beady eyes, stumpy legs and a huge lily pad on its head. I captured one and it became one of my party members for that first playthrough of Sapphire. It's a really weird little bugger, with a weird type combination, and we get some neat details from future pokedexes that it likes to ferry smaller Pokemon that couldn't swim. According to the Sapphire dex, apparently it used to dwell on land until the leaf on its head became too heavy and it returns into the water.
5/6. Lotad is a good boy!
Lotad quickly evolves into Lombre, which, despite the slightly-racist connotation that tries to pull off a pun with 'sombrero' and ends up like it's calling Lombre a 'hombre', is obviously less based on a particular race, but rather a Kappa. Not the horribly dumb-sounding meme, but the river spirit in Japanese culture commonly portrayed in many works of fiction. Kappas are already almost-always depicted with a dish filled with water on its head, but Lombre combines this with the whole lilypad thing to make itself a Water/Grass creature. Lombre is as mischievous as the kappa it's based on, apparently being dicks and pulling the fishing liens of fisherman just to fuck with them. Alas, while a lilypad kappa monster is a great concept, the execution is definitely suspect. Lombre's face is just straight-up ugly and not in the charming way, and one of the bigger complaints of Generation III is how artificial some of its colour schemes look. And with Lombre's sharp edges in how the green parts of its body cuts off like some sort of weird spandex suit, I can't disagree with that. Also not a big fan of its weird mouth, those weird nub-ears, and the awkward hands.
Also, despite half of its dex entries emphasizing that Lombres are active at night (like real-life kappas), Lombre has never been time-zone specific. It's a huge, huge loss in my book, because Generation III largely dropped pokemon appearing depending on the time of the day, and while it returns in subsequent games Lombre is never affected by it.
2/6 for Lombre.
Once exposed to a Water Stone, Lombre evolves into the hilarious Ludicolo, one of the downright happiest-looking pokemon in existence. It's a weird dancing pineapple-duck-thing with far, far more undeniable Mexican inspiration to it, but god dang just looking at this thing and imagining it waddle back and forth just makes me happy. I mean, it might just be Miror B from Pokemon Colosseum that led me to really love this dumb thing. I mean, while I'm slightly disappointed that they're dropping the obvious kappa monster aesthetic that Lombre has, Ludicolo's happy face is just so infectiously joyful that I can't hate it. It's just so festive and so happy to be dancing and alive and be weird. There's perhaps something that could've been done better here, but for the most part I honestly find it such a weird and happy-looking thing, even if it probably has a wee bit too much going on in a simple design. It works, though, in the same sort of style that Magmar does. It's not my favourite, but I can't deny that I do like it.
4/6 for Ludicolo.#273-275: Seedot, Nuzleaf & Shiftry
- Types: Grass [Seedot], Grass/Dark [Nuzleaf/Shiftry]
- Japanese names: Tanebo, Konohana, Datengu
- Categories: Acorn [Seedot], Malicious [Nuzleaf], Wicked [Shiftry]
The Seedot line is the opposite-game rivals to Lotad's line, with Seedot being exclusive to Ruby and Lotad being exclusive to Sapphire. And while Lombre and Ludicolo are (ostensibly) based on the traditional Japanese yokai Kappa, Seedot's evolutions are based on another, equally-famous kappa, the tengu (I've seen tengu translated as 'mountain goblin' in many English-translated mangas). But just like the Lotad line, Seedot starts off as a innocuous living plant. In its case, Seedot is an acorn with the most adorable little feet and a pair of weird eyes that perhaps rank as my favourite among all Pokemon eyes. It just looks so adorable, and is often portrayed in various sources as using the top of its head to hang down from branches and then surprising unsuspecting fools by dropping down.
5/6 for Seedot. I like Seedot. 
Seedot evolves, particularly drastically, into Nuzleaf, a Grass/Dark type that is quickly obviously some sort of tengu (or, well, some sort of goblin or forest sprite for those less aware of Japanese culture). And... I'm not gonna lie, it's a bit of a jarring evolution and other than the association with plants and their brown colour scheme, I wouldn't have guessed that Seedot evolved into Nuzleaf. Nuzleaf does play on the tengu fantasy pretty well, adapting the more humanoid depictions of the Tengu, with its sinister nature reflected in its Dark-typing, while both the tengu's iconic long nose and wind-manipulating abilities are also adapted. It's not my favourite design, though, with those weird nipples being not particularly necessary, and I've never been a fan of the huge bulb-thighs that the likes of Nuzleaf and Combusken have. I do like how there's a bit of a Pinocchio deal going on with Nuzleaf hating having its nose be pinched, and apparently like real tengus, Nuzleaf likes to play flute-like songs with leaves. Over the years I've grown to appreciate Nuzleaf's weird mark-face a bit better, and if you've asked a younger me about Nuzleaf I'd have nothing but vitriol. Now I'm just mostly neutral.
Like Lombre, Nuzleaf reaches its final form via exposure to a stone, specifically the Leaf Stone, and it's far, far more apparent how tengu-based Shiftry is. Between the far more sinister face, the long, flowing hair, the clickety-clack Japanese sandals and the fan-like arms, Shiftry is a fierce-looking design that honestly looks quite neat. I've never really been that big of a fan of Shiftry, but it's one of those that's just on the cusp of going from "neat design" to "holy shit I love this", I think. Shiftry definitely pulls off a lot of tengu stuff, with all its anime and manga appearances portraying him as a powerful forest spirit creating giant typhoons and hurricanes with its fan-arms. It's a neat, cool-looking evil forest goblin, and I don't mind it.
3/6, bordering on 4/6.#276-277: Taillow & Swellow
- Types: Normal/Flying [both]
- Japanese names: Subame, Osubame
- Categories: Tiny Swallow [Taillow], Swallow [Swellow]
The third generation's early-route bird is a cute little swallow bird, with the iconic mainly-black-with-red-details that they are often depicted in Asian countries. There's honestly not really that much going on for good old Taillow, but it's a neat little design for a cute little bird. It's a scrappy bird that will challenge Skarmories if it has to for a meal, and apparently really likes crying at night. Its design I think doesn't quite communicate the same level of scrappy-ness that Pidgey and Spearow did, but it's a cute baby bird. I don't really have much to say here. Taillow does show up early enough in Pokemon's history that it ends up coming off as a neat contrast to the likes of Pidgey, Spearow, Hoothoot and the other small birds, being in sort of that middle ground between scrappy and cute. A couple generations down the line the regional birds really have to kind of work to be distinctive.
Taillow evolves into Swellow, which, like how it went with Poochyena, essentially just turns Taillow into a bigger, scarier and slightly-more-detailed version of itself. But where Mightyena is based in part on real adult hyenas, Swellow takes on traits of many other birds-of-prey instead of just being, y'know, a swallow, keeping in tone with the trend started by Pidgeot of all early route birds evolving into birds of prey. Swellow, unfortunately, doesn't really have much going on for it. It's just a fully-evolved Normal/Flying bird, and it's a fierce predator... and that's about it. It's got a neat, sleek design, but I've never honestly gotten that attached to Swellow. It's featured pretty heavily in the first few seasons of the anime, but like myself, Ash eventually replaced Swellow with some of the more interesting Hoenn Pokemon out there. It's neat enough for what it is, even if I'm never going to rate Swellow high among my own personal favourites.
3/6.#278-279: Wingull & Pelipper
- Types: Water/Flying [both]
- Japanese names: Kyamome, Perippa
- Categories: Seagull [Wingull], Water Bird [Pelipper]
I've never quite got the vile hatred that people have for Pelipper, but I definitely don't like it. "Hate" is perhaps a bit too strong of a word, and I think I feel towards Wingull and Pelipper the way most people feel about Zubat (if you missed my first-generation reviews... I love Zubat). See, Hoenn is infamous for its large stretches of waterways, with nearly half of the region being just the sea... and Wingull is really, really numerous in Hoenn. Wingull's honestly just a simple version of a seagull, with its head and body lumped into a cute package with some neat blue stripes. Wingull is also Water/Flying, a version of that type combination that makes far, far more sense than Gyarados. I don't really have much to say about Wingull... they're basically like real-life seagulls. They swarm a lot, they screech, and they're not super-interesting.
Wingull evolves into a completely different sea bird, the pelican. Most bird pokemon will actually change into a bird based on a different real-life species when they evolve, and perhaps none are as obvious as Pelipper, becoming a big, fat pelican. The head-body trend continues here, except it looks a fair bit more awkward with Pelipper's massive mouth. It's has weird, weird eyes that I like, and I do kinda like its weird wings, but that huge mouth is just so strange. Hell, I think I picked up an issue of the gag-manga Pokemon starring a Clefairy where they mistook Pelipper for a toilet. And honestly? I think they didn't really do that much with this line other than to make it look weird with the whole "pelican with a HUGE mouth" deal, and the dex entries don't make Pelippers to be any more interesting than its real-life counterpart. Honestly, it's just really bland, and combining it with its sheer volume in the region of Hoenn (and other regions, too, eventually) I just find it kind of blending with a lot of the early birds of other regions. I have grown to appreciate Wingull and Pelipper more over the years, but these aren't going to be a species that I particularly love.
4/6.#280-282: Ralts, Kirlia & Gardevoir
- Types: Psychic/Fairy [all three, Psychic prior to Generation VI]
- Japanese names: Rarutosu, Kiruria, Sanaito
- Categories: Feeling [Ralts], Emotion [Kirlia], Embrace [Gardevoir]
See, if you've read my reviews, you'll probably see a trend that I'm not the biggest fan of humanoid-shaped Pokemon. They tend to look weird and uncanny, and while there are some exceptions to the rule, for the most part the best I can say about the more overtly humanoid ones is that they're tolerable. I've softened my stance on that somewhat over the years, but the first humanoid Pokemon that I really, really liked was Ralts and his evolution line. Gardevoir gets a lot of bad rep in the Pokemon community by the sheer amount of hentai made about her (rule of thumb: never ever google Gardevoir without safe-search on) but I've always found Gardevoir to look more hauntingly weird and graceful more than a lust-object, and as a kid I've found Gardevoir to be more akin to the likes of Banette than Hitmonchan. Plus, as a kid I've always wanted an Alakazam (or really, any super-powerful Psychic-type) but never quite managed to get one because none of my friends had a Link Cable. The third generation finally allowed me to realize that fantasy by introducing Gardevoir, a three-stage pure-Psychic type that focuses more on an 'empath' theme than on the 'esper' theme that Abra's line does.
Ralts is a weird little humanoid with a green hat and two red horns, and the combination of white, green and red is just so striking. It does have some weirdness to its design, like the constantly-bent legs and how they weirdly trail off, but it does look pretty cute, as some sort of shuffling, socially-awkward psychic baby. Ralts, like Abra, is likely to teleport away if you find one in the wild, and it's a rare encounter in the early-game routes... but its existence is actually shown to you when one of the recurring characters, Wally, who gets used as the capture tutorial ends up catching Ralts in that route. Ralts gets a fair bit of screentime as a highly plot-relevant Pokemon in the Ruby/Sapphire manga, and I do find it neat that it senses people's emotions with its horns and approaches those with good feelings. Oh, and while the specificness of this line's inspiration isn't super clear, with the sixth generation, the entire evolutionary line is retconned into Psychic/Fairy. So they're like, psychic pixies or elves or something? Neat.
Ralts evolves into Kirlia, who looks far more humanoid, with the horns moving to the side and the green cap ending up looking like hair. Kirlia also gets a little dress-deal going on, and constantly twirls around like it's dancing, all the while being able to create "rips through dimensions and see the future" and "create images of non-existent scenery". The latter is, of course, a reference to kirlian photography that Kirlia draws its name from. And while Kirlia might look distinctively feminine, the entire line exists in a male to female ratio of exactly 1:1. In fact, while I have traveled with a Ralts in my playthroughs of Sapphire, Emerald, Y and Alpha Sapphire, three times out of four the Ralts has been a dude.
Kirlia then evolves, finally, into Gardevoir. Considering the huge focus on how this Pokemon bonds to its trainer as some sort of psychic guardian angel, I've always found it a huge missed opportunity that Kirlia doesn't evolve into Gardevoir via a friendship evolution. But Gardevoir always looked cool to me, a neat combination of grace and power that made me really excited when my first Kirlia evolved into a Gardevoir and starts mind-blasting everyone with her psychic powers. It's a neat, graceful design that when I first saw it, I thought she just doesn't have a lower body beyond a fluttering dress, becoming some sort of cool non-evil banshee. She actually has long stick-like green legs under all that. I've always found Gardevoir to be cool, from the freakishly alien piece of red... thing... that stabs through her heart, and her devotion to her trainer, being a fierce bodyguard that, when threatened is able to create a black hole. That's pretty hardcore.
Yeah, definitely love (not in the creepy way) the design behind the entire line. And I've used it enough times that I actually found it super-weird when I play through any Hoenn game without one. I have been kind of admittedly burnt out on the line for a while, but the Ralts line is definitely still one of my favourite designs in Pokemon.
6/6.#283-284: Surskit & Masquerain
- Types: Bug/Water [Surskit], Bug/Flying [Masquerain]
- Japanese names: Ametama, Amemosu
- Categories: Pond Skater [Surskit], Eyeball [Masquerain]
Surskit is the only Bug/Water type until the seventh generation, which I thought was cool. Less cool was the fact that it drops the unique Bug/Water combination to become Bug/Flying, which, while sort of makes sense thanks to its life cycle... still makes me feel like it's a bit of a wasted opportunity. Surskit is based on awater strider (Gerridae family), those bugs that have thin, spread legs that allow it to walk on the surface of water, and it's a pretty cool gimmick to turn into a bug pokemon. Surskit only has four legs, but it does honestly have some basis in nature, with most water striders having two particularly long legs to walk on water, with the front two legs being short to help it feed. It's essentially a cute little simplified bug with eyes and a raindrop-shaped main body, and a weird... yellow horn? The dex tells us that the tip of the head secretes a thick, sugary syrup or honey, so that's... honey? Huh. Surskit recently saw a fair bit of usage in the seventh generation, being portrayed as a bit of a counterpart with the newly-introduced Water/Bug Dewpider, apparently fighting for territory, and the two species appearing on opposite times of the day.
Surskit's adult form is Masquerain, something that surprised me because I didn't think the two were related when I first saw the two of them side-by-side in a poster. Hell, they don't even share any same colours! But oh well. Masquerain is a Bug/Flying Pokemon that uses its wings antennas, which ressemble a pair of angry eyes to scare predators off, just like some real-life moths and butterflies. I do like how Surskit's four long legs have degenerated into little, constantly-vibrating wings that kind of help it helicopter around. The pokedex actually emphasizes that the four little white things are wings, and the huge eye-patterened bits are actually antennae. So delightfully weird.
I kind of am torn about Masquerain -- on one hand, it kind of loses everything about Surskit that makes it unique. But on the other hand, Masquerain is just such a weirdly unique take on an insect. It's another Scyther/Scizor situation, where I like both designs, but they're so different that the evolution takes away something from the equation. Masquerain is a pretty neat design, with such a bizarre combination of the likes of dragonflies in how it flies, combined with a butterfly's eyespot wings and a body shaped like something else... it's one of the most unique bug designs, and I can't really fault it. Apparently Nintendo/Gamefreak thinks so too, because unexpectedly, Masquerain was buffed by a full 40 stat points in the seventh generation, giving it the little oomph it needs from being a forgettable joke to somewhat-usable.
4/6.#285-286: Shroomish & Breloom
- Types: Grass [Shroomish], Grass/Fighting [Breloom]
- Japanese names: Kinokoko, Kinogassa
- Categories: Mushroom [both]
Shroomish goes through one of the most bizarre and extreme evolutions that doesn't involve a dumb-looking fish evolving into a sea serpent, turning from what looks like Oddish's distant cousin into a fungus dinosaur. A kung-fu fungus dinosaur. Or a fungus kangaroo? That's right, I was so hilariously tickled when I evolved a Shroomish into a Breloom for the first time and found out that it's not pure-Grass or Grass/Poison... but Grass/Fighting. I've never given the Fighting type much attention in the past two generations other than Poliwrath, and this generation gave us both a kung-fu fire chicken and a kung-fu mushroom dinosaur?
Shroomish's evolution to Breloom might seem like it needed some sort of middle stage explaining what the fuck is going on, but I'm such a big fan of Breloom that I honestly don't care. From the mushroom cap hat, to the weird fake-eyes on its cap, to its dinosaurian build... it perhaps has one or two things too much going on for it -- I could do without the weird neck-frill things, for example -- but Breloom is just so pleasant, and the combination of green, pale-yellow and red really stands out very well. Best of all, one of the biggest "OOOOH" things when exploring the third generation of Pokemon was when I realized that Breloom's piddly T-rex arms are actually attached to a pair of vine-arms, meaning that it can lengthen its arms to deliver powerful punches tipped with two mean-looking claws. I kinda wish the hands end in some sort of Ledian-style boxing gloves to make the 'fighting' bit more prominent, but on the same token, it's one that I don't really get hung up upon. It's even mentioned in the pokedex entries. Also, apparently the seeds on its tail are poisonous spores? While I've always been a big fan of learning the weird creatures both real and mythological that Pokemon are inspired from, Breloom is just a weird kung-fu mushroom raptor that doesn't really have much explanation beyond that, and I love it.
Breloom is just so delightfully weird, and I've always loved it because of that, having used one in some playthroughs of Hoenn games both causal and Nuzlocked. Definitely a huge fan of these two.
5/6.#287-289: Slakoth, Vigoroth & Slaking
The Slakoth line is actually pretty cool, and I've always appreciated Hoenn's Petalburg Forest for actually having a fairly large selection of Pokemon compared to Viridian and Ilex, and one of the uncommon encounters is Slakoth, whose two evolved forms would serve as the mighty signature Pokemon of your dad, Norman. Yeah, Ruby/Sapphire had your dad be a gym leader and it's a rightfully awesome moment when you finally kick his ass. Considering how generic many of the sixth and seventh generation gym leaders are, I'll always remember Vigoroth and Slaking fondly for being part of a very memorable boss fight.
But the first stage of Slaking is Slakoth, which is a sloth that slacks off. Sloths are weird and adorable and is one of the seven deadly sins of man, and Slakoth is just, well, a cartoon sloth. It's a very lazy bugger who sleeps all the time and doesn't like to move, like a real life sloth... which is reflected in it's ability, Truant, which allows Slakoth to move every other turn. It's hilarious, and a very neat way to work in a Pokemon's biology into actual gameplay. The best thing of the third generation is that it allows Pokemon to feel so much more unique without limiting their moveset the way they did with Ditto and Wobbuffet.
Slakoth then unexpectedly evolves into Vigoroth... and I've honestly always thought that Vigoroth and Slaking are two alternate evolutions for Slakoth, one where it continues being lazy and oen where it doesn't. It's a huge, huge surprise to realize that Vigoroth is actually the middle stage, and that, yeah, as weird as it sounds, Slakoth goes from lazy to insanely hyper-aggressive back to lazy. It's really weird, and to this day the progression is perhaps one of my least favourites. Which is a goddamn shame, because I really love the designs of these Pokemon.
Vigoroth and Slaking aren't just sloths, but they take a lot more inspiration from monkeys and apes, with Vigoroth representing like a screeching, wild baboon or mandrill, complete with a baboon's red ass. Vigoroth looks pretty horrifyingly feral, and a pretty great design, transplanting the sloth's two claws onto the arms of a creature that looks like it wants to rip your face off. Vigoroth is the exact polar opposite of Slakoth, where it's noted that "its stress level rises if it's not moving constantly" and its heart beats ten times faster.
And then it evolves into Slaking, "the world's laziest Pokemon", who loses all traits of the sloth and fully becomes like a lazy orangutan creature with a hideous pig-face and constantly scratching its belly. It regains Slakoth's Truant ability, and while it hits like a truck with an Attack stat that rivals some legendaries (hence why Norman's a wee bit difficult) but its crippling ability makes it very impractical to use. It's a neat concept, and the design, I suppose, communicates the dirty, lazy fat ape concept really well. At least the original third-generation sprites gave Slaking a sprite that's roaring, making it look somewhat fierce. The fifth generation and the 3D models ape (heh) the official artwork, while the fourth has it pick its nose. Overall, while I don't mind Slaking, I do feel like the line as a whole would've worked a bit better as a split evolution or something.
3/6.- Types: Bug/Ground [Nincada], Bug/Flying [Ninjask], Bug/Ghost [Shedinja]
- Japanese names: Tsuchinin, Tekkanin, Nukenin
- Categories: Trainee [Nincada], Ninja [Ninjask], Shed [Shedinja; Husk in Japanese]
Oooh yeah, these guys. I fucking love these guys. Nintendo's love for wacky bugs are really apparent in these games, and honestly I'm not sure if Pokemon is the reason I'm such a huge bug fan myself or if my bug fan was what made Pokemon super-enjoyable for me. Regardless, the Nincada trio is a pretty cool concept that I am so glad exists, and I kind of flipped out the first time I saw them. Nincada is a pretty boring, neat adaptation of a cicada nymph, and looks pretty boring. It's white, it's got two gray huge front claws (which actual cicada nymphs are known for), and little rudimentary wings. It's Bug/Ground, which is a reference to how a cicada's nymph stage tends to stay underground. If Nincada's design looks somewhat familiar to an earlier Pokemon, you're absolutely right -- because Paras is also based on a cicada nymph. Nincada's free from all that brain-controlling fungus that has became the real thinking being behind the entity known as Paras, though, so Nincada is free to actually assume an evolved form that actually resembles a cicada.
Nincada evolves into Nnjask, becoming a fully-fledged adult cicada, with a glorious adaptation of a cicada's intricate head. It's Bug/Flying, and it looks pretty cool with a stylish combination of black, gold and red, and, as its name implies, it's a ninja bug. It doesn't quite go as over-the-top as Accelgor will in a couple of generations, with its design being essentially just a slightly-more-elaborate cicada. In fact, from the back I'd be hard-pressed to tell you that it's supposed to be a Pokemon and not just a real cicada. Instead, Ninjask prefers to show off its ninja skills in its insanely overwhelming speed stat, dethroning Electrode as the fastest Pokemon ever (and, at this point, still the fastest non-legendary, non-mega pokemon) and its previously-unique ability of 'Speed Boost', automatically raising its speed every turn. The dex notes that Ninjask moves so fast that it's thought to be invisible, and the only thing that marks its presence is its loud cicada noise.
It's a pretty neat bug, but if that was all there is to Ninjask he's honestly no more interesting than, say, Beautifly or Masquerain. Which isn't to say that those bugs are bad -- but they're just... good bugs. This line pulls off all the stops in the weirdness factor with the fact that Nincada remains the only Pokemon to evolve into two final forms. And that doesn't mean you pick one -- Nincada literally splits into two Pokemon. What? How? That's just such an insanely awesome concept that adapts the cicada's life cycle, where after burrowing out of the ground, cicadas will molt from their nymph (Nincada) stage into their adult (Ninjask) stage, leaving behind the shell of their nymph stage (the exuvia) usually on trees. It's a neat bit and a staple for bug-hunting to find these discarded exoskeletons, apparently.
But see, for a Nincada, the shed skin doesn't just stay discarded. It comes back to life... as our very first Bug/Ghost Pokemon, the shed, discarded skin of a Nincada, complete with a goddamn hole on its back and remnants of what used to be claws, with that glorious little halo on its head. There's definitely a slight angel feel, because those weird-looking wings look more like the remnants of the rip on the exoskeleton's back as Ninjask crawls its way out. It gives this cool sense of a hollow, angelic shell piloted by a ghost of sorts. Behold Shedinja, and I cannot believe just how insanely awesome this evolutionary line is designed.
To get a Shedinja, you must have an empty space and a free Pokeball when Nincada evolves, otherwise the shed skin just gets thrown away to the side, I guess. And Shedinja is just such a bizarre motherfucker that it ends up being another one of my instant favourites in the third generation. Shedinja is a very gimmicky pokemon, too, because it will always have only one hit point... but it has the 'Wonder Guard' ability, which means that unless it's hit by a super-effective move (which admittedly isn't that hard to do -- among Fire, Flying, Rock, Dark and Ghost, the first three in particular are very common) Shedinja cannot take damage. In practice it's useless competitively because things like entry hazards and weather effects kill Shedinja, but by god, it's so fun to use in a simple playthrough. While I tried to raise one many times back when I was a kid, I was kinda dumb about type matchups back then. I finally had the opportunity to have one in my Alpha Sapphire playthrough and it's so much fun to get him into fights where he literally cannot be harmed. There is a sense of glorious satisfaction when you realize that Steven Stone's mighty pseudo-legendary Mega Metagross can do nothing but helplessly watch as all its moves fizzle against this hollow bug shell.
The third generation has an explosion when it introduced ghost-types, which took me by surprise. In addition to Shedinja we have two more ghost-type lines and one more non-evolving ghost-type, which tickled my fancy. I always thought that ghosts and dragons were going to be one-offs thanks to how they were presented in the first two generations, and it was a treat to see one of my favourite types get so much more love... and the fact that one of those entries is the insanely bizarre Shedinja makes me just fall in love with this line so much. The third generation's dex entries also took a level in being nightmarish, too. Because, see, if an unmoving, unliving dead hollow shell of what-was-once-living wasn't creepy enough, the hole in its back will steal the soul of anyone who peers into its hollow body. And, of course, all Shedinja sprites show you that goddamn hole.
So yeah, from a purely creative standpoint, Shedinja is one of my absolute favourites. It adapts such a recognizable (yet still appropriately bizarre) animal that's culturally popular in Japan, but takes so much of a spin on it to make such a weird and creative creature like this. Easily one of my favourites.
6/6.#293-295: Whismur, Loudred & Exploud
- Types: Normal [all three]
- Japanese names: Gonyonyo, Dogomu, Bakuongu
- Categories: Whisper [Whismur], Big Voice [Loudred], Loud Noise [Exploud]
Oh man, this evolution line is bizarre. It's a line that's entirely Normal-type, but unlike Slakoth or Zigzagoon, the Whismur line isn't apparently based on any real-life animal. In fact, the entire line is a weird monster species based on a sound theme, with Whismur being an adorable pink blob with gigantic ears resembling big beats, and I've always adored Whismur's weird plus-shaped eyes. Whismur gets an entire tunnel to itself in Ruby/Sapphire, and I absolutely love this little fucker. See, Whismur is a very skittish and cowardly Pokemon, and while normally quiet, Whismur is scared of loud noises. And when a loud noise happens, it will scream in terror... except Whismur innately has a loud noise -- as loud as a jet plane, in fact -- and it will cry even harder because its own loud voice scares itself, until it falls asleep tired. By god, the poor dude just can't catch a break, right? I love it, I love how it is portrayed as often shivering in the anime and manga, and I kinda like that this kind of feels like it's filling the "cute Normal-type blob" role that Jigglypuff or Clefairy filled in the first generation, but goes with a less saccharine definition of cute.
With Whismur's evolution, though, it's a bit more of a mixed bag. I kinda get what they're going for with Loudred -- Whismur's destiny is to evolve into louder and louder monsters, because they're a species whose whole gimmick is loud noises, and for its ugly face (the newer sprites and 3D models have his mouth move and it looks so much uglier), Loudred at least looks like it's enjoying itself, with its giant speaker ears and its loud mouth... but I'm not the biggest fan of its design. I used to absolutely loathe this design, but I've mellowed out somewhat over the years, thanks to using one in a Nuzlocke challenge... but I won't say that I like him. The design perfectly communicates that this is one noisy fat bastard, which succeeds. Definitely not my thing, though.
Loudred evolves once more into Exploud, which shares Loudred's colour scheme and giant mouth with those teeth, although it's got far more things going on. It's got bloodshot red eyes, it's got two giant tails, and a lot of pipes on its head and cheeks and even its elbow and knees. Exploud is some sort of insane hybrid of a fat goblin creature, a pipe organ and a loudspeaker, and... yeah, just looking at this creature gave me an earache. The pokedex describes that its roar can simulate an earthquake... and I totally buy it. I do appreciate that neither Loudred nor Exploud really try to look like any real animal or plant but rather just a non-specific monster, which is a rarity from this generation onwards, for better or for worse. These noise-makers are not my thing, and they will never be my thing, but they're inoffensive.
3/6.#296-297: Makuhita & Hariyama
- Types: Fighting [both]
- Japanese names: Makunoshita, Hariteyama
- Categories: Guts [Makuhita], Arm Thrust [Hariyama]
Oh, speaking about Pokemon that aren't my thing... I actually like Makuhita a fair bit. It's a fat sumo dude that looks like Majin Buu got repainted into yellow and invested in trying to do some martial arts training. It's like some sort of a sumo wrestler, but it's got this weird ribbon on top of its head that sort of makes it look... like... a punching bag? A dumpling? I dunno. Makuhita is the first Fighting-type in the Hoenn pokedex, and it also serves as the 'ace' for the second gym leader, the Fighting-type expert Brawly. It's neat. It's like this happy little sumo wrestler who's just so pleased to fight, but not in the blood-thirsty way. Most of his dex entries tend to focus on him storing energy to properly evolve, which ends up evolving into....
3/6 for Makuhita.
3/6 for Makuhita.
Hariyama. Ooh. It's very messy. My opinion on this thing hasn't changed over the years. It's the sort of thing that I can't really defend when first-generation purists complain that the third generation is "overdesigned". And while the third generation do adopt a different design philosophy compared to the first two, for the most part I don't take issue in any of the design choices. Part of it is perhaps nostalgia, but I really can't bring myself to defend Hariyama. I get the concept behind it -- it's showing off the harite, a technique in a sumo match of thrusting an open-handed slap to push the opponent. But the design just looks so nonsensically messy. From yet another example of a big spherical blob being an awkward leg, to the weird shapes of its weird yellow skirt, to way too many angles that don't really end up looking super-apparent... Not to mention that it doesn't look anywhere as adorable as Makuhita does. I dunno. Hariyama's just messy, and while I kind of appreciate that this humanoid Fighting pokemon doesn't try to just be super-humanoid, this is probably not the way to go.
1/6 for Hariyama. #298: Azurill
- Types: Normal/Fairy [Normal prior to Generation VI]
- Japanese names: Ruriri
- Categories: Polka Dot
The third generation introduced a couple more 'babies', and to explain why Marill didn't lay Azurill eggs in the second generation, they brought in one of my least favourite mechanics -- incenses. Pokemon has this little bit of weird OCD when it comes to consistency, so they keep introducing new forms to evolve or breed new pokemon, while at the same time making sure that it's explained why you can't acquire Azurills in the previous game. "But of course, you don't have the required item to properly have Marill breed a weaker version of itself". Which raises a huge question when I first learned about Azurill. So Marills lay Marill eggs naturally, and having it hold this 'Sea Incense' ends up with Marill laying an egg that hatches into Azurill... which is arm-less, far tinier than Marill and isn't Water-type, but Normal-type? Did I just cause my Marill to create a premature baby?
Pokemon isn't that dark, of course, but honestly the incense-born babies never felt right, like they're some sort of artificially-forced sub-species created due to human interference. Azurill always looks sad in all its official artwork (not the sprites, thankfully), even though it sits on its cute little balloon ball tail (which contains nutrients, feeling so much more disturbingly like an egg yolk sac). It's cute enough and different enough from Marill for me to not mind him. Probably not necessary, but not a bad addition to the dex.
3/6.#299: Nosepass
- Types: Rock
- Japanese names: Nozupasu
- Categories: Compass
Nosepass gets way too much hate, in my opinion. This pure Rock-type is definitely not the most pleasant-looking Pokemon out there, and, yes, there are so many more in this generation, as well as those before and after it, that looks so much cooler, cuter and quirkier than him. But honestly, I thought Nosepass was weirdly hialrious. A moai statue with little toy-like arms and stumpy legs, and a nose that works like a compass? Nosepass is certainly nowhere as impressive as Onix as the final pokemon of the first gym leader, I admit it, but I never hated him. He did have a rather shitty-looking sprite in the original third-generation games that got me and my friends thinking that his upraised feet was supposed to be a suction-like mouth... but I've always liked the bizarreness of this thing. Its arms can swivel up to become the 'ears' of the moai statue, and there's a neat little sequence in the anime and manga where Nosepass's "must look at the north!" gimmick ends up being a neat little adversary for our heroes to overcome. It's not the best that Pokemon has to offer, certainly -- I'm not going to make an argument that Nosepass is suddenly one of the top twenty best designs -- but I've never hated this thing. It's weird, but not terrible.
3/6.#300-301: Skitty & Delcatty
- Types: Normal [both]
- Japanese names: Eneko, Enekororo
- Categories: Kitten [Skitty], Prim [Delcatty]
Skittehhh! This kitty is the adorable face of this region, and you know what? I'm not a big cat person, but Skitty's pretty dang adorable. It's very stylized cat with a little chunky body, a huge head, a pleasant pastel pink-and-yellow colour scheme, a happy slit-eyed face that doesn't have a fang, and this weird little tail. Skitties really like chasing after its own tail, something depicted very adorably in the anime and manga, and when it catches it, it just hugs it and collapses because it's too dizzy. It's a neat take on the cat that emphasizes the utter cuteness of a cartoon cat as opposed to the more catlike Meowth. Ultimately there's actually not much to Skitty other than the fact that it's cute and not the most conventional cat design, but there you go.
Unfortunately, Skitty's relatively unique design gets lost when she evolves into Delcatty. Delcatty's got a nice shade of purple, and still looks pleasant in her own right, but she just looks kinda boring. It's like a rejected idea for an Eevee evolution with Skitty's ears slapped on, and a weird little necklace with weird little bobble-head pins stuck on them, looking nowhere as organic as Skitty's tail-things. Delcatty's dex entries are pretty boring, and it's just... so boring. It's like they settled on a neat design for Skitty, and just kinda panicked on designing an evolution and half-assed one. Skitty evolves through the moon stone, which plays into the moon-shaped mark on Skitty's face... but does Delcatty have any sort of connection to the moon? Nah. I dunno why I'm so hard on Delcatty, when her real crime is just being kind of boring.
3/6.
3/6.
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