Gotta Review 'Em All - Moves [Generation II]

A follow-up to an article on the Generation I moves, and, well, quoting myself from that post: "Pokemon moves are so hard to talk about. How do I even include images of them? Their newest generation animations? Their first debut? Anime? Manga? And how do I really talk about them, because at some point things sort of blur together." That was why the first Pokemon move post took so long to write, and this second one took even longer. 

But eventually, in-between posts and lulls, this article finally got done, months after I originally intended to post it. Oh well!

I feel like after Generation III, I'll have to start combining generations together in these "reviewing moves" article, but Generation II still gave us a whole ton of brand-new moves. But I think after the massive hump of the first two generations, it would be much easier for me to rapid-fire talk about moves later on. It already is much easier now that we've gotten through a lot of the more 'boring' moves, so to speak, in Generation I, and the moves here are a bit weirder and wackier. 

As with my review of moves in Generation I, these will be ordered by type, but otherwise it'll be arbitrary as I go through Bulbapedia's list of moves. 

___________________________________

Normal-type Moves:

Just like my review of moves introduced in Generation I, we have a whole lot of Normal-type moves that are simply kind of there to... fill a niche? I'm just glad that I don't have to talk about like a half-dozen different physical actions that an animal can do. As with my G1 moves review, I'll be grouping these into rough sub-categories due to the sheer number of Normal-type moves. 

• Flail (Jitabata/Wriggling): A move that I was kind of surprised didn't originate in Gen-I, Flail is another one of those moves that's relatively simple -- it's sort of like a desperate wriggling and flailing, doing more damage to the enemy the more wounded your Pokemon is. Neat from a mechanics perspective, I suppose, but doesn't leave me a whole ton to talk about. 
• Extreme Speed (Shinsoku/Swiftness): "It's when a Pokemon's speed goes to the extreme!" as the much-memed line from Brock goes. Extreme Speed (I really liked how it was parsed in the older games as Extremespeed, like you have to say the whole thing as a single word) is basically a much more powerful version of Quick Attack, and I think there was some mechanic that prioritizes Extreme Speed even more than any other move? It's extreme.
• False Swipe (Mineuchi/Back-Sword Strike): Oh, I get it. Striking with the back of the sword, like Rurouni Kenshin. False Swipe is a pretty interesting move becasue it'll never deal lethal damage, always leaving the opponent with 1 HP. Or, well, whatever equivalent word to 'lethal' that describes fainting, anyway. Extremely useful in catching Pokemon on paper, but I feel like once the franchise introduces Quick Balls, this move really doesn't get used all that often.
• Rapid Spin (Kosoku Supin/Rapid Spin): A minimal-damage move, but the idea is that you spin so fast that you knock off whatever is on the field. Moves like Leech Seed and entry hazards (we'll cover them later) get nullified. I'm not sure how useful this move actually is in actual competitive gameplay, though. I'm a casual pleb!

Next up, we have a bunch of Normal-type moves that I felt are a bit more ubiquitous:

• Hidden Power (Mezameru Pawa/Awakened Power): Hidden Power is very strongly associated with Unown, who was hyped up pretty heavily by both Gold & Silver as well as the third anime movie. And the animation is pretty cool, isn't it? A bunch of orbs spinning around your Pokemon, and then it expands and one of them slams onto the enemy? Sometimes it deals super-effective damage, sometimes it doesn't... the idea is that the type of Hidden Power or 'Awakened Power' is unique to each individual Pokemon. No, not Pokemon species, but your specific Pokemon, with their ID values and whatnot. In more casual gameplay it's kind of a fun, gimmicky move, but in competitive gameplay you can really shore up your weaknesses if you manage to 'roll' into a specific Hidden Power typing. 
• Return (Ongaeshi/Return Favour) and Frustration (Yatsuatari/Angry Outburst): These pair of moves are tied to the 'friendship' or 'friendliness' mechanic introduced in Generation II... and out of the many other evolution mechanics, I felt like the friendship one is the longest-running one that is consistently portrayed in all subsequent generations. So depending on whether your Pokemon likes you or not, Return will do much more damage. And Frustration scales up based on how much the Pokemon dislikes you. I guess the idea is to slap it to a newly-caught Pokemon, or one you put Self-Destruct on? Of course, the nature of this game means taht it is so much easier to maintain a Pokemon's happiness, making Frustration and interesting gimmick that's ultimately kind of useless. Return, on the other hand, is extremely easy to maintain and for a while, it's one of the more powerful Normal-type move.
• Also, I think almost all Pokemon that can learn TM’s can learn Hidden Power, Return and Frustration? 

Moving on to a couple more pretty common moves that don't do damage...

• Scary Face (Kowai Kao/Scary Face): This one feels pretty common, and kind of joins the likes of Growl and Tail Whip as a pretty standard move that early-level Pokemon have. The animation tends to be pretty cool, too, with a symbolized angry face manifesting in front of the user. The effect is a reduction of speed, which represents the affected Pokemon quaking in their proverbial boots, I suppose. 
• Sweet Scent (Amai Kaori/Sweet Scent): Despite always being relatively consistently shown as taking the form of pink flower petals, Sweet Scent isn't a Grass-type move? It basically distracts the enemy and causes them to be less evasive. It's one of the handful of non-HM moves that you can use in the overworld -- any time a Pokemon activates Sweet Scent and you're standing in tall grass, you're guaranteed to trigger an encounter.
• Foresight (Miyaburu/Thought Read): The name looks badass ('thought read!') and the animation tends to involve a magnifying glass of some sort. The idea is basically the user Pokemon manages to get so attuned to the enemy's mind that they can ignore all sorts of evasive moves (like Minimize or Double Team), and, more interestingly, allow Ghost-types to be hit by moves they are normally immune to. Pretty cool, honestly, conceptually. 
• Lock-On (Rokku On/Lock On): One with a pretty cool animation of a sniper rifle's crosshairs to appear, Lock-On ensurse that the next move your Pokemon makes will absolutely hit, bypassing even the invulnerable turn in Dig or Fly or Dive. As its name implies, most of the Pokemon that can use Lock-On are the ones that are kinda vaguely firearms-themed. The likes of Magneton, or Porygon, or Octillery, or Klinklang, or Dragapult. It is one of those moves that is a bit more impractical than it's worth, but I did have fun with my Magnezone equipped with Lock-On and Thunder in the Alola games. 
• Mind Reader (Kokoro no Me/Heart's Eye): This has the exact same effect as Lock-On, but is flavoured differently. Instead of taking aim with crosshairs, this move basically uses martial skills (or your 'mind's eye' or 'heart's eye', as the original Japanese name can be translated to) to predict where the opponent is going to move next. I'm not sure why this move isn't classified as a Psychic-type or a Fighting-type, though. 

And here are another set of moves that don't actually do damage to the opponent. Some of these are very iconic, particularly...

• Attract (Meromero/Mad Love): Attract! So yeah, your Pokemon just makes themselves so handsome/beautiful and appealing to the opposite gender that they're just immobilized by love. Generation II also introduced the gender mechanic. Despite its debilitating nature, it's actually not classified as a proper status condition, unlike Poisoning or Paralysis, so you can't even use items to make your Pokemon not-horny. 'Genderless' Pokemon like Magneton can't be affected by this move. In Generation II, it's exclusive to a TM, but I think almost all the trainers in Whitney's gym use this move. Attract is one of those moves where a majority of the Pokemon species is able to do it. 
• A little trivia -- up until Sword/Shield, the genderless Cryogonal was able to learn Attract despite the fact that it doesn't have gender and thus the move will always fail. Poor Cryogonal! It just wants love, but no one wants to love it...
• Mean Look (Kuroi Manazashi/Dark Look): I love Mean Look for the simple fact that it has helped me out in catching so many 'roaming' legendaries. Mean Look uses the power of a Pokemon's extremely mean expression to prevent an opponent from fleeing (or switching out in a trainer battle).
• Also, while in most earlier generations Mean Look was represented by a demonic eye, since Generation VII onwards, they've used Espurr's now-memetic 'I have seen some shit' eyes as the effect for Mean Look.
• Swagger (Ibaru/Swagger): This one debuted in Generation II? Huh. I was pretty damn annoyed by this in Generation III for sure! It's an interesting move -- by swaggeing and probably taunting the enemy and stuff, you give the enemy an attack buff... but also causes them to fall under the confusion status effect. I guess the enemy gets so confused by your swaggering that they become aggrssive but also confused? The idea is that it's a bit of a gamble -- the attack buff is going to benefit the enemy, sure, if they manage to get an attack out from confusion. Extremely annoying from Hoenn's Mightyenas. A move that I really felt should've been another type, this time Dark. 
• Encore (Ankoru/Encore): An absolutely hilarious move! Pokemon that use Encore encourage the opponent Pokemon so much and they even get a spotlight and some confetti around them, causing them to constantly use the same move over and over for the next five turns. Extremely niche, but still rather hilarious! Looking at the list of Pokemon that's able to naturally learn Encore, it is kind of interesting that most of them have some sort of 'showmanship' role to them. 

You can really tell that Generation II was when the game designers tried to be a lot more creative in terms of self-buff moves and the like, because we do get a fair bit:

• Psych Up (Jikoanji/Self Suggest): ...how is this not a Psychic-type move? Hell, most of the Pokemon that can learn this move is Psychic-type, or associated with Psychic-type moves. Even the description talks about how it is a form of self-hypnosis, where the Pokemon with Psych Up will copy the stat buffs that the enemy has (so, for example, if you've cast Swagger on the enemy). 
• Belly Drum (Haradaiko/Belly Drum): Belly Drum is one of my favourite self-buff moves, mostly because of how insane the buff you get. I'm still not sure how drumming on your own belly buffs your physical Attack stat so intensely -- though the self-damage does make sense. Originally, it's mostly rather fat or round-shaped Pokemon that's able to do this, but then we've got some rather interesting outliers like Zigzagoon or Cubone being able to do this. Not overly creative as far as a move in an RPG goes -- you take a huge risk for a huge return. 
• Baton Pass (Baton Tacchi/Baton Touch): One of the more interesting status moves that you can build a team around is Baton Pass -- flavour-wise, it's based on runners in a sprint relay passing a baton to the next runner. Only since this is an RPG game, you pass all the buffs you've accumulated to the next Pokemon as you switch out. The ide is to have a Pokemon equipped with a bunch of useful self-buff moves (or an ability that facilitates that, in later games), and then pass them over to a murder-machine like a Salamence or something. I've always found Baton Pass to be a pretty cool move! 

And then a couple that synerize specifically with the Sleep condition, or rather, the move Rest:

• Snore (Ibiki/Snore): Snore is a damaging move that can only be used when the user is asleep. A very cute flavour -- the snoring itself damages the opponent! Again, the idea here is that you can offset the problems caused by the move Rest, milking as much value as you can from not attacking for three turns.
• Sleep Talk (Negoto/Sleep Talk): Sleep Talk, on the other hand, selects a move randomly from the other moves your Pokemon has and casts it instead. I know Pokemon are supposed to be animals with elemental powers and stuff, but I think the flavour is like... during the sleep-talking, the Pokemon instead 'casts' a spell it knows so well already? Kinda hilarious!

And yet another set of moves that are very much protective:

• Protect (Mamoru/Protect): Almost ubiquitous at this point, particularly in Generation III and IV games. Protect just blocks almost all damage from hitting you -- most memorably to me manifesting as a green-coloured forcefield screen in the Gen-III games. Basically most Pokemon can use Protect, making you waste the PP of your moves. The disadvantage is that Protect kind of has a chance to fail the more times you use it in a single battle, but, again, you waste your enemy's PP. A lot more interesting in double battles, where you might goad an opponent to attacking a vulnerable-looking Pokemon and it instead uses Protect, while the other one attacks. Or one of your party members uses Protect while the other unleashes a move that hits everyone on the field.
• Endure (Koraeru/Endure): Oh, this one is cool. It's like a self-inflicted 'bracing' where a Pokemon will always survive with 1 HP regardless of the amount of damage done to it if it's 'enduring'. Not particularly useful on its own since it's just delaying the inevitable, but with other moves like Bide, Pain Split, Endevaor and a couple of others, there are some cheeky shit you can do by reducing your Pokemon's health to 1.
• Safeguard (Shinpi no Mamori/Mysterious Safeguarding): Often described as a 'mystic power' or a 'mystic veil', Safeguard causes an aura of light to protect your side of the field from status effects for like, five turns? Interesting, although this is another one of those moves that felt kind of obligatory from a gameplay standpoint more than from a flavour standpoint. Another one that I felt could've been Psychic or Fairy-type?
• Heal Bell (Iyashi no Suzu/Heal Bell): Originally quasi-exclusive to Miltank and Celebi (though Chansey and Snubbull can be 'bred' with this move from Miltank), Heal Bell is one of the few moves that actually affects Pokemon that are not on the field. The bell actually heals all status conditions. I guess Pokemon in balls can hear the sound of the bells?
• Perish Song (Horobi no Uta/Song of Perishing): A rather creepy move (why is this a Normal-type move?), Perish Song is available to a bunch of Pokemon associated with singing or wailing. Lapras, Misdreavus, Politoed, Cursola, Absol... basically, the Pokemon sings, and in three turns, anyone who hears the song will faint without any exception. It's absolutely nasty, particularly when you combine this with moves like Mean Look or Spider Web that locks your opponent in the field, while you switch out whoever casted Perish Song. I've seen this portrayed in a pretty creepy way in the Adventures manga and the general twang noise that they use in the games is definitely pretty creepy!

And finally (not really) we have a half-dozen moves that debuted as 'signature moves' unique to a single Pokemon line at first. 

• Morning Sun (Asa no Hizashi/Morning Sunlight): Originally exclusive to Espeon and later shared with other Pokemon associated with the sun (Sorlock, Cherrim, Solgaleo...) Morning Sun is a healing move that gets even more powerful when it's the day, and even more so when the weather (more on that later) is sunny.
• Sketch (Sukecchi/Sketch): Smeargle's signature move and still unique to that species. Smeargle itself is kind of a gimmicky Pokemon, and all the gimmick depends on 'Sketch'. Every 10 levels, Smeargle will learn 'Sketch', and when Smeargle uses Sketch in response to another Pokemon using a move, that movie is permanently copied to Smeargle's current arsenal of moves, replacing Sketch. A very, very cool gimmick that I'm actually surprised debuted so early on in the franchise's history. The result, of course, is that Smeargle is the ultimate ridiculous Pokemon in terms of the combination of moves it can use, since Smeargle kind of bypasses the idea of signature moves or whatever.
• Present (Purezento/Present): Delibird's signature move (though it can be bred to a bunch of random baby Pokemon), this move plays to Delibird's Santa Claus theme. Delibird will reach into its bag, pull out a present, and toss it at the enemy. Most of the time it's an explosive present (and the damage is random, of course) but sometimes you even heal the enemy! Completely impractical to use in actual combat, but it's the type of hee-hee-hilarious flavour move that I appreciate them putting into the games. 
• Milk Drink (Miruku Nomi/Milk Drink): Obviously, Miltank's signature move, and currently only shared with Skiddo. The animation has Miltank summon a bottle of milk and drink it, but... but if we take this literally, Miltank either drinks it from her own udders or squeezes it out in the battlefield... yeah... best not to think too much about it. I completely forgot, too, that this is a move you can use out of battle to basically heal your entire party. 
• Pain Split (Itamiwake/Pain Split): Misdreavus' signature move, I'm baffled why this isn't a Ghost-type move? Especially since when it becmae available to other Pokemon, it's still mostly Ghost, Dark and Psychic types that can use it? The move's name basically tells you what it does -- both combatants' HP is split equally in two between them. So the idea is that Misdreavus might get injured with Curse or Endure or something, and then boom, suddenly the damage is split between the two combatants. A rather bizarre move, and one that, I feel, is pretty flavourful to the trickier, cheekier aspects of Ghost-types.
• Conversion 2 (Tekusucha 2/Texture 2): A move that's unique to the (of course) Porygon line, the original Conversion basically switches Porygon's type to that of the target. Cute, but not very useful. Conversion 2 is another type-switching move, but it switches Porygon's type into one that's resistant to the last move it's hit, which... is still gimmicky, but it does play well into Porygon's whole theme of being a digital being that morphs in respose to things in the environment.

___________________________________

Fire-type Moves:

There's really not too many moves out of the more 'basic' elements, since... honestly, between the obligatory 'weak' moves (your Embers and Water Guns), the obligatory 'middle' moves (your Razor Leafs and Bubblebeams), your obligatory end-game moves that come in highly accurate (your Thunderbolts and Flamethrowers) or more-powerful-but-inaccurate (your Thunders and Fire Blasts) flavour, there really isn't too much space for Fire, Water, Grass, Electric and Ice to really... expand, y'know?

Generation II, however, gives us one of the biggest 'set' of moves that future generations would expand a lot upon... weather moves! And we'll start weather moves off with...

• Sunny Day (Nihonbare/Clear Skies): Sunny Day! So 'weather' moves sets the weather to a certain effect that acts similarly to a 'field card' in a TCG game, an effect that just continues for a set amount of turns. Sunny Day, as its name implies, boosts Fire-type moves and weakens Water-type moves, but also causes some other moves to interact in interesting ways. Moves relating to the sun like Solarbeam, Morning Sun, Moonlight and Synthesis get boosted -- and Solarbeam only taking one turn to charge ends up becoming one of the combos you can do here. Later generations (particularly III and IV) would capitalize more on the 'Drought' ability, as well as other abilities relating to the weather. But... but I've always thought this to be cool, to have a Pokemon change the battlefield so much that it affects how other Pokemon battles. And to have this be set up and change the battlefield instead of the Pokemon itself (a la Baton Pass). And the weather is something everyone can understand pretty easily, y'know?
• Flame Wheel (Kaen Guruma/Flame Wheel): Filling a niche of a mid-game move, Flame Wheel is always pretty damn cool to me. I associate it particularly with Quilava, where both anime and manga often portray the weasel spinning around and having its head and rear flames create the signature 'flaming wheel' before ramming onto the enemy. Flame Wheel was originally only available to the Growlithe and Cyndaquil lines... but is breedable to... Rattata? Okay, haha, what?
• Sacred Fire (Seinaru Hono/Sacred Fire): From Generation II onwards, most legendary Pokemon would have a move that's unique to them and them alone -- and for Ho-Oh, the great phoenix, it is 'Sacred Fire', which just looks cooler by dint of being blue and white. Later on, the only other Pokemon to share the ability of learning Sacred Fire is Entei -- who itself is canonically raised by Ho-Oh, so it makes sense that Entei would also be able to channel the flames of its 'master'!

___________________________________

Grass-type Moves:

Not too much for me to really say here. Grass kind of synergizes a bit with Fire-types and Sunny Day, but for the most part, Generation II just kind of plugs in the gaps. Between Giga Drain and Synthesis, the additional moves added here really kind of cements Grass-types as being a bit of a 'tricky' type. 

• Giga Drain (Giga Dorein/Giga Drain): ...like with Giga Drain. I love Giga Drain, I've used it so much over so many Pokemon games and so many Grass-type partners. It's basically Mega Drain, but stronge, and up until Energy Ball comes up, Giga Drain is probably the most powerful and reliable Grass-type attack since Solarbeam needed two turns to charge. And Giga Drain just... heals you too, y'know? There is just a special sense of 'haha, gotcha' when you not only injure your enemy a bunch but also heal in the process. 
• Synthesis (Kogosei/Photosynthesis): I alluded to Synthesis a while back, and Synthesis (basically 'photosynthesis', except the Game Boy Color didn't have that many letters for move names) just has the Grass-type Pokemon... heal itself. It gets boosted by the sunlight, too. 
• I would like to point out that Pokemon has almost been consistent at not giving Synthesis to the leafless Tangela, or to the fungal-based Paras, Shroomish and Morelull... but Foongus is able to learn it. For shame, Pokemon!
• Cotton Spore (Wata Hoshi/Cotton Spore): A cute move originally shared only by the Mareep line and the Hoppip line, this move just has the Pokemon launch a bunch of fluffy spores that slows down the opponent. Obviously Grass-types like Jumpluff, Eldegoss, Whimsicott and the cacti are able to do it, but I find it extra-hilarious that Mareep the sheep is one of the original users of this move. 

___________________________________

Water-type Moves:

Again, I really don't have too much to say here that I haven't before. Like the Fire-type moves, there really isn't too many new moves beyond the whole weather stuff going on. Just like most of the things in Generation II, I guess a lot of these things felt more like it was 'supplementary', I guess? I know the Pokemon designs were, but were these moves also on the cutting room floor when they made Generation I? I really don't have too much to say anymore in these intros. 

• Rain Dance (Amagoi/Rain Prayer): Rain Dance is basically the reverse of Sunny Day. Everything Sunny Day enhances, Rain Dance nerfs. And the idea is basically pretty cute, taking on the whole idea of tribal dances or prayers summoning the rain itself. In addition to the whole interaction with nerfing Fire-type moves and buffing Water-type moves, Rain Dance also has another specific move that it is tied to -- Thunder. Thunder, which is notorious for having terrible accuracy, gets 100% accuracy in the rain. That's just cool, isn't it? That's like the coolest thing ever when I found out about it back when I played Pokemon Emerald for the first time and realized how the weather moves worked. It is questionable on just how logical it is -- sure, thunderstorms happen when it is raining, but it's not like the presence of rain suddenly causes every single thunderbolts to home in right at whoever you're fighting. 
• Whirlpool (Uzushio/Whirl Tide): Generation II was (in)famous for having three different water-based HM's for exploration, with Surf making a return, Waterfall being upgraded into a HM move, and Whirlpool being introduced here. Whirlpool itself is the most useless of these moves, though, since instead of being well-damaging, Whirlpool is basically just a small-damage-over-time move that really isn't worth the effort of putting it in your repertoire. It is visually impressive in the anime and manga, though, and I'm pretty sure that the anime staff snuck in (or independently thought up of) this move in the Generation I seasons. 
• Octazooka (Okutan Ho/Octank Cannon): How cute is it that Octillery of all people had a signature move? How cute is it that it's a hilarious puny name? it's literally just Octillery bracing itself and launching a glob of ink. But the name 'Octazooka' really, for some reason, gives me the mental image of the 'artillery' part of Octillery's name really hammering it home, like you get the recoil and the explosive kaboom from a howitzer cannon or something. 

___________________________________

Electric-type Moves:

• Spark (Supaku/Spark): Spark sort of filled in the niche of a medium-powered move between the weaksauce Thundershock and the endgame duo of Thunder and Thunderbolt. I've always had a soft spot for this move's animation in the GBA and DS games. It really wasn't anything special until the physical/special split happened, and this became Electric's premier low-damage physical move -- the Pokemon charges itself up and slams onto the enemy instead of launching bolts of lightning at them. 
• I am genuinely surprised to know this move originated in Generation II -- originally, only Raikou and the Chinchou line had it. This move was much, much more prevalent in Hoenn. 
• Zap Cannon (Denji Ho/Electromagnetic Cannon): In practical usage, I think Thunderbolt and Thunder outperforms Zap Cannon. It's basically like an inaccurate but high-damage move Thunder, but has less damage overall and a chance to paralyze. But I've always loved the name. ZAP CANNON! They've became a bit more lax on who they give Zap Cannon to, but initially only 'artificial' Pokemon like Magneton, Porygon2 and the Regis were able to learn it. 

__________________________________

Bug-type Moves:

• Fury Cutter (Renzoku Giri/Consecutive Cut): Oh, so that's the reason behind Fury Cutter's effect. Its Japanese name is 'Consecutive Cut'. The idea is that the Pokemon gets even more and more enraged as they continue to attack, which... doesn't really scream 'Bug' to me. It's really kind of an underwhelming move, often with an animation that's not much more exciting than Cut, and my brain often conflates it with Fury Attack. In this generation, it's only available via the single TM you get from Bugsy's gym.
• Megahorn (Megahon/Megahorn): I've always loved this move's name. MEGAHORN! It's one of the more powerful Bug-type moves, albeit inaccurate, and, for the longest time, the only Bug-type that could learn this naturally was the move this was originally unique to -- Heracross. In the next generation a bunch of other 'horned' Pokemon like Rhydon, Seaking and Nidoking was able to learn this, but the only other Bug-types that could learn this powerful move are just Heracross, Scolipede and (with breeding) Escavalier. It's kind of a shame, but this does mean that Megahorn ends up being a Bug-type move that's mostly learned by non-Bug-types. 
• Spider Web (Kumo no Su/Spider Web): An easy fantasy to get, and one that had a similar effect to Mean Look above in that it 'traps' a Pokemon and prevents it from running away or switching out. Very obviously, it's the signature move of the Spinarak line, and at the time of writing the only other Pokemon that could learn it are the similarly-spidery Joltik and Dewpider lines. Spiders represent!

___________________________________

Flying-type Moves:

• Aeroblast (Earoburasuto/Aeroblast): We only have a single new Flying-type move, and it's the move signature to good ol' Lugia, mascot of Pokemon Silver. The Adventures manga does go into a bit more detail on how Lugia sucks in a whole lot of air and then launches it as a super-powerful cannon aided by its psychic powers or something? The anime tends to treat it as a gigantic Dragon Ball Z style beam, but the games tended to go in Lugia launching an entire spinning tornado sideways like a beam. Pretty cool, I suppose. 

___________________________________

Poison-type Moves:

• Sludge Bomb (Hedoro Bakudan/Sludge Bomb): The Poison type also only gets a single new move here, with Sludge Bomb. It is one of the more consistently powerful and accurate moves among the Poison-types' arsenal, though, especially pre-Generation-VI, where Poison was the unquestioned unfavourite child of the Pokemon Company. It was originally semi-exclusive to Grimer and Muk -- though a TM exists that many Pokemon can learn from. And basically, it was the offensive Poison-type move back in the day, not that Poison-type coverage is particularly good. 
• Interestingly, while the games tend to depict Sludge Bomb as a glob or orb of purple toxic goo, the anime instead goes full-in with the 'hedoro' and the screenshots of Sludge Bomb in the anime I can find have all been rather questionable-looking black-brown gunk.  

___________________________________

Ground-type Moves:

• Mud-Slap (Dorokake/Mud Spray): Mud Slap is a rather weak move, another one that, like Fury Cutter, was exclusive to a TM given by the first Johto gym leader Falkner. It's just a weak-damage move that lowers the enemy's accuracy... not particularly useful, and it ended up kind of being reduced to a low-level move in subsequent generation. 
• Spikes (Makibishi/Caltrops): A lot less boring is Spikes, which is our first 'entry hazard'. For the longest time, up to... Generation V, I want to say? The 'meta' for multiplayer Pokemon is to have one of these entry hazards be set up on the field by a durable but fast Pokemon. The idea is that your Pokemon launches a bunch of ninja caltrops onto the field that doesn't damage the current Pokemon, but the next Pokemon that jumps in gets stabbed in the foot by the spikes. I do really like how this move ends up being given to Pokemon with actual spikes originally.
• Magnitude (Magunichudo/Magnitude): Basically a casino gambler's version of good ol' Earthquake, Magnitude has the potential to hit even harder than Earthquake... but for the most part, it tends to just lead to disappointment. The values go from Magnitude 4 to Magnitude 10, and I think it's mimicking the Richter scale? Pretty cute. 
• Bone Rush (Bon Rasshu/Bone Rush): Man, the Nintendo team really likes Cubone and Marowak, huh? Bone Club, Bonemerang, and now Bone Rush? Three Bone-themed signature moves all given to the Cubone line? Bone Rush is probably the least useful of the three moves, being essentially a Rock Blast-style multi-hit move. Interestingly, it was the only move made available to non-Cubone Pokemon -- Mandibuzz (who has a bone accessory) and... Lucario of all Pokemon, who uses it a lot in the XY anime. Okay? 

___________________________________

Ice-type Moves:

• Icy Wind (Kogoeru Kaze/Chilling Wind): A pretty low-power Ice-type move that's, again, exclusive to a gym leader TM in Generation II. When double battles came around in the next generation, Icy Wind ends up getting just a bit of a niche since it hits two enemies at once, but really it's just holding a slot until you get something far more damaging or useful...
• Powder Snow (Konayuki/Powder Snow): Like Powder Snow! Which still isn't all that useful compared to the Ice Beams and Blizzards of the world, but Powder Snow at least had a higher base damage, the chance of freezing is much more useful than lowering speed. I really don't have too much to say about any of these, though, they just both feel like the bargain-bin version of Blizzard from a flavour standpoint. 

___________________________________

Fighting-type Moves:

• Dynamic Punch (Bakuretsu Panchi/Exploding Punch): Yet another move that was originally TM-exclusive, Dynamic Punch is an... interesting move. It's inaccurate, but it causes... confusion? The original name translates to 'Exploding Punch', so perhaps Dynamite Punch was the original intended translation? And I guess the shockwave from the punch is so powerful you get confused? 
• Cross Chop (Kurosu Choppu/Cross Chop): Yeah, the second generation gave us a lot of new Fighting-type moves, and just like the sheer amount of actual martial arts in real life, Fighting-type moves are probably the easiest to think up of new variations of that don't feel redundant. I'm not enough of a martial arts buff to recognize if the act of crossing your hands and then ramming it onto your opponent is actually a proper fighting move, but it looks cool in the anime for sure. 
• Reversal (Kishikaisei/Reversal): While not quite as tide-turning as Counter, Reversal is an interesting mechanic where you deal more damage when your HP is lower. I guess the idea is that you're doing judo or something where you make use of an unfavourable condition and turn the tide? Very neat in flavour even if the attack itself is kind of underwhelming. 

• Detect (Mikiri/All-Seeing): This move is essentially the same with Protect, but it's just that the 'flavour' is different -- the Pokemon using it uses their honed observation haki fighting senses to dodge away from the incoming attack instead of generating a forcefield. Pretty simple, and it's always depicted as a badass glint in the eye!
• ...and if Detect is a Fighting-type move, well, there's really no reason for Mind Reader and all the other moves I bitched about on top to be Normal now, is it?
• Rock Smash (Iwa Kudaki/Rock Smash): Sometimes-TM, sometimes-HM, Rock Smash is a move where your Pokemon uses their might and smashes a rock that blocks your way. In Generation II, it was a TM move, meaning that it can be rewritten and you could accidentally lock yourself out of using Rock Smash if you're not careful. I do find it funny that in 3D-era generations, the animation actually involves a rock simultaneously appearing in front of the opponent, and your Pokemon smashing it apart. This move really bamboozled me as a kid because I thought it was a Rock-type move. It has 'rock' in its name!

• Triple Kick (Toripuru Kikku/Triple Kick): And we have a bunch of signature moves now. Triple Kick here is the signature move of Hitmontop, who spins around so fast that he kicks you three times -- twice with his legs, and once with his tail. Neat that they gave Hitmontop a unique move, I guess, and so far, the only other Pokemon that could use Triple Kick is the Ultra beast Pheromosa. She doesn't have a third leg... that we know of.
• Mach Punch (Mahha Panchi/Mach Punch): Any move with 'punch' in its name sounds extra cool when you yell it. MEGA PUNCH! MACH PUNCH! DYNAMIC PUNCH! Mach Punch, as its name suggests, is a super-fast punch, essentially being the Fighting-type Quick Attack. Originally exclusive to the original punching-mon, good ol' Hitmonchan, it very quickly became available to other Pokemon in subsequent generations. I remembered having a Breloom that abused this move a fair bit. 
• Vital Throw (Ateminagi/Strike Throw): It is interesting that a bunch of older Pokemon got new signature moves, huh? I guess they felt bad giving only Hitmonlee a fancy martial arts move to call his own? Vital Throw was originally exclusive to the Machop line, and it's... interesting? It has reverse priority, meaning that it always goes last. The move always hits, bypassing things like Double Team, so I guess the idea is that your Fighting Pokemon looks at the vital signs of the enemy and is able to hit them?

___________________________________

Psychic-type Moves:

• Future Sight (Mirai Yochi/Future Sight): One of my favourite Psychic-type moves in terms of flavour if not by effect, Future Sight basically has your Pokemon attack exactly three turns in the future. Perhaps the name and the in-game text is a bit of a misnomer since it would give the impression of 'forseen an attack'... but the idea is still pretty cool! It's an interesting way to adapt clairvoyance as an attack in a way.
• Mirror Coat (Mira Koto/Mirror Coat): The Special-Attack counterpart of Counter, Mirror Coat basically creates a magical barrier that reflects and doubles any Special Attack launched at the user if they activate Mirror Coat in the same turn. It's most associated with Wobbuffet, whose fixed moveset has both Counter and Mirror Coat -- and it's a bit of a mind-games situation on whether Wobbuffet is about to repel a physical or special attack back. 

___________________________________

Rock-type Moves:

• Sandstorm (Suna Arashi/Sand Storm): ...wait, Sandstorm was a Rock-type move all this time? I've always thought that it was Ground-type. Mostly because most of the Pokemon I associate with using Sandstorm are Ground-types, I guess? The third of the weather moves we're covering here, Sandstorm is... well, a sandstorm! Pretty simple in execution, and the idea is that a violent sandstorm is whipped up that would do chip damage to all Pokemon except for Rock, Ground and Steel types -- the three types that are as hard or harder than the grains of sand. It's not particularly useful until Generation III and especially IV ended up introducing abilities of Pokemon that benefit in the sandstorm condition. I'm also inordinately fond of Route 111 in Hoenn which is perpetually envelopped by a mighty sandstorm. 
• Ancient Power (Genshi no Chikara/Primeval Power): Ancient Power -- or Ancientpower, as it was originally formatted -- is one of my favourite moves in terms of themes. It's described in-game as unleashing 'prehistoric power', whcih is always depicted as the Pokemon causing rocks containing fossil to be enveloped in power, levitate, and bash the enemy. Somehow, it can also increase your stats, and I tend to find Ancientpower as one of the more fun moves to abuse. It's distributed to fossil Pokemon and legendary Pokemon... but there are also a bunch of interesting users of the move... like Corsola, or Kecleon, or Togepi... 
• In Generation IV, Ancientpower is introduced to a bunch of Pokemon whose new evolutions are vaguely inspired by prehistoric creatures. Yanma (who turns into a prehistoric dragonfly), Piloswine (who turns into a mammoth) and Tangela (who turns into a... caveman?).
• Rollout (Korogaru/Roll): Another move that I consistently forget is Rock-type, Rollout is, I think, associated with Whitney's Miltank for anyone who has played through Generation II. I'm not quite sure why Rollout is Rock-type, since it just involves the Pokemon in question spinning around like a bowling bowl to ram onto the enemy. This move gets stronger and stronger every consecutive turn it's used, so like a Fury Cutter that doesn't suck because Rock-type has much better coverage. 
• An interesting mechanic is that Rollout's power gets boosted if the Pokemon uses Defense Curl, and that's a fun tie-in of two moves that has the Pokemon in question 'curl' into a ball. 

___________________________________

Ghost-type Moves:

Ghost-types get a lot of cool moves this generation, huh? The two 'exclusive' types, Ghost and Dragon, get a bit more to play around with in this generation. And I think over Generation II and III are where these types are really explored.

• Curse (Noroi/Curse): One of my favourite Ghost-type moves, and originally debuting in Generation II actually as a "???"-type move (so far the only move to be that!), Curse is interesting because it has different effects based on what type of Pokemon that uses it. Any non-Ghost Pokemon that uses Curse just has a bit of a stat-swapping buff (decreases speed, increases atk and def), but a Ghost-type Pokemon that uses it will cut half of its HP, and then apply an unremovable Curse that will continue to damage the enemy Pokemon. The animation was pretty surprisingly creepy, too, with a voodoo needle stabbing into the Pokemon very slowly every turn. I've always found this to be one of the coolest and creepiest moves, especially as a kid when suddenly there isn't a way to get rid of it the way you would get rid of the poisoned or confusion status. Fuck you, Silver, for your Gastly and its Curses.
• I've always thought that there was something sinister in the buffs used when a non-Ghost Pokemon used 'Curse', but turns out that it's just a pun. Noroi can mean 'curse' or 'slow' depending on how you read it. 
• Spite (Urami/Spite): A move I feel nothing but spite towards. Not particularly useful for your own Pokemon, especially if you're just playing through the game, but very annoying when you just want to explore an area! Spite reduces the PP of the last move the enemy uses, and there's definitely a lot of weird Ghost-type moves whose flavour revolves around effects that can't be easily cured, making them feel a lot more unnatural than just reular poisoning or paralysis.
• Destiny Bond (Michizure/Take Along With): The idea of this move is a ghost dragging you down to hell or the underworld as you defeat it, I think. When a Pokemon uses this move and then faints, it also causes the enemy to faint. It's part of Wobbuffet's moveset! I've always really adored the English name of this move, which just sounds so mystical and creepy. Destiny Bond! 

• Shadow Ball (Shado Boru/Shadow Ball): The quintessential high-damage Ghost-type move, Shadow Ball is just a giant ball of shadowy enery that gets launched at the enemy. It also has a chance at debuffing Special Defense. Always very cool in the anime and the games, and I'm particularly a huge fan of its Generation III animation which just looks so clean. In Generation II, it's a TM-exclusive move, but very soon became the go-to endgame move for a lot of Ghost-type Pokemon. 
• Nightmare (Akumu/Nightmare): Another TM-exclusive move in Generation II, Nightmare is a very niche move. It afflicts the enemy with a continual damage effect... but only if they're asleep. Cool from a flavour standpoint, but far more situational to use in battle. Cool that the only Pokemon that can learn this are those associated with sleep and dreams, though. 

___________________________________

Dragon-type Moves:

Yes, Generation I had Dragon Rage, but that was a fixed-damage move despite being Dragon-type. Generation II gave us the first 'proper' Dragon-type moves that scaled similarly to other typings. 

• Dragon Breath (Ryu no Ibuki/Dragon's Breath): I guess the quintessential and kind of most 'boring' Dragon-type move, Dragonbreath is just the dragon... unleashing their breath weapon. It has a chance to paralyze the enemy, for some reason! Nothing too much to say here, other than the fact that we've gotten so many beter Dragon-type moves in the next couple of generations that poor Dragonbreath is kind of relegated to being like, the early-level move you only keep around for STAB and try to get rid as soon as possible. 
• Twister (Tatsumaki/Dragon Twister): Anyone who's read One Piece would know that the phrase 'tatsumaki' is a pun. It just means twister, but 'tatsu' can also mean dragon. That's the whole idea why a spinning tornado -- normally a move associated with Flying-types, i.e. Gust and Whirlwind -- is Dragon-type. It's pretty cool, and it does give dragons a visually-distinctive attack. 
• Outrage (Gekirin/Imperial Rage): Oh, this move. One of the most powerful Dragon-type moves at its release and I remembered being particularly impressed with the Pokemon that could abuse this, Outrage was originally the signature move of the Dratini line -- and ironically, after the physical/special split in Generation IV, it means that the Dratini line can't really use this move particularly well. But Garchomp, Haxorus and all the physical-attacking dragons? Outrage just 'locks in' your Pokemon into doing Outrage for several turns, with the drawback of the Pokemon going into confusion after the 'Outrage' moment is done, but the drawback rarely mattered because you'll have murdered everything in your path due to the sheer imbalance in power of the Dragon-type's matchups. Particularly and memorably deadly in the Generation III and IV Elite Fours for sure! 
• There is a lore here, of course -- gekirin can mean 'wrath of a superior', but the kanji literally refers to the idiot of a 'reversed scale'. In Japanese legend, dragons are benevolent creatures unless if someone touches a scale that grows in reverse, which will drive the dragon into a berserking fury.

___________________________________

Dark-type Moves:

One of the two new types introduced in Generation II, the Dark-type needed to really establish itself from the get-go. And while I'd argue that it'd take them some time to really get to the flavour they want to, even this early on the Dark-type has been pretty evident that the whole flavour of the type is fighting dirty, doing cheap tricks and generally being unsportsmanlike in combat. In addition to Bite (retconned from Generation I), a lot of the moves introduced here basically revolve around fighting dirty.

Interestingly, a lot of Dark-type moves like Crunch and Feint Attack are definitely accessible to a lot of non-Dark Pokemon, reflecting how a lot of them are just capable of fighting dirty, I guess. 

• Crunch (Kamikudaku/Crunch): Probably the strongest pure-damage attack on this list, Crunch is basically a stronger Bite, yeah? Its animation is usually even the same, maybe with a little bit more flourish. Not a whole ton to say here, it's just a stronger Bite.
• Feint Attack (Damashi-uchi/Sneak Attack): Up until Generation VI, this move was actually spelled as "Faint Attack", and I was always kind of confused what it meant. After realizing that it's not going to cause instant fainting, the description made it look like my Pokemon was perhaps pretending to faint to catch the enemy off-guard? No, it's just walking towards the enemy in a non-threatening manner, as a feint. It bypasses accuracy checks, but is otherwise a rather unremarkable move. 
• Pursuit (Oiuchi/Pursuing Attack): A very cool move mechanically, actually! Pursuit is an unremarkable, early-level move... if it's used normally. But when the enemy Pokemon is being switched out (usually it'll happen before any attacks happen) Pursuit will deal double damage to the Pokemon attempting to escape. I guess the idea is like shooting arrows at someone's back as they run away or something? Very neat. This, by the way, is where I learned of the word 'pursuit'. It's a cool word! 
• Thief (Dorobo/Thief): Probably one of my favourite Dark-type moves in terms of flavour. This generation introduces held items, which are specific items you can have your Pokemon hold in order to give certain passive effects or to have them have a chance of activating its effect. Well, Dark-type Pokemon don't give a shit, and they can and will steal them from you with Thief! Robbing someone is easily one of the easiest way to get through the flavour of the Dark-type. I also remember fondly putting Thief in my Pokemon in Ruby and Sapphire and just farming Luvdiscs in order to stock up on the Heart Scales they carry. 
• Beat Up (Fukurodataki/Gang Up): Probably nowhere as epic as the effect description says, "Beat Up" basically has your Pokemon call on every single one of its buddies (i.e. the Pokemon you have in your party) to beat the opponent up. Like a gang. The damage this deals really isn't anything to write home about, but it's a cute move, I suppose. In Generation II and III, this was Sneasel's signature move. 

___________________________________

Steel-type Moves:

And we have the second new type introduced in Generation II, Steel-type. And... and while they introduced a fair amount of Steel-type Pokemon, the moves they introduced are a bit more... mundane. All three are literally just '[insert metal name] [insert body part]', and I guess they were kind of trying to balance out moves that fall under the realm of Steel-type versus Electric-type?

• Metal Claw (Metaru Kuro/Metal Claw): So your claws become metal and you slash your enemy. Very notable for me, at least, in that Charmander learns this at a surprisingly low level since Generation III onwards, allowing it to stand up against Onyx much better. In the anime the Pokemon that use this move literally grow gigantic Wolverine claws, that's cool. 
• Originally, only Scizor was able to naturally learn Metal Claw... until Crystal added it to Sneasel's movepool. Not even a whole generation!
• Steel Wing (Hagane no Tsubasa/Steel Wing): Instead of claws, it's the wing you harden for Steel Wing! Obviously, since they had Skarmory in this generation, they needed to show it using its blade-wings, right? While Skarmory was the only Pokemon that can naturally learn this until Gen VI, a surprisingly large amount of Pokemon can learn this from the TM. 
• Iron Tail (Aian Teru/Iron Tail): And Iron Tail is for all those Pokemon that doesn't have claws or wings. Surprisingly, Steelix can't learn this naturally in Generation II, and it's a TM-exclusive move in that generation. Later on it became pretty commonplace, though. 
• Iron Tail has a chance to lower enemy defense, Metal Claw has a small chance to raise Attack, Steel Wing has a chance to increase the user's defense... a lot of the moves intrduced in Generation II have these extra small effects, but I really don't care enough to document every single one. 

___________________________________

Fairy-type Moves:

A handful of Normal-type moves got retconned into Fairy-type moves in Generation VI, and... and it's interesting, I guess, which moves they chose to retcon? Just like the Pokemon themselves that they chose to retcon? I really do feel like they could've done more, for sure.

• Charm (Amaeru/Spoiled Pout): So Charm gets to be a Fairy-type move, but not Attract? Okay. It's basically a move where your cute Pokemon does an angry pout, and that decreases the enemy's Attack stat. Okay. 
• Sweet Kiss (Tenshi no Kissu/Angel's Kiss): Sweet Kiss causes confusion, and in Generation II it's available to a lot of the 'baby' Pokemon, but not their original 'base' forms. Nothing too much to say here, other than thanks to being lost in translation, 'Sweet Kiss' and 'Lovely Kiss' are both actually 'Angel's Kiss' and 'Devil's Kiss' in the Japanese, explaining the little cartoon angel/devil that show up when this move is used.
• Moonlight (Tsuki no Hikari/Light of Moons): Basically identical to Morning Sun, except you get a bonus for using Moonlight at night instead of the day. It also interacts similarly with Sunny Day and Rain Dance. Again, this generation introduced the day/night cycle, and they had to capitalize on it! Not much to say, other than the fact that most of the Pokemon that can use Moonlight are those that have a connection to the moon. Clefairy, Lunala, Illumise, Umbreon... but it took Generation VIII for Lunatone, the Pokemon that's literally a moon, to learn this.

...and that's it! That's a lot of moves, and not all of them are interesting. It's still a whole lot more fun than doing the Generation I moves, I suppose! This was a bit more of a breeze to go through. You really do get a feel that Generation II was a bit more of a 'DLC' for Generation I in terms of flavour, move-wise. A lot of moves like Shadow Ball or Giga Drain are added to fill in niches that aren't there, and I don't really think the team was comfortable enough to really go all-in with signature moves. This generation did allow them to expand a bit more on Ghost and Dragon, and, of course, added two brand-new types in Dark and Steel. 

When/If I get to doing Generation III, I suppose I'll do a short bit talking about abilities, too.