Last year's April Fool's Day, I did a review of Pokemon Uranium, a fan-made Pokemon game, pretending that it's like the new Pokemon generation or whatever. And my first attempt at doing this was with the notorious ROM hack Pokemon Quartz... but when I sat down and did Pokemon Uranium, I ended up finding that my original derisive and borderline dismissive tone for reviewing fan-games was pretty elitist and childish. After all, these are also technically monster designs, and just because they don't quite fit in the regular Pokemon aesthetic doesn't mean that they're any less valid of a monster design. Just ones that sometimes don't fit with Pokemon.
I did a two-part review of the Uranium pokedex, and ended up being so charmed by the fact that the game makers of this one actually tried to make a decent fan-made Pokemon region instead of just making memes and stuff. I ended up checking out LPArchive's exhaustive Pokemon Uranium playthrough, before playing through it on my own on this blog with the only time I've ever tried to actively have a massive screeenshot based playthrough, which is archived on my Pokemon page.
Recently, though, I've been revising a lot of my 'reviewing monsters' articles, particularly the Pokemon ones, and during the revision I completely forgot I did this for Pokemon Uranium... and this review was originally posted prior to me actually playing the game. And while the original version of this article was already charmed by the designs in the fan-game, there are parts of it that I am simply not the proudest of -- particularly the parts that I mock the sprites, which is definitely mean, and I was reviewing a huge chunk of it under the mentality of "why Gamefreak would/wouldn't do a design similar to this", which... is pretty narrow-minded. It's their fan game, and they can do whatever monster design they want, y'know? And when I tried to edit it it turns out that a lot of my opinions about these designs have kind of changed. So yeah, here's a revised, re-released version of this._____________________
Pokemon Uranium is not affiliated with Nintendo, Gamefreak or the Pokemon company in any way, and it's a fan game, made by fans, and I think it's actually been given a C&D from Nintendo which prevented them from finishing up a lot of the post-champion areas. Which is kind of a shame. Uranium itself is a fan-made hack using Generation III-IV assets with RPG maker, and released during the lull between Generations VI and VII, which would inform you to some of the decisions and mechanics for some of the creatures here.The plotline of Uranium is that the region of Tandor is one that runs on nuclear energy, and a mysterious nuclear meltdown (yeah, this is the sort of plot that Nintendo's never going to touch, for obvious reasons) kickstarts the region's storyline that involves the introduction of a mysterious new typing -- Nuclear type -- which mutates some of the local Pokemon of the region and turns them feral, while a mysterious figure and an immensely powerful nuclear-type Pokemon ends up showing up in sites of the nuclear meltdowns. Check out my Let's Play for actual coverage of the story and the game itself -- which, admittedly, is pretty spotty and not the best, but as usual with these sort of articles, I'm definitely going to focus more on the design of the monsters as opposed to talking about the storyline.
Orchynx, Metalynx, Mega Metalynx
The pokedex starts off with the starters, as always, but in a subversion of normal, official Pokemon conventions, instead of being a three-stage evolution, Uranium's starters all only evolve once, but have a mega evolution to compensate. It's actually kind of neat that the game does this to differentiate itself from the official ones, without changing too much from the formula. It's also a neat way to actually use the then-current Mega Evolution craze, something that I feel that the actual XY games could've done a bit better... I've always found it baffling that XY's starters didn't get mega evolutions (Ash-Greninja notwithstanding), despite Generation VI being the mega evolution generation.
The grass-type starter is the Grass/Steel Orchynx, which is a cat that basks in the sun's rays to replenish its energy. I feel like Orchynx is sufficiently cute enough, even if it doesn't particularly look too much like a Steel-type other than the metal rings on its feet, and the only real connection to the Grass-type is that it's green-coloured. I don't know, I feel like they could've emphasized wither the metal or the plant-animal concepts a bit better. Orchynx's whole concept is a combination of solar panels and photosynthesis, I guess, but, again the design doesn't really communicate this particularly well.
Metalynx, on the other hand, is very obviously a part-Steel type, having replaced half of his limbs with robotic parts a la Digimon, and it's a pretty neat design. I do like the asymmetry of Metalynx's design, although, again, they could've done a bit more to communicate that it's a grass-type beyond just having Munna's floral pattern on it. Metalynx is still pretty all right overall, and while it's a cool monster design it's also the sort of design that makes me go "yeah, this isn't Gamefreak/Nintendo's usual style". Although with Generation VIII's artstyle being a bit more experimental and diverse, who knows?
Mega Metalynx is the obvious way to take it and while it doesn't change a whole ton about the original Metalynx design, that's kind of what a mega evolution has to be? The cyborg legs now have some huge-ass blades sticking out of it, and it's swapped a lynx face with a more fierce saber-toothed one. Honestly wouldn't look out of place in like, Beast Wars or Zoids or something.
Raptorch, Archilles, Mega Archilles
Raptorch here is the fire starter of the region, and he's based on a velociraptor! I like him the best out of the three starters, and he's the one I used for my playthrough. Dromaeosaurid dinosaurs are one of the most highly-requested popular animals that people request to get turned into Pokemon, and while we arguably have a couple that are similar enough, the closest are, like, Grovyle, I guess? A more recent addition would be half of Dracozolt, I suppose. Raptorch is a very interesting way to do a raptor Pokemon, though. It has the regular easy shortcut for a Pokemon having Fire-type characteristics (a fire on his tail!) but I do find it really interesting that they gave him armadillo-esque scalloped armour on his back and head. To this day I'm not sure if Raptorch was actually meant to be a cute little armadillo-raptor or something, but it does give him a very unique look and face that I feel gives it such a huge amount of charm compared to Orchynx, which is just a lynx with extra parts. Oh, Raptorch is also Fire/Ground, which makes it a huge headache to toss in against Water-types in my playthrough.
Raptorch's evolution, Archilles, is, I think, presumably based partially on the Archaeopteryx, based on the 'arch' on its name? But it's still a raptor, and it's got one of my favourite little details in this game where the fiery parts of Archilles's body basically replace the feathers that the dinosaur would've had. Apparently, you can keep the cool-looking pre-feather depiction of dinosaurs and still make it accurate to modern paleontology science. Archilles is basically Raptorch but with a more predatory-looking theropodal body layout, and with sharper claws and fangs.
Mega Archilles is basically the same design, but with actual red feathres on its elbows and tail, and with extra flames and spikes. Like Mega Metalynx, this one doesn't change too much from the base Archilles, but it changes it enough to look like a super-mode without being too tacky, I feel. As someone who uses Mega Archilles a lot in my playthrough, let me tell you, being able to activate Drought on demand on something that's 4x weak to Water is pretty dang awesome. It's kind of a shame that the dex entries for a lot of the Uranium mons are kind of... simple? It's kind of a shame, I really would want to learn more about these creatures.
Eletux, Electruxo, Mega Electruxo
Rounding out the starters are Eletux and Electruxo, and I still stand by my old review's attitude that I find that they're the most... fakemon-esque of the bunch, although I mean it now not really as an insult, but more in terms of noting its design. I was kind of baffled what sort of creature this was the first time I saw it, thinking that it's a weird dog that turned into a long-legged dinosaur-esque creature, but turns out that it's actually a literal hippocampus. A water-horse that walks on water by generating magnetic field from its tail-orbs. I do like that Eletux looks ambiguously more like a weird, nondescript monster compared to Raptorch and Orchynx's more obvious animal origins... and it's actually something I kind of miss in more modern Pokemon. As a biology geek I do like it when certain animals get representation in Pokemon, but I also do miss the more vague monsters like Nidoran and Slowpoke that clearly draw from multiple different real-life animals as inspiration, but none that dominate the design, y'know?
Electruxo is basically the obvious route to take Eletux in, making it larger, more regal-looking with a quasi Loch Ness looking head. It's also got a bunch of yellow fins and a mermaid tail, and while I noted how weird the dainty feet were, realizing that it's meant to tiptoe on top of water surfaces actually makes it feel like a far more cohesive design. One complaint is that Electruxo is missing the yellow orbs that Eletux and Mega-Electruxo have, which I feel is kind of a disconnect from the rest of its line.
Mega Electruxo is... easily the biggest departure from its original design among the Uranium starters. It's striking just how the simple change of the tone of blue used for Electruxo's main body ends up making Mega Electruxo look so distinct, huh? Mega Electruxo would've just been a design with longer fin and more facial details if not for those red... antennae? Tentacles? Tendrils? Whatever those are. A wee bit too cluttered for my liking, I feel, but not a terrible design. Mega Electruxo's ability is Drizzle, which, like Mega Archilles, is immensely useful. Guaranteed STAB Thunder on demand? Yes please!
Chyinmunk, Kinetmunk
It's a constant in any Pokemon game that you've gotta have a regional rodent, and for Tandor we've got... Chyinmunk, which is probably one of the most awkward-to-pronounce names in the game. What's a 'chyin'? They're m'eh, but that's basically my reaction to most official regional rodents. Chyinmunk is an alright looking chipmunk creature, kinda cartoony-looking and looking like it probably moonlights as an extra in a 90's cartoon.
Kinetmunk, the evolution, is a Normal/Electric critter that has the proportions of a hound or a cat or something moreso than a rodent. It's a bit odd, really. I dunno. I just don't have anything too interesting to say about them, they're kind of just there... but again, that's basically the fate of most regional rodents. Not my thing.
A bunch of regular Pokemon in Uranium also exist as "Nuclear Forms" where you first encounter them being contaminated by radioactive fallout that turn them into the Nuclear-type. It's essentially the Shadow type in the official Colosseum and Gale of Darkness games, making them extreme glass cannons that deal extra damage to everything around them except for Steel type, but also taking super-effective damage from everything else around them. Until you reach a part of the plot where you can 'purify' them, they're also liable to disobey you because they're crazed from their radiation or something. It's exactly like Shadow Pokemon. More importantly, it's an excuse for the game-makers to slap the pretty neat-looking black-and-neon-green colour scheme on most of their designs. It's neat.
Birbie, Aveden, Splendifowl
The regional birds this time around. Birbie is easily one of my favourite designs from this game. What a cute birb! Look at the sprite, the markings on Birbie's chest looks like it's having a super happy Cheshire cat grin! It's honestly a simple enough little fat bird, adorable and cute, and possible one of my favourite designs from the game.
Aveden and Splendifowl are pretty colourful and are both based on the Birds-of-Paradise, right up to the lore that they are over-hunted because they can't fly very well. Oh no! And while Splendifowl does have pretty weak-looking wings, I do think that Aveden and Splendifowl look a lot less impressive thanks to the poses they have on the game sprites.... but the artwork on the Uranium wiki (and I'm not sure if those are done by the actual game creators, or by someone else making fanwork of their fanwork) gave them better bird proportions, and makes the line look so much better as a result. In the game, both Aveden and Splendifowl are some of the few Fakemon to have an moving, animated sprite, making it look a lot less static. I went from disliking the two to not minding them, but still, neither are as awesome or adorable as Birbie.
Cubbug, Cubblfly, Nimflora
Regional bugs, now! Cubbug looks a bit like Sewaddle, but having a fleshy caterpillar grub body with teddy-bear ears. It's kind of unsettling, having a weird bug with a vaguely mammalian head... but then you see what the Cubbug line is all about and you go 'aha'. See, Cubbug doesn't evolve into a cocoon and a butterfly or moth or any of those boring stuff, it turns into the Bug/Fairy Cubblfly and Nimflora. The concept of this line is basically making them bug-mammalian versions of the Fairy Dragons that are pretty common in RPG games, and I feel that it's pretty great!
Well, the first and final lines are, at least. Cubblfly just looks kind of hilariously awkward and has a hard to pronounce name. It's like a weird sideways acorn or something with a bunch of random animal parts glued onto it, but Cubblfly's face is still adorably buggy with bunny ears or something. I used one as part of my main team, because Bug and Fairy is actually a pretty great combination of types. I named mine Taxonomaly.
Nimflora, though, drops a lot of the buggy features of her predecessors, other than the bug wings... and at first I was kind of disappointed that the caterpillar face is gone, but there are a lot of features of Nimflora that's very bug-based, and I like that. It's got six legs (even if the middle pair of legs are a bit shorter) and look closely at the sprite and it's got four eyes. It really makes this otherwise flying wolf-pup with fairy wings actually still feel like a bug, even if it's not what you think of when you think of a bug. A very creative design, and I really do think this is one of the funner, more creative designs from Uranium, fitting both the 'bug' and 'fairy' typings while still giving its own spin on the concept.
Barewl, Dearewl, Gararewl
And... yeah. I'm still not a fan of these, but that's okay -- each region needs to feel varied, yeah? These are the Geodude equivalents, going from Rock/Steel to a pure-Steel final form, but I just kind of don't really get them. Barewl is cute, at least, but it has too many things going on from the weird horned helmet to the spit-lick curly strand of hair to the legs and tail. It's got a cute expression, but it looks more like a mascot for a Japanese candy or something, y'know? Maybe cut down one or two details and it'd be pretty perfect as an early-game simple monster. I really like the little angry eyebrows that Barewl always have, they are adorable.
And then Barewl turns into Dearewl and Gararewl, both names that are kind of nightmarish to try and pronounce. Judging by the names, they're a deer and a giraffe respectively, but Dearewl looks more like a lumpy dog with armour pieces. Gararewl has cooler-looking metal parts, but the head is kind of disturbing. I'm also not sure what the obsession with the curly strand of hair is,
Grozard, Terlard
These guys are cute, with Grozard being this Ground-type little Tremors-style worm creature whose head is poking out of the ground. It's got a cute face and is relatively simple. And then it evolves into Terlard, which is a Ground/Dragon with two heads. Terlard's sprite, I find, is kind of a bit awkward and it might've benefited a bit more from either more space to really express the idea of a giant wyrm burrowing and undulating in and out of the ground, or simly to have the heads have more of a neck. Either way, though, a pretty fun design, and one that feeds into the lore of a subterranean earthen dragon very well. I also remember that Terlard is one of the few wild Pokemon that appears as the 'boss' of one of the early-game caves, a fun little concept that the official games never do as much with until the Alola games.
Tonemy, Tofurang
Tonemy is adorable. It's a cute little Neopets-looking little friend that's a purple blob with bat wings and little stubby Digimon legs and a squirrel tail. It's cute, and easily one of the cutest things in this game. It's also Poison-type, and acts as the game's equivalent to Zubat, but it's an adorable one that I really don't mind encountering in caves. It's one of my favourite designs in the game, even if it's one that fits particularly well with the Nintendo/Gamefreak aesthetic. I like it a lot!
And it evolves into Tofurang, which is, on its own, a pretty neat-looking monster. It's a big purple hippo-like creature with Tonemy's bat wings as ears, and it still has Tonemy's squirrel tail... but I still don't really understand why? And what's the 'tofu' part from? I'm genuinely not sure. Tofurang is an all-right hippo-beast, but I'm just genuinely not sure what the logic behind a little spherical blob-sprite bat evolving into a giant poison cave hippo. I wished that they had a middle stage that made the evolution a bit less jarring.
Dunseraph
A small handful of official Pokemon also inhabit the lands of Tandor, and most of the ones that do end up getting fanmade evolutions or mega evolutions. Good old Dunsparce becomes a Normal/Dragon serpent dragon, Dunseraph. It's kind of a running theme that Dunsparce is always one of the Generation II Pokemon that people have been clamoring for an evolution since forever. Personally, though, I've always thought that Dunsparce's whole deal as being a 'junk rare' is sort of part of what made Dunsparce so charming, so while I do agree that a lot of Generation II Pokemon desperately need some sort of attention (Sunflora, Qwilfish, Delibird, Sudowoodo, Mantine, Skarmory... the list goes on and on) Dunsparce is probably the one exception to that.
Still, compared to the many fan-made Dunsparce evolutions, I definitely appreciate that Uranium kept Dunsparce's doofy-looking face and while he's an angelic dragon, Dunseraph still looks lumpy and awkward. And I do appreciate this a whole ton. If Dunsparce is going to secretly be some gigantic angel-dragon that has gotten heavenly power from ascending the Sky Pillar (actual Pokedex entry), I still want it to look like Dunsparce, if you get what I mean? Dunseraph is a neat little combination of being majestic while also retaining a lot of Dunsparce's original silly charm. I appreciate that.
Fortog, Folerog, Blubelrog
The Fortog line is a bunch of Water/Poison frogs, and is probably some of the harder-to-pronounce names in Uranium. And it's actually interesting when I sat down to look at the Uranium designs for the first time to realize that despite the sheer amount of frogs in Pokemon, we never ever had a proper Water/Poison frog-type. The closest we came to having a poisonous frog or toad Pokemon is Croagunk and Toxicroak, but they were Poison/Fighting. Oh well!
I really, really like Fortog, and I very much appreciate the punk-ass attitude of Blubelrog, but I just don't quite get Folerog, and I feel that it's probably the weaker link in this evolutionary line. Fortog is a pretty cute chubby little frog-dude that looks like a plushy, and apparently it rolls around everywhere it goes because it's a fat baby. Blubelrog looks like a punk-ass dude that probably sits around in seedy allies, smoking cheap cigarettes and whenever you pass him you wonder if he's going to shank you and steal your wallet or try and sell you some cheap heroin. That pose and that face is really fun. But Folerog is just kind of an awkward frog that has proportions that don't quite fit a proper frog or toad, y'know? It looks more like a cat with a frog face or something. Folerog's dex entry even makes it sound kind of pathetic... it can't swim, but it needs water to survive. Plus, the progression from a roly-poly baby frog to four-legged frog to punk-ass thug frog just feels a bit off to me.
Feleng, Felunge, Feliger
Oooh kitty! The Feleng line is a cute itty-bitty calico cat that evolves ultimately into a big fat liger. And I do think that they do have a wee bit too many details going on (particularly Feliger), but having gotten used to seeing it in the game, I've certainly grown to appreciate them. The asymmetry between the orange and brown details are neat.
Conceptually, the line seems to be a homage to Slakoth, where the middle evolution is extremely athletic-looking with giant claw-fingers, while the final evolution is a fat, lazy old creature with insane stats and a debilitating attitude -- in Feliger's case, it enters battle while sleeping. Which means that you're either going to have to spend Chesto Berries or run moves like Sleep Talk and Snore to properly make use of Feliger's stats. Unlike Slakoth, Vigoroth and Slaking, though, the concept of a cat that is extremely chaotic and wild in its middle years and then grows fat and lazy when it gets old is actually very much fitting. Also, while they don't do a lot of it, Feliger has two different sprites for the male and female, with male Feliger having a lion-like mane. Feliger has enough details going on for it, and I feel like the female sprite is such a cleaner-looking design.
Empirilla
Another evolution of a canon Pokemon, Empirilla is the evolution of Primeape... and they just took Primeape's face and Mankey's tail, and stuck it into a generic ape body. I'm not going to talk too much shit about this one, because I'm sure there are people out there who appreciate Primeape evolving into a 'proper' king kong style monster. I for one am not one of those people, because I've always found Mankey and Primeape's bizarre way of stylizing a monkey to be what made them unique. Now it's just kind of a generic ape-monster, and I feel like we lost what made Primeape so unique in the first place. Nice that Primeape got some attention, though.
Owten, Eshouten
Another one of my favourites in this game is the Owten line. Owten is the most adorable combination of owls and kitties, and the combination is adorable! I don't really see a whole ton of owl-based monsters that also go for a lighter shade of brown, and Owten is pretty cute! Eshouten ramps up more predatory features, swapping the cute kitten face with a predatory cat one, and giving some talons and whatnot, and becomes significantly less cute. It's a shame that they're Normal/Flying, though, which is pretty mundane -- Uranium, being a fanmade game, is kind of hard if you're unprepared and you'll find Fearow-tier creatures like Eshouten pretty unsuitable for the long run.
As a special note, look at their nuclear sprites! Look at how hideously sinister-looking just removing the pupils from a cat's eye makes them look. Fits with the owl vibe, too. Between Eshouten and Smore is the Lotad line, which, I think, is the only official Pokemon to be included in the pokedex without some sort of evolution, mega evolution or nuclear form added in. Maybe one of the makers just really loves Lotad?
Smore, Firoke
And here we go with one of my favourite concepts in Uranium, the denizens of Anthell. Techncially, these 'elemental ants' are all relatively middling two-stage bug types with an additional type, but as we learn later on, the elemental ants have an interesting... secret! In any case, it seems initially that these three different elemental ant species are somehow living in harmony inside a gigantic nest.
The first of these is a literal fire ant. Smore has nothing to do with s'mores, but it's identified as a "cute ant Pokemon" that likes to gatecrash picnics not to steal food, but simply because it wants attention. D'aww, it's the ant version of a chihuahua. The artwork is also very adorable, making a pretty cute little ant baby.
Smore evolves into the Bug/Fire Firoke, turning it into an ant with the powers of the bombardier beetle, except instead of mere organic chemicals, Firoke shoots literal lava. It's not the most creative bug Pokemon out there, perhaps, but Firoke is pretty neat looking in its simplicity, and I like how chunky those legs look. The elemental ants aren't next to each other in the Tandor Pokedex, though, so it'll be a while before we see their cousins.
Brailip, Brainoar
And here we go, Brailip, easily my favourite Pokemon in the Uranium dex, and one that I captured and used in my party non-stop until the end. It's such a simple design, just slapping a brain and a happy smiling mouth on a fish's body. And because visible brains give you unnatural psychic powers, Brailip is Water/Psychic. And... and I'm not sure what it is about monsters with visible brains, but this just looks cool and creepy at the same time. Also, I know for a fact that Brailip is likely a reference to those goldfishes with very brain-like growths on their face, which is extra-neat! Love that Brailip has no eyes, too. A very pleasant looking creature. I'm a huge fan of this one. It just looks so happy and weird at the same time.
Brailip's evolution, Brainoar, is based on an oarfish and still retains its lips and now has a dome around its brain, which plays to the wacky sci-fi theme well. It's got actual arms now, which makes Brainoar like some sort of bizarre mermaid or something? It certainly looks a fair bit more threatening than Brailip, and while I do prefer its pre-evolution, Brainoar is still a pretty cool creature that honestly wouldn't look out of place in a D&D campaign or something.
Mega Arbok
Good old Arbok is another official Pokemon that got a mega evolution (Mega Arbok becomes Poison/Dark) and... and to the game's credit, they didn't go for the utterly obvious fan route of turning any given snake or reptile into a dragon, and instead went for a hydra/orochi thing instead. And I do like that they kept the cobra hood and gave it a scarier hood ornamentation, and I appreciate the unconventional way of having the extra snake heads pop out from around the hood and the tail, but it kinda looks somewhat awkward.
Also I want to share the sprite they have for Nuclear-corrupted Arbok, which swaps the cobra hood face with a glowing biohazard sign. Sometimes it's the little details that matter.
Tancoon, Tanscure
A pair of Dark/Normal raccoon dogs (the real-life tanuki instead of the mythological ones), and... they're pretty neat! They're characterized as mean assholes that steal food from both smaller Pokemon as well as trainers, and I find Tanscure to look particularly cool with how nicely-sprited he is. As I keep saying in most of my monster reviews, sometimes you just need to have a couple of designs that are kind of palate cleansers so not every single thing in the game is super-special-awesome. Sometimes you just need a badass looking raccoon-wolf.
Sponee, Sporanee
More bugs hooray! Sponee here is the second of three elemental ants, and the one that looks the least like an ant. Sponee's an adorable little blob with little insect legs popping up, two huge mandibles and sad eyes, and the end result sort of looks more like a cute spider baby. It's noted to be covered with a sponge-like material, and it's a reference to Froghopper Bug larva, which, of course, is iconic for the fact that they create a frothy sponge-like covering around itself. Sponee just looks so adorable with that combination of its eyes, fangs and body.
Sporanee, a Bug/Water, is a bit less adorable. It's loosely based on a spider or beetle, but one that's still covered with bubbles. It's neat, but the proportions kind of feel off, and while it's certainly more threatening than Sponee, I do wished that they kept some aspect of Sponee's cuteness. Still a pretty cool looking bug on principle, though. Also note that these are designs for bubble bugs made before the official release of Generation VII and Dewpider and Araquanid, so that's a neat parallel there.
Pahar, Palij, Pajay
And here we go with the Pahar line, which are meant to represent like, tropical parrots or something, but like most Pokemon birds, they eventually evolve into a bird of prey. It's like, a parrot with aspects of a phoenix since it's all about setting itself on fire. I'm not super-duper impressed by them, but Pahar looks cute and both Palij and Pajay have very pleasant looking colourations. They're also noted to be migratory, with huge flocks of Pajay and Palij apparently going back and forth between Tandor and the anime-exclusive Orange Islands. Neat! Again, I don't have a whole ton to say about the Pahar line. They're neat and I like that they exist, and in the game they were a nice little addition to the tropical rainforest area.
Jerbolta
An Electric/Ground jerboa rodent with Sonic hair, And judging by its non-evolving state and its cheek pouches, I guess this is meant to be the Pika-clone of the region. The concept of an electric jerboa mouse is definitely something that Nintendo would probably do sooner or later as they run out of rodents to make Pikaclones out of. This one's pretty neat, extremely solid all around. I guess it's Ground-type because it is a burrying animal? It's cute, in any case.
Comite, Cometeor, Astronite
Another trio that I really do love! Comite starts off as this adorable little rock with an eye glowing within, and four tiny bug-like rock legs that it can retract and disguise as a real rock. Pretty neat, and it wouldn't look out of place as a Metroid or Mega Man enemy. I love it! The more I look at it, the more I like it. It's just such a simple, fun design for a rock monster, and the dex entry note that they arrived on an asteroid, meaning that they're not mere rock spiders, they're space rock spiders.
Comite then evolves into the Rock/Psychic Cometeor, floating in the air and having a disembodied hand made out of rock, and apparently this entire species communicate by flashing their crystals. Very fun little detail, and I really do love just how the psychic-rock typing combination translates to it basically making hands (and presumably other limbs) with its psychic control over rocks.
Finally, the entity within the rocks breaks free and reveals itself to be this strange shadowy figure Astronite, and, of course, all of them are actually aliens from space! Presumably, they hang out in Poke-space with the likes of Elgyem, Clefairy, Deoxys and Starmie. Astronite also kinda looks like an alien from Ben 10, and I definitely love the concept of an alien energy being hiding in a rock (or masquerading as a rock, or is a rock) and slowly growing more and more powerful, before eventually becoming this mysterious rock-humanoid monster. Very cool. I also like the detail of it still keeping Cometeor's segmented, floating arm. Are the black parts of Astronite still made out of a rocky material, or is it just the inky void of space?
Baashaun, Baaschaf, Baariette, Mega Baariette
This line is comprised of Dark/Fighting sheep-men and apparently meant to be the 'evil' counterpart to the Mareep line, which also shows up in this game between Astronite and Baashaun. It's not my favourite concept in the game, but it's neat and cute to have another take on a sheep that becomes increasingly humanoid, and you can insert your own 'black sheep' joke here. Baashaun is extremely cute even if the Shawn the Sheep reference made me have an eyeroll. A problem that I have with a lot of official Pokemon is that, well, at this first stage, I'm not sure what part of Baashaun is Fighting-type.
Baaschaf and Baariette become a bit more humanoid, and I guess they're going for a satyr look? I don't super-like them, but at least the colours are nice (that teal is great), and I do like the proportions of Baariette with the chunky lower arms. Despite being a Dark-type, I don't think Baariette looks particularly that evil, but apparently it makes sure its opponent 'can't ever fight again', so, uh, it goes for fractures and stuff, I suppose.
Mega Baarriette looks way, way more like a cow-man than a goat/sheep-man, and I think they're going for a demonic visage? Hail Baphomet (or, well, Baa-phomet) and all that. Goat skulls are associated with the devil, after all, and Mega Baariette has an upside-down star or some shit on its chest. It could've been a bit too on-the-nose on the whole 'it's the devil!' part, so I definitely appreciate the restraint here, and Mega Baariette ends up also kinda looking more like a wrestler. And I would've definitely rather had this than having Mega Baariette be a generic Baphomet goat-man.
Tricwe, Harlyect
More bug babies! This is the third and last of the elemental ants, and Tricwe is a cute little baby fat ant with bumblebee markings that love to 'sneak up and surprise their trainer'. D'aww. It's adorable and I want fifteen dozen plushies of this thing. Like, Sponee is the cutest and Smore is also extremely cute, but Tricwe's fat bumblebee butt just makes him look like he's probably the bug pokemon equivalent of like a fat puppy or kitten.
Like its two cousins, Tricwe evolves into a dual-type bug, this time the Bug/Electric Harlyect, and... and it's an electric ant with its abdomen being a light-bulb. I'm not the biggest fan of the legs that sort of cut away into stumps, but the hairy bee-inspired fur around its neck and the lightbulb abdomen are both very charming details. I do like the little detail that the antennae apparently allow Harlyect to plug into human houses and whatnot to 'recharge'.
The three elemental ants, as noted before, live in a gigantic cave called Anthell, meant to represent a far larger version of those giant termite mounds in real life, and while at first it seems like they're just three different species with different types that happen to live in the same hive, turns out that they're more like, super-specialized parts of a hive, ruled by a giant queen, the legendary Seikamater. And while you, the player, takes out the Seikamater that's been kidnapping travellers and essentially eating them, turns out that any one of the three basic elemental ants, if given the 'royal jelly' item, can instead evolve into the Seikamater instead of their 'proper' final forms. It's sort of a neat adaptation of how some communal insects can actually have a drone 'turn' into a queen if the queen itself is killed, although I can't for the life of me remember what the process is called.
Costraw, Trawpint
Another pair of fun weirdos! Costraw is Poison/Psychic, an... interesting typing, and it looks pretty weird! It's a duck serpent creature that looks like it's the punk love-child of Dratini and Horsea. It's very weird, and I'm actually a huge fan of its worm-like body, its weird duck-face and the horns (hair?) it has on its head. Its dex entry notes that it's essentially a psychic leech, latching onto prey and absorbing their life force. It's like some kind of creature out of D&D, pretty fun and adorable.
It then evolves into the Birdo Pokemon (no, really, that's what the game actually says) Trawpint, and it's... far less interesting now, just this weird duck-dinosaur thing that apparently just moves things around with its telekinetic powers. It's not a terrible design, and I don't think it'd look out of place in like an Ultraman show, but I feel like it loses a lot of the charm that it had as Costraw. I think, like Tonemy and Tofurang, I would've preferred it if these were two unrelated designs, or if there was a middle evolution to more properly 'ease' us into the final form. Trawpint does make a particularly striking nuclear creature, for sure!
Lunapup, Herolune
A Ground/Fighting squat puppy that turns into a superhero werewolf. I do like the little cape that both of them have, and Herolune's mask is pretty hilarious, I guess. Not a particularly huge fan, though. Lunapup's neat, but I do feel like the proportion in Herolune is a bit odd. I also kind of feel like Lunapup could've been a bit more... cuter? And I wish they had emphasized the 'superhero' concept a bit better, since other than the name, it's not communicated particularly well. It's not until I looked at the dex entry that I realized that those were supposed to be superhero paraphernalia and not just random moon markings.
The cape's a bit too small and the random detailing on Herolune (the skull mask, and that chest-plate) aren't quite specific enough to really sell the idea of this being a wolf-man superhero. I dunno, I feel like they could've gone a bit more in trying to emphasize the superhero part of this Pokemon. Not the biggest fan, but a very neat concept.
Minyan, Vilucard
We can't have a superhero without a supervillain, and thus we get Minyan and
And it's not that I dislike Vilucard, because he's still awesome, basically Minyan but more humanoid... but he just loses a fair bit when he doesn't have the adorable kitten eyes. I like that the bat wings becomes a superhero cloak, but ultimately Vilucard's proportions looks a bit too much like he belongs as part of Freeza's army or something. Still, I do like the two a fair bit, certainly more than Herolune.
Modrille, Drilgann, Mega Drilgann
We get Buizel and Floatzel in the Uranium dex between Vilucard and Modrille, and I don't remember them appearing in the game at all. There are also Gligar and Sableye after Modrille. Huh, I guess Lotad's not the only official mon without any real gimmicks to them! Anyway, these guys... aren't something I particularly am a fan of. Combining moles and drills is a pretty neat and obvious concept, of course. And Modrille is admittedly cute, if awkward -- having the face just turn into a big fat drill is adorable, and it just looks kinda cute.
But Drilgann? Drilgann's just kind of awkward. I do like that the star-shaped mask is a reference to the star-nosed mole... but the rest of it just kind of feels m'eh, particularly the huge legs and those odd drill bits jutting out of Drilgann's tusks. I dunno. I feel like it could've been a great looking drill-beasts with either more or less drills. And Mega Drilgann... eh? It's a homage to Guren Lagann, of course, but I dunno, it's just one of the few Uranium Pokemon that makes me just shrug and go, "well, it's not my thing'.
Cocaran, Cararalm, Cocancer
And then there's this guy! This is an amazingly fun concept! See, Cocaran is a coconut crab... but instead of a crab that eats coconuts, Cocaran is a literal coconut crab! Cocaran is a coconut fruit that sprouts vines, a crab-head, and little coconut-crust pincers, and the visual is pretty dang neat. It's a hermit crab whose every single facet is inspired by coconuts. It's an amazing fusion of the term "coconut crab" and the far more striking look of a hermit crab. The Cocaran line is Grass/Ground, which is pretty fun. I just really love Cocaran.
Cocaran evolves into Cararalm, where instead of a single coconut fruit, its 'shell' is a fat palm tree. It's head is just a bit bizarre, but crabs are inherently kind of awkward-looking animals in the first place. Its face just looks irritated, but I like that its claws are coconut shell chunks, and its legs are like, smaller palm trees or something.
And then you get to Cocancer, who has an entire segment of the beach with a tree growing out of it. Cocancer looks very angry, and I love that its legs are coconut tree trunks and it's got gigantic coconut shells as its crab pincers. Really like the little Staryu that apparently live on Cocancer's little beach-shell, those are neat, and the dex describe Cocancer as hiding under the sand masquerading as a beach before bursting out to eat its prey. I actually used a Cocancer for a good part of my Uranium run, and, well, coconuts kill more people every year than sharks and stuff, y'know? Cocancer is a badass.
Corsoreef
Oh hey, it's Corsola (another one of those old-and-ignored single stage Pokemon) also gets an evolution in this game -- and back when I both did this review and played Uranium, Cusola still wasn't a thing. And I get Corsoreef's concept. Corsola goes from a single coral piece into a huge chunk of reef, and it has an algae necklace, but it kind of becomes so chunky and bulky that it loses the adorable cute charm that Corsola has. The dex entry that talks about how it has a symbiotic relationship with many other aquatic creatures in its body. The concept is kind of the obvious one, and a good one, but I am not super impressed with how Corsoreef looks.
Tubjaw, Tubareel
More water types! A segmented little fanged fish that becomes a segmented shark-eel thing when it evolves. I'm not sure if having Tubjaw and Tubareel be made out of diamond-shaped body segments is a reference to any real life marine animal or whatever, but they do make for decent, mean-looking Water/Dark fishies. The greening faces and the presumably bio-luminescent neon green parts make this a far more interesting design than it otherwise would be.
I also have the distinct feel that they are deep-sea dwellers due to the eel-like shape and the neon markings, but in practice they basically take over the role of something like Goldeen, Carvanha or Basculin, being the fishies you fish up in earlier-game routes. Tubjaw looks just so happy and that shit-eating grin really tells me that Tubareel doesn't give a rat's ass what anyone thinks about it. I can respect that.
Cassnail, Sableau, Escartress
A trio of Ground/Water sea snails, and also incorporates sandcastles. A simple yet awesome little concept! Nothing too over-the-top, and honestly does resemble some Pokemon we've already seen, but it's pretty cute. Cassnail is the simple, first-stage version that sets up the concept -- a snail whose shell is made out of sands. Apparently, it dissolves minerals in the ocean and distills them to make the sandy castle, which is a neat way of giving this creature a biological reason for its unique appearance.
Sableau, the middle evolution, looks like it exchanges beauty tips with Sliggoo, and she's got cute little yellow fins and the sandcastle actually looks like it's made out sand with those gradients. Escartress, which is an awesome name, doesn't just look like a snail, but more like a giant dinosaurian creature like Lapras or something, and it's got two mini-turrets. Pretty cool! Also, a little detail about Escartress I didn't realize until playing the game is that it's got two pairs of eyes, which is neat.
Nupin, Gellin
AHH MY BABY! I didn't care that much for Nupin and Gellin in my first run-down of the Uranium dex, finding the idea of a giant bacteria Pokemon to be neat, the typing of Grass/Electric to be neat, and while I liked the concept it's still just kinda there... until I used one of my own in my playthrough of Uranium. I called mine E. Coli, and hoo boy, it kicks all sorts of ass.
And honestly, the concept of a bacteria Pokemon is pretty cool, and one that I feel will be done at one point or other in the franchise's history. Nupin is apparently a gigantic single-celled organism, and... and it somehow takes the form of this multi-legged slug with an upside-down magnet and a huge eye (mouth? nucleus?) on the center of its yellow body. It's adorable and I love it. The magnet on his forehead takes a bit getting used to, but the rest of its body with its nucleus-eye just looks pretty neat. I'm not sure why exactly they are grass and electricity... I guess it's an extrapolation of how cells generate energy? I dunno. It feels right, though.
Gellin, meanwhile, has apparently evolved "means of propulsion" by changing photosynthesis energy into electromagnetic pulses, turning itself into... well, its upper green body still looks like a sea slug, but now has lots of legs presumably based on flagellae or something. And I'm not sure what those dots on his legs are. Eyes? Nuclei? Mitochondrion? Whatever the case, Gellin's a badass with its many legs and its ability to summon thunderstorms and plant beams. Pretty awesome design, and while it's not super accurate to real-life cells, it's also a neat enough concept and design overall. Actually using one in my playthrough has certainly made me appreciate Gellin a lot more!
Mega Whimsicott
It's regular Whimsicott, but after you pour a lot of glitter and toss him into a washing machine and mess up the huge giant cotton ball hairdo. Also, with two extra green horns. Honestly, considering some of the mega evolutions we got, I wouldn't be surprised if we ever got an official Mega Whimsicott that it'd look similar to this. Not a huge fan of this one, but I am happy that someone out there likes Whimsicott as much as I do.
Barand
Sometimes you just need to have a relatively simple design, and Barand is it! Barand is a pure-Dragon type, and it doesn't evolve or have any sort of unique typing or gimmicky moves or abilities. It's just a snake with dragon spines and a hand for a tail. It's just there, and it's just happy to be a hand-dragon. I like it, sometimes all you need is just to be slightly weird.
Glaslug, Glavinug
Oh, shit, little critters based on the Glaucus atlanticus, one of the most bizarre-looking and gorgeous-looking sea slugs in existence! Glaslug and Glavinug interestingly take a more seal-like approach to the aesthetic, transplanting the real life Glaucus's distinctive colours and feathers onto a seal-like body and making a pretty neat looking creature as a result!
Glaslug is adorable, and Glavinug looks genuinely pretty. It's designs like this that I genuinely enjoy, where they don't just look at a weird creature and turn it into a monster based on the real-world creature. Glavinug is also Water/Ice... and it's just kind of a shame that they don't try and incorporate some of the real-life Glaucus's ability to eat the poisonous nematocyte cells from the jellyfishes they prey upon. A genuinely pretty looking creature, and these are easily my favourite aquatic creature in the Uranium dex.
S51, S51-A, Mega S51-A
Alien Pokemon! Like, straight-up aliens in space saucers and shit! S51 is the most adorable and my favourite out of the three, being a cute little green sock puppet on a cute space saucer with two purple sock-arms. Look at that adorable little alien baby, I want a dozen of them. I used one in my playthrough of Uranium, and there's a whole wacky sidequest involving them making crop circles and stuff. S51 is adorable, and while the whole line honestly looks pretty far off from the Gamefreak aesthetic, it's a great, fun design. My favourite type of aliens are ones that look weird, like Astronite up above, or something genuinely alien like the Colour from Outer Space but there's just something that's just utterly adorable about this collection of tropes about space saucers and stuff.
It then evolves into the meaner-looking S51-A... and it looks like something out of a 90's children's book. Look at that mean-looking horned green face! The eyes are differently coloured, the space saucer looks cartoony, and the ribbon hands are adorable. It took a while, but I'm genuinely surprised to see how much I like this. Mega S51-A is a lot more awkward looking, with its UFO becoming bigger and sprouting hands made out of those tube-y hands, but there's kind of a bizarre B-movie charm to this line.
Anyway, that's it for the first part of my Pokemon Uranium review redux. Tune in soon for part two soon!
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