And this is the second part of my reviews of the Mega Evolutions introduced in Legends ZA and its DLC, Mega Dimensions. And with this, we technically bring the ninth generation to a close, with the announcement of the upcoming Generation X to tie in with the 30th Anniversary of Pokemon as a franchise. What a ride it has been, huh?
This page starts off with the Generation VI Mega Evolutions, of which there are quite a bit of. Including the starters! I still don't quite understand the idea why Generation VI made such a big deal about Mega Evolution, and proceeded to only give it to older Pokemon from Generations I-IV. I guess the idea is that the new Pokemon are novel enough that fans would pick them up in spite of not having Mega Evolution, but... well, subsequent generations would use the brand-new Pokemon to also spotlight their respective gimmicks. And with the franchise returning to Kalos, Generation VI gets a belated boost by having a lot of their Pokemon get new mega evolutions... which includes the starters, of course.
...and then they proceed to lock all three Mega Stones for the Kalos starters behind a time-gated paywall, forcing you to engage in 'seasonal rewards' for the multiplayer and essentially forcing people to speed through the game to get the stones before the seasons ended. It's horrible, and once the attention of the game developers move to the next game's online features, it will be abandoned. This is one of the things I most dislike of the new movement of the franchise towards more online integrations.
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Click here for the index.
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#652: Mega Chesnaught
Mega Chesnaught is probably the Mega Kalos starter I am the biggest fan of, because it keeps Chesnaught's 'vibe' very well but gives it such a cool update. Playing with the chestnut theme, Mega Chesnaught gets even darker colours for its greens and even gets a nice maroon-brown cape and highlights. The end result gives us a very pleasant look that's distinct from its regular form. More importantly, the two spikes on top of Chestnaught's spiked dome have evolved into two gigantic circular pauldrons, with lances pointing back and forth. To top off the look, Mega Chesnaught even gets a golden crown!
The end result gives us a much more improved design that genuinely looks badass and cool, and I feel like the two giant disk-shields are far more impressive of the hunch-backed defensive tank aesthetic than the weird turtle-shell-poncho that regular Chesnaught has. The two shields looking like how regular Chesnaught's forearms would turn into Spiky Shields when it uses its signature move is a nice bonus.
But wait, we're not done yet! Mega Chesnaught's shoulder pauldrons are actually removable, and they transform. How cool is that? Mega Chesnaught pulls off its discs liek toys, and they start sprouting a giant vine handle and more thorny spikes, becoming a massive flail-spear thing. This is very cool, and plays to both Chesnaught's knightly vibe and his regular form's ability to morph its spikes and plant anatomy.
I feel like this is such a cool concept, and having the accessories be more obviously integrated into the anatomy feels a lot more like a Pokemon compared to its fellow grass starter Rillaboom. Chesnaught is a starter that I don't really think about all that much, but this mega evolution really catapults it into being one of the coolest ones to come out of this game!
5/6, could be 6.___________________________________________________
#655: Mega Delphox
I still remember how Fennekin was my original Pokemon XY starter, and how Delphox... didn't really impress me. It's not a bad design, but there's just something really off about the vibe. And I think it's because Delphox didn't really go all the way with the 'witch' or the 'wizard' design. I think there's a reason why Braixen was chosen to represent the line in spinoff material like Pokken Tournament, and that's because Delphox just felt a bit boring. It's the final form of the line, and all it has is still a stick-wand?
Mega Delphox dispenses with this subtlety, and goes full-in on the witch vibe. The colours, like Mega Chesnaught, also changes to have a dark purplish-black hue on her fur, including her 'sleeves', 'skirt' and two extra trailing bits from her ear. This really does sell the 'Psychic' part a lot better, something that regular Delphox didn't communicate as well with the colours. Mega Delphox also gains extensions to the white fur on her face and neck, giving her a quasi-Gandalf-look.
But most importantly, Mega Delphox now flies around on a witch's broomstick. And she doesn't just sit on it, no. Mega Delphox surfs on its broom-stick, and instead of a bunch of straw, the end of the stick is on fire. Two smaller mini-sticks hover around Mega Delphox. Overall it really does make for a much more dynamic design in both visuals and animation. Excellent design!
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5/6.___________________________________________________
#658: Mega Greninja
They can't all be winners, I suppose, but everyone's favourite Kalos starter Greninja kind of stole the show in Generation VI, catapulting itself to one of the newer Pokemon that consistently tops popularity charts and showing up so much in other media like Smash Bros or the live-action Detective Pikachu movie. Greninja even got an anime and XY-exclusive quasi-mega-form with Ash-Greninja... a design that the Pokemon company has quietly been trying to ignore and not acknowledge, which is fair enough, Ash-Greninja isn't my favourite design. It is just regular Greninja with some extra spikes. A neat super mode, and one that was borne out of the aforementioned empty hole where the anime needed to spotlight both new Gen VI Pokemon and Mega Evolutions, but didn't have a crossover between the two.
The real Mega Greninja, coming a decade later, is... interesting. It gains a bunch more black colouration, just like the other Kalos starters becoming a bit darker, although for Mega Greninja it's also a nod to the shiny form. Mega Greninja also has a bunch of watery shuriken-details, with two shuriken tucked in its 'belt', and its head-spikes having the watery consistency.
It's also upside-down, and its feet are attached to a giant water shuriken that spins like an insane helicopter. It's so surreal and bizarre, and I get the joke. It's a joke on how some frogs, like tree frogs, can stick to surfaces. Ninjas can do that too. And with fiction like Naruto really exaggerating and playing up the things that a ninja can do, having Mega Greninja 'spin a giant shuriken at high speed to make it float, then clings to it upside-down' is... is the kind of super-ridiculous thing out of that trope. This is meant to be a distraction, and... yeah, a giant helicopter frog is most certainly distracting!
It's just hilarious that it's one of the most popular Pokemon out there that they gave this wacky form to, and this is after Chesnaught and Delphox received quite stellar updates to their 'warrior' and 'mage' looks. I respect this form and the commitment to the joke, but I can't really say I like it.
4/6, could be 3. ___________________________________________________
#668: Mega Pyroar
Yeah, I'm not really feeling this one. Generation VI Pokemon getting mega evolutions is an overdue thing from the creators, and Pyroar is one of the mascots of the antagonistic Team Flare. But this is a combination of both taking a joke too far, and laziness in trying to make a single super-mode for two different forms. The end result is quite terrible-looking. Having the same super mode was done all the way back with Gigantamax Flapple/Appletun, where both alternate evolutions just turn into a giant version of Applin. It was a silly joke then, and while this game does the same shortcut for various Pokemon with multiple final forms, Mega Pyroar is a super-lazy one.
Instead of making a separate mega form for the male and female Pyroar, both genders just turn into the same mega evolution. And that Mega Evolution just turns the 火 kanji (usually translated into English as flame) on male Pyroar into a 炎 kanji (usually translated into English as blaze). I get it, I speak Mandarin. The 'blaze' is like, double the fire in 'flame'. Sure. If the design looked good, I wouldn't mind. As it is, it just looks uncomfortable and horrible, and that's not without mentioning that they elongated the top of the kanji mane to accommodate the female Pyroar's hair-mane.
Just not a big fan of this one at all, and it's one of the few designs that I actively just dislike.
1/6.___________________________________________________
#670: Mega Eternal Floette
A decade after its debut in Pokemon XY as a unique model, AZ's "Eternal Flower" Floette finally makes it into the game after never being made available as a playable Pokemon. I suppose I should say something about the Eternal Floette design -- I've always find it a neat variation to show just how old AZ is. Floette herself is holding a strange, unnatural-looking jagged flower, while her body seems to be coloured in an almost-shiny version. Several generations down the line and I think they probably would've considered this Floette a 'Regional Variant', only a temporal-displaced one instead of a spatial-displaced one.
Eternal Flower Floette also shows off her signature move, Fleur Cannon, a fair bit in Legends ZA. It's an attack that's as powerful as some legendary Pokemon signature moves. In the story of Pokemon XY, Eternal Flower Floette was brought to life with the power of ancient weapons and the energies of the legendary Pokemon of life and death, Xerneas and Yveltal, which explains her uniqueness... and while the games don't come out and say it, Eternal Flower Floette doesn't seem to be able to evolve into Florges. It was a plot point of how normally only fully-evolved Pokemon can Mega-Evolve, but Eternal Flower Floette can.
And the Mega Evolution is an interesting design. Somewhat similarly to Mega Kangaskhan, the main body of Floette doesn't actually change, but the flower itself has morphed into a gigantic proportion. More disturbingly (and probably the coolest part of the design) is the stem that has turned all bumpy and has wrapped itself around Floette's body like an umbilical cord. The flower itself also resembles the opened-up version of the Ultimate Weapon, the plot device in Kalos... but I do think that Mega Floette is still relatively a nice standalone design even without knowing this context.
In the game, Mega Floette also interacts with a different ultimate weapon called Ange, which transforms into a Biollante-esque giant plant monster that serves as the final boss of the main story. It's not exactly a form of Mega Floette, although I almost wished that it was the flower going out of control or something.
It's an all right design, a nice little super form for Floette even if I'm not particularly taken by it.
3/6.___________________________________________________
#678: Mega Meowstic
Oh, look at how cool this is. This is how you do a 'two alternate forms merge into a single super form', Mega Pyroar! Debuting in the DLC is Mega Meowstic, which combines the the designs of male and female Meowstic together. Male Meowstic is primarily dark blue and female Meowstic is primarily white, but the Mega Meowstic form has the colours split down in the middle in something that reminds me of that creepy bear from Danganronpa. Mega Meowstic's ears are completely unfurled, showing its psychic eyes -- in stark contrast to both regular Espurr and Moewstic.
I must stress just how cool the colours look, and how they keep alternating down the body with the arms, legs, 'scarf' and hair. As a little nice touch as well, Mega Meowstic keeps one tail from the male form and one tail from the female form. And I think my favourite feature has to be the heterochromatic eyes, with one being yellow and the other being blue -- both taken from the original Meowstic forms.
I have always been someone who really didn't care all that much for Meowstic compared to its far cuter and far more interesting pre-evolution, but Mega Meowstic's design as a Pokemon that's completely unbound from its restraint is really cool. Its psychic powers allow Mega Meowstic to constantly float, and it can use its psychic power to compress and expand even space itself.
6/6.___________________________________________________
#687: Mega Malamar
My friend Malamar got one of the coolest debut trailers, using live-action actors to showcase people who were brainwashed into considering Malamar as their best friend. I've always had a soft spot for Inkay and Malamar, having used one in my playthrough of not XY, but one of the Alola games. I've always loved cephalopods, and Malamar's kooky design has always been fun to me.
Mega Malamar evolves into a very interesting design, with its mass of shorter tentacles wrapped up like a supervillain 'brain', while its two longer squid tentacles have expanded into an interesting layout. Mega Malamar has 'shoulderpads' similar to an archetypal supervillain, and those arms are constantly circling the air, creating glowing green and purple lights that are meant to hypnotize anyone looking at it.
Mega Malamar's squid body has also tapered down into a much thinner form, standing on pinpoint tiptoes, and the body glows in all colours of the rainbow. All of these features help Mega Malamar to overwrite the personalities of its victims, overwriting their personalities and memories. The haughty, borderline-evil Mega Malamar is even noted to be willing to brainwash their own trainers if they should disagree on matters. In combat, Mega Malamar also holds onto its 'brain', which apparently boosts its psychic powers.
I really like Mega Malamar. The trailer helps a lot, of course, but I love them really going full-in on making Mega Malamar more evil and creepy. The design being distinct from regular Malamar while still clearly sharing the same basic anatomy is also a huge bonus too.
6/6.___________________________________________________
#689: Mega Barbaracle
Barbaracle gets a mega evolution, and what a cool and wacky design that this 'collective' Pokemon has! Mega Barbaracle was always presented as a colony organism, and Mega Barbaracle essentially is an exploratino to what happens if even more of the goose barnacles grow into limbs. The end result is an eight-armed monstrosity that's standing menacingly. There's just something abotu that pose, with one leg daintily in front of the other, that makes me find it really funny.
Mega Barbaracle's extra arms have turned it to a Rock/Fighting type instead of a Rock/Water, which is unexpected. The colours of Mega Barbaracle have grown a bit darker, and I like that the rocky consistency that forms Mega Barbaracle's 'torso' and 'waist' are cracking under the pressure of so many barnacles growing out of it. Some of the arms have eyes facing forwards and others facing backwards. Mega Barbaracle's head is always shaped like a hand, but it's now making a 'rocker' sign to give it two horns. That's cool.
Mega Barbaracle essentially runs around and pummels its foes with its many arms with a rapid-fire ora ora ora punch. While ultimately not my favourite mega evolution from this generation, I appreciate the attention being given to Barbaracle and it's a very appropriate extension of its original concept.
4/6.___________________________________________________
#691: Mega Dragalge
I really, really like Mega Dragalge. Dragalge is always a nice Pokemon that skirts the line between graceful and nasty, and Mega Dragalge also goes full in on that. The main difference is Mega Dragalge's 'hair', which erupts into a flowing mane that overshadows even the main sea-dragon body. Two 'antennae' with false eyeballs sprout up from the center of Mega Dragalge's head. Those antennae-bulb seem to be specifically based on the cyst-like bulbs on the sargassum kelp, which I like. A bit more subtle, but Mega Dragalge's 'arms' and 'scarves' also have grown a lot longer. I particularly like the arms, which makes Mega Dragalge look more menacing.
Real-world seaweed will absorb heavy metals from the ocean and many kelp and seaweed tend to be curative, but Mega Dragalge has a dex entry that many people quickly realize is an unexpected reference to cancer. "It spits a liquid that causes the regenerative power of cells to run wild. The liquid is deadly poison to everything other than itself." Mega Dragalge's poison is now cancer spit? Huuuh.
Regardless of that strange bit, I really do like the expansion of Mega Dragalge to feature not just the weedy, reedy side of seaweed but also the more graceful side. The general look of the monster design is quite pleasant in general while still retaining its poisonous 'edge'.
5/6.___________________________________________________
#701: Mega Hawlucha
Oh, yeah. I just really like Hawlucha, and Mega Hawlucha just goes over-the-top by giving the luchador design just a more elaborate getup. Mega Hawlucha's mask is now a black-and-gold mask with orange head-feathers, and his torso has bulked up considerably, with an extra set of shoulderpads that are also black-and-gold. It's not visible on his official art, but the back side of Hawlucha's wing-cape has also gotten extra black/gold details. It's a really simple but effective exaggeration of Hawlucha's original design, and one that I absolutely adore.
They even did a proper wrestling match IRL with a wrestler wearing a Mega Hawlucha mask to promote this form. That's super cool. There's not much else beyond that, I just really like the wrestling exaggeration here, and Mega Hawlucha definitely was a member of my Legends ZA team.
6/6.___________________________________________________
#718: Mega Zygarde
Being the mascot character for Pokemon Legends ZA, of course Zygarde gets a Mega Evolution. Which... I thought felt tacked in. A huge chunk of the climax was done with Zygarde's original super form, Zygarde Complete, doing a lot of cool scenes. But of course, you need mega evolution for the mega evolution game, and... I just don't like it. The black hexagon-cells of Zygarde Complete's body has all retracted upwards to form a massive cannon, which is held precariously above a naked-looking Zygarde complete body.
The end result just looks very awkward, and I'm also not a huge fan of the X/Y/Z lights glowing on the barrel of the very clunky cannon. Sure, the one or two times that Mega Zygarde unleashes a gigantic fuck-off orbital laser cannon against a Fletchling or something is ha-ha funny, but as a super form, I just really don't like this design.
The game remembers that Zygarde Complete was a form that was shoved into the Alola games unceremoniously when the original 'Pokemon Z' was cancelled, and characters in-game note that Zygarde's new signature move, "Nihil Light", has the properties of the Z-Moves of the Alola region that Zygarde seems to have picked up in-between the events of Sun/Moon and Legends ZA. That may be cool, but I still don't like the Mega Zygarde design.
1/6.___________________________________________________
#740: Mega Crabominable
Crabominable is one of the few Pokemon designs that I outright hate. There are some Pokemon designs that make my eyes roll, that I shake my head at, but Crabominable is my absolute least favourite Pokemon.
Imagine my surprise when Mega Crabominable shows up, and it basically fixes everything I have a problem with in Crabominable's design! That's unexpected. So let's just go through every single aspect of this much, much improved take on a fighting yeti crab Pokemon. The most eye-catching change are the fists, which are now giant spiky ice-knuckles with a shaggy set of dark purple hair around the gauntlets. A vast improvement from the... whatever the heck was going on with regular Crabominable's claws.
Regular Crabominable also has a tuft of awkward yellow hair which is now expanded a bit! Mega Crabominable's hair is shaggier, and he's got a barbarian long-hair/cape. There's highlights of yellow here and there that looks a lot more natural, and the yellow isn't just clumped on top of Crabominable's head like an ugly accessory. Mega Crabominable also stands on two pointed legs made up of ice, with the front crab legs rearing up like an attacking horse. I'd probably prefer all four legs be extended to look more crab-like in that way, but this does give Mega Crabominable a nice silhouette.
And finally, the face. Mega Crabominable loses its pupils and has completely whited-out eyes. With the shadow from his shaggy hair, this makes his goofy square teeth actually look menacing, and the end result really does sell the vibe of a monstrous ice berserker crab. Mega Crabominable moves by dragging itself with its massive claws like a gorilla, and... I am just genuinely flummoxed by just how well they have improved this design! Good job, good job.
5/6.___________________________________________________
#768: Mega Golisopod
Golisopod is one of my favourite Pokemon to come out of Generation VII, and it gets a Mega Evolution that... doesn't quite change as much. Mega Golisopod does get a type change, though, becoming Bug/STEEL instead of Bug/Water. Not the most novel typing, but one that's quite interesting. Mega Golisopod's normally-white isopod chitin has changed to a steely gray, and it gets an extra pair of legs and arms.
Mega Golisopod now scuttles on four legs instead of two, although this really isn't immediately apparent, as cool as it is. The legs are a bit too short and Mega Golisopod shares his base form having a lot of detail on the upper half of his body. Mega Golisopod's regular arms have grown a bit flatter and wider, with extra spikes that resemble Wimpod tails. Two more arms point up from his shoulders, and these actually serve like a mecha's shoulder-mounted cannons, launching its spike-claws in Mega Golisopod's ranged attack animations.
Just like regular Golisopod, Mega Golisopod still has some hidden arms... although they aren't under his head/mouth, but under his 'skirt'. The arms under his head has seemingly degenerated to only leaving behind the black tips and do not extend for the animations, which I felt was a missed opportunity. Apparently these skirt-arms are important and the dex highlights that Mega Golisopod assails its prey with its four main arms, and finishes them off with the skirt-arms. No one ever expects the skirt-arms, I suppose.
It does just enough to make me like it, and it is still a bigger, multi-armed Golisopod, but I kind of wished that they had done a bit more with him. No major complaints, otherwise.
5/6.___________________________________________________
#780: Mega Drampa
Mega Drampa is a simple concept. Mega Evolution has allowed Drampa to 'regain its youth', making its cells reinvigorated. All of the white hair has turned black again, and they are now depicted like roiling storm-clouds in traditional Japanese art. Mega Drampa's hair and arms are also always in its aggressive stance, which is a nice nod to regular Drampa's animations. Just making Mega Drampa 'a young, angry Drampa' would have been kind of boring, so I am happy that they also arrived at the conclusion of tying the theme to dark, roiling storm-clouds.
The animations for Mega Drampa is also nicely dramatic, with all of the stormcloud-like tails unfurling and standing straight whenever Mega Drampa attacks. They want you to know how angry Mega Drampa is!
4/6.___________________________________________________
#801: Mega Magearna
Okay, they made Magearna look a bit cooler. This was a problem I had with regular Diancie that the mega form did fix, where the regular design was just... there. Magearna is a Pokemon whose lore really felt like a good tie-in to the 'Ultimate Weapon' and 'life/death' storyline of Pokemon XY and I'm disappointed a bit that she didn't get integrated into the themes of the Kalos stories a bit more... but this game is also probably the biggest acknowledgement that Magearna even exists, considering she has spent all of her appearances in the games being handed off by mystery gifts.
Mega Magearna has gain the colour of her event-exclusive 'original Pokeball' colouration, which in-lore was the colour she had originally before time eroded her colours to gray. A pretty cool design, and while I'm a bit iffy about the red horns, I find the design of her chest armour, the proportions of her legs and arms, and general look to be so much better than the awkwardness of her original design.
Two gear-halves rotate around Magearna, and this does make the design look more like a super form instead of a Mega-Scrafty-esque 'only the colours really change'. The gears are dynamic and clamp around Mega Magearna's arm cannons when she does her attacks, which is very cool. I like the lore as well, where the Mega Stone actually functions as a 'limit breaker' that unlocks Magearna's inhibitions and limitations... and actually seals Magearna's emotions 'as it fells foe after foe'. I didn't really care for Magearna before, but this unexpectedly dark addition to Magearna's lore is very welcome!
5/6 due to improving Magearna's design so much. ___________________________________________________
#807: Mega Zeraora
I've gone on record that I'm not the biggest fan of Zeraora, one of the mythical Pokemon introduced in Generation VII. I don't think my opinion has really changed, although I'm sure that Zeraora has a lot of fans, still. Its Mega Evolution essentially remixes the colours, swapping its yellow and black parts and giving it a colour scheme not dissimilar to Luxray. It's a cooler design for sure, and looking at Mega Zeraora and regular Zeraora side by side, there are some additional differences like the arm-spikes and having two scarf-tails instead of one. The fact that I had to pull up images and see them side by side really highlights how Mega Zeraora looks more like a shiny than a mega evolution, though, which is a similar problem I had with Mega Scrafty.
It is a nice mega evolution for a Pokemon that I am completely and utterly apathetic about, but I will still acknowledge that it's a very cool colour scheme that they decided to give him. Its dex entry is still quite bland, though, for a mega legendary Pokemon -- 'when it stops limiting itself, it's in the strongest class of electric pokemon'. You don't say? The mythical Pokemon that's mythical for no real reason is in the strongest class of electric-types?
3/6.___________________________________________________
#870: Mega Falinks
Being the solo rep in this game from Generation VIII is Mega Falinks, which... is a hilarious design. Where regular Falinks is a troop of spherical Pokemon that are considered a single entity, Mega Falinks has combined together in the ultimate battle formation... which is combining into a single Megazord-esque layout. There are some physical changes, of course, with three of the Falinks-es expanding into a larger size. The main leader forms the 'torso/head', and two of the Falinks have had their heads morph into a massive blade and spiked shield.
But of course, the funniest part is the Falinks that forms the crotch segment, who really doesn't look like he's having the best time. His eyes are squinting in effort, and he's using his hands to hold his leader up! Do the other Falinks-es take turns, or is crotchy doomed to always be there any time they mega-evolve?
It's a design that I find extremely fun, and done arguably a lot better than Mega Starmie since Mega Falinks's design actually fits a fair bit with its lore of being a unit of soldiers that are so close that they are considered a single entity. I was very confused when I first saw it, but now I quite like this one.
5/6.___________________________________________________
#952: Mega Scovillain
I am quite surprised that Generation IX Pokemon from Scarlet/Violet got mega evolutions too, although they're all from the DLC. And for Scovillain to get it? Mega Scovillain is... all right? I honestly just feel like this is what regular Scovillain should look like, with more elaborate bell pepper heads and seeds forming cooler 'horns' and 'teeth'. I quite like the upper body being a shade of black as well, which makes the body segments pop up a bit better compared to the regular Scovillain.
The weirdest thing about this design is the random glowing zigzag chili that also functions as a necktie. Which... it's distinctive all right, but I am just not a huge fan of it. Apparently, Mega Scovillain uses this chili necktie to wallop its foes?
4/6.___________________________________________________
#970: Mega Glimmora
Oh, this one is cool. Mega Glimmora is a design that takes the rather dynamic Glimmora and makes it even more over-the-top. Regular Glimmora constantly moves around from being 'covered' up like an oval pod, or opening up like a flower. Mega Glimmora, in full battle mode, has six petals constantly detached and rotating around its body, while the main 'flower' is always in bloom, with the horn extending far further to pierce enemies and the eyes glow red. There's also an extra bulb growing from behind Mega Glimmora's body that looks like pre-evolution Glimmet's bulb.
Also, as the petals rotate, poisonous rock fragments are continually shed by Mega Glimmora. This gives the effect of the 'stun spore' or 'poison powder' trope that many of the plant-based Pokemon do, where their pollen are shed by their flowers or leaves... except Glimmora is a poisonous rock creature that just happens to resemble a flower. I like this a lot.
Absolutely neat design, and one I find absolutely cool in animation with the petals converging in animation as Mega Glimmora launches attacks that resemble sci-fi laser cannons.
5/6.___________________________________________________
#978: Mega Tatsugiri
Another multi-form Pokemon who shares a single mega evolution, Mega Tatsugiri is an interesting one. All three Tatsugiris transform into a full sushi platter, with mega evolution creating copies of the other two forms. They did do an attempt to make three separate forms, even if it's just rearranging which Tatsugiri is in the center. That little bit of effort to make sure you know what the real Tatsugiri form is actually quite neat.
The design is also quite interesting, with a giant energy 'plate' in the shape of the Mega Evolution symbol beneath the three Tatsugiris. The central Tatsugiri also has a crown of salmon roe, and the three Tatsugiris are separated with fake decorative 'grass'. That grass, by the way, extends when Mega Tatsugiri attacks with physical attacks. The whole idea is that the mega evolution has given Tatsugiri such an outpouring of energy that it can solidify this energy to create the plate and the copies.
The designers clearly wanted to highlight Mega Tatsugiri a fair bit, with its debut in the story mode being shown in a strange dream-like giant sushi restaurant, and a fully-detailed model of a 'real' sushi platter being shown before Mega Tatsugiri appears. Also very fun in the boss fight and detailed in the dex entries is that Mega Tatsugiri launches the salmon roe as projectiles... as Draco Meteor projectiles.
It isn't my favourite mega evolution if we're being honest, but I must really appreciate the sheer audacity and hilarity of this design.
4/6.___________________________________________________
#998: Mega Baxcalibur
Mega Baxcalibur is our last Mega Evolution, also introduced in the DLC via online gameplay. And it's... it's a neat exaggeration of the base Baxcalibur design. For the most part, the main Baxcalibur body stays the same, but the sword-fin expands into a more massive, more ornate blade. A 'ring' of ice wraps around Mega Baxcalibur's torso like a belt, and a 'handle' made up of ice and the same black quasi-metal material just out of Mega Baxcalibur's chest. The end result is a design that makes it look like a gigantic Final Fantasy sword has just pierced this dinosaur through the chest.
Bizarrely, the pokedex entry highlights the expansion of the blade... then proceeds to describe how Mega Baxcalibur 'fires beams from the hilt at its solar plexus'. Not exactly what I'd expect a blade hilt to do, but okay?
I'm perfectly neutral about this design. Baxcalibur is a Pokemon that I just don't find to be particularly interesting even in its debut game, but a design that I also find inoffensive and neat. Seeing the most prominent features exaggerated for the mega evolution is the right thing to do; it's just that I'm not the biggest fan of said prominent feature. It's all right.
3/6.
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