Gotta Review 'Em All, Special Fakemon Episode: Pokemon Uranium #2

Part two of my coverage of Pokemon Uranium. Again, as I mentioned in part one, this is a bit of a re-do of reviewing the dex entries for the fan-made Pokemon game Uranium, which I did a screenshot-based Let's Play on this blog a while back. As with all of my monster review segments, this is going to be focused more about the design and style of the Fakemons instead of any sort of commentary on the creatures' in-game role or how they compare to real, official Pokemon.

Paraudio, Paraboom

Our first Uranium Pokemon in this review are Paraudio and Paraboom, who are Normal/Psychic... ducks? Or something? It's not until today that I realized they are based on the dinosaur Parasauroluphus, but they sure don't look like the dinosaur in question. Paraudio and Paraboom are Normal/Psychic types that wear headphones and unleash sonic booms, and they are so attuned to sound that they can replicate any sound they've heard. Okay, then? They've got a decently fun colour scheme, and Paraboom has a fun crazy grin, but ultimately kind of the more forgettable entries in this fan game, I feel. I'm not even sure why they are Psychic. I don't dislike them, I just don't find them particularly memorable.

Also, while a lot of the early-dex entries do have Nuclear forms, from this point on a lot of the Fakemon from this point onwards don't get a Nuclear form. I guess it's more effective to see mutated forms of creatures that the player is more familiar with from the earlier parts of the game? Okay, sure.

Flager, Inflagetah, Mega Inflagetah

Flager is a flaming tiger and... it's kind of obvious? It's apparently meant to be the fire starter of the region, but they swapped it with the infinitely more interesting Raptorch. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with Flager, but it's just so kind of vanilla, y'know? It's just a little kitty with extra flames shooting out of it.

Inflagetah, meanwhile, is meant to be a cheetah based on its name, but in practice it looks more like an interesting fusion of an antelope and a particularly athletic hound. between the gigantic horns and the dainty legs, it sure doesn't look feline at all, but it definitely looks like the explosively speedy creature the designers clearly meant it to be. It sure doesn't look too much like something you'll find in the Pokemon aesthetic, but I do like it for what it is.

And then it mega-evolves into Inflagetah and it looks like something straight out of the later run of Transformers: Beast Wars with its Transmetal cyborg animals, and Mega Inflagetah takes the speedy look of Inflagetah and ramps it up to eleven, adding a bunch of rocket thrusters that unleash blue flame, and also changes a bunch of details like turning the horns sideways. It kinda looks like a hot dog with robot parts, and it looks ridiculous, but I can definitely respect that. I can also very much respect Mega Inflagetah's power in the Uranium game -- it's frankly one of the most broken things in the game if you train it right.

Chimical, Chimaconda

Ah, a Fire/Poison Pokemon! And it took us seven generations to get an official one with Salazzle! Chimical is meant to be a chimera, and... it's interesting? The end result is sort of a hybrid between a Chimera's appearance combined with a Manticore's ability, with the line having the fan-made ability "Petrify", which is Intimidate but for the speed stat. Chimical is pretty cute, a feline-canine cub with bat wings and a snake for a tail. Chimaconda is the same thing but bigger and with a slightly awkward-looking lion-goat head, and while I don't want to rag on the sprite-work, Chimaconda is probably my least favourite one in the game. The snake head's cute, though. Ultimately the line is basically what you expect if a Chimera migrated from the Greek mythology and moved into a Pokemon game. It doesn't change a whole ton from the original inspiration.

Tikiki, Frikitiki

Are Tiki monkeys racist? I dunno. They might be. Worth noting that this was done before Alola was released, and... and I guess monkeys with Tiki heads are... they're neat? I'm genuinely not familiar enough with Polynesian culture to really comment on that. For what they are, the sprites look decent. Tikiki is a Grass-type and Frikitiki is a Grass/Fire, because I guess Tiki monkeys summon fire or something? Tikiki has interesting proportions, though. Ultimately, they look pretty all right.

Unymph, Harptera

Ooooh look another bug baby! And Unymph has a gigantic fat lizard underbite, giving the impression of some sort of weird cross between like a big friendly bulldog and an earwig. It's meant to be a dragonfly nymph, I think, but the shape's kinda wrong... but it's still adorable! It's a big bulldog bug, and I can appreciate it. The dex notes that apparently Unymph inhabits bogs and swamps, before fully evolving. It's basically a crocodile-nymph-bulldog monster! It's so goofy looking, not at all what you expect from a bug monster. I like it.

The Bug/Flying (not part-dragon, surprisingly, for this game) Harptera has a pretty neat design, having a draconic body with bug features. It's like Flygon if they had decided to make Flygon more of a bug instead of a dragon, and I do like the little scorpionfly-esque tail and the sideways bug-mouth. It does feel like it might be ever so slightly cluttered, but I do think that Harptera's a pretty cool design. The legs are a wee bit off, but it's still one of my favourite designs in the game... it's a pity that there are so many other stronger bug-types, that my attempt to use a Harptera ultimately ended up with it being boxed because there are so many better bug-types. I still love how it looks, though! A very good design.

Chicoatl, Quetzoral, Coatlith

Another one that's primarily found in the rainforest area of Tandor, and it's basically based on a couatl. Pretty cool concept, and combining it with basically making the Chicoatl line a grassy, tropical bird-dragon is pretty great. Chicoatl is adorable, looking like an adorable little puppy or kitten with a bird head and feathers stuck on it, and it's got enough details to not look boring but not too much to feel too cluttered for a first stage. Also really love those little wing-like leaves on its front legs.

Chicoatl turns into Quetzoral and here you can tell what they are going for, with Quetzoral losing the hind legs of Chicoatl, getting a more elaborate plumage and looking more... draconic, I guess, with that body layout? I feel like I like Quetzoral's colour scheme the best out of the three evolutionary lines, that shade of green just works so well contrasted with the red. I like Quetzoral the best, I think, I don't think we see enough dragons with a bird head, arm-wings, tail but no feet.

Coatlith is a bit more traditional-looking as it becomes a true Grass/Dragon, with a serpentine body seen in many Asian and South American dragon equivalents. It's characterized as a nature-protecting god, and I do like its plumage. I feel like it probably could've been a bit more... majestic? Like, at least have the head plumage be as large as its pre-evolution, y'know? I like that its tail is a flower.

Tracton

A non-evolving Dragon/Steel, Tracton is... it's a construction vehicle shaped like a dragon! With caterpillar treads instead of legs, and a huge shovel for a head. The aesthetic is more Digimon than Pokemon, but that's certainly not a diss. Tracton balances both ridiculous and cool at the same time. I guess if Nintendo actually did go through with the original concept for the Deino line, this is an approximation of what we'd get? Also, Tracton is the Porygon equivalent of a Pokemon you win from the game corner, except actually useful -- getting this monster early on is basically having a shotgun when everyone else is still using slingshots. Tracton's pretty charming. I like him.

Snopach, Dermafrost

Time for fossil pokemon, and Tandor's fossils come from Ice Age era animals. And, well, from what it looks like, based on the Ice Age movie itself. And that's fun! I really decry just how many modern fossil Pokemon are just straight-up dinosaurs instead of the weirder prehistoric creatures that something like Omanyte or Lileep are based on. Snopach is an adorable little Ice/Rock mammoth baby. There's really nothing particularly super-special about Snopach, but it's a cute widdle elephant baby and that's enough to make him memorable. Honestly, I could definitely see this being a regional variant of Phanpy! I love this guy.

And the evolution Dermafrost is... it's a huge giant elephant-man. It's not my style of Pokemon, but I wouldn't mind fighting against one of this in like a D&D game or something. I do likes its creepy eyes, and I like the little pokedex entry noting how it was apparently hunted into extinction by early humans. With what? Dermafrost is a giant elephant man able to summon blizzards and create rock-slides at whim, how are prehistoric humans able to hunt him down?

Slothohm, Theriamp

Yep, someone clearly watched Ice Age while making Uranium's fossils. Slothohm (god that name) is based on prehistoric sloths, although Slothohm looks more like a modern sloth than a prehistoric one. It's noted to apparently climb up trees and wait to get struck by lightning. Okay, sure? That explains the electric typing, maybe? Not the biggest fan of this guy's face, although real sloths aren't like, huge lookers at all.

Theriamp is a bit cooler, being based on the prehistoric giant sloth Megatherium. It's basically what you expect from a Megatherium-based Pokemon, having the giant claws that the creature is known for, and, well, being an electric-type, it's got a bunch of yellow colouration on its body, including those arm-shields with electrical outlet markings. I do like the concept of a giant sloth who uses electricity to make itself move fast, although visually I'm not the biggest fan of this line. Pretty neat overall, though.

Titanice

It's a pure Ice-type and... it's the Titanic with a shark mouth? It's basically Titanic emerging from the same iceberg that killed it, and... why? I dunno, it's such a bizarre reference, and while fan games tend to do that a lot (looking at you, Pokemon Clover) Uranium has mostly kept its actual pokedex free from too many real-life references. And even discounting the genuinely random reference to a real-life tragedy (or, well, the movie), Titanice doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Shouldn't it be Ice/Steel, if it's a boat Pokemon? I do like some details of the sprite, like how the front part of the iceberg seems to resemble like claws or something, but ultimately this is a Pokemon that mostly just earns a shrug from me and nothing else.

Frynai, Saidine, Daikatuna

I like the concept behind these a lot, and they exist in the game just to be the main pokemon for the surfing ninja clan. No, you read that right. Uranium is that kind of game. They are a bunch of Water/Steel fishies that are fused with Japanese ninja weapons. Frynai is my favourite, fusing an adorable little fish with a kunai, with the blade of the kunai becoming the tail of the fish. Frynai's design also shows that it's not merely a ninja weapon, it's also a ninja trainee itself with a ninja headband and everything. Saidine has the tail of a sai, and while the anatomy doesn't quite work as well as Frynai, it still fits the theme well and looks a lot like a buffed-up Frynai. The ninja bandana, again, works very well. Not much to say about Saidine, it takes everything good about Frynai and amps it. As much as I do like the Aegislashes and Klefkis of the Pokemon world, I do actually wish more object-based Pokemon try and incorporate it onto organic forms like the Frynai line.

Shame that Daikatuna is almost as good as its smaller buddies. The name, combining the Dai-Katana and 'tuna', is amazing. And deciding to make the fish based on a swordfish is also a stroke of genius. Unfortunately, it's standing on its hind legs and has utterly awkward-looking fin-arms, looking more like a background character from Spongebob Squarepants that has glued a katana to his head. It's not even the fact that it's became bipedal and humanoid, it's the fact that it doesn't fit the design aesthetic of Frynai and Saidine, or ninjas at all.

Selkid, Syrentide, Mega Syrentide

We've had a bunch of different sea otter Pokemon as well as mermaid-esque Pokemon in official games... but Selkid's still pretty damn cute! I think it's that face and that adorable little hairdo. Selkid looks adorable. She's based on the selkie, of course, and there's really not a whole ton to say about her. She's an adorable little friend. The dex notes that Selkids like to gather around and sing in harmony, but their chorus sometimes accidentally causes people to get lost. Like a non-malicious siren!

She evolves into the Water/Fairy Syrentide and... and it's hard to really not compare this to the much cleaner official Pokemon Primarina. There is a bunch of details to like, like the fact that Syrentide's hair is made out of a flowing wave of water, and the trident-tail is pretty cool, but ultimately neither Syrentide or her cluttered mega form is my cup of tea. It's still conceptually pretty great, though!

Miasmedic

So this one is different! It's an alternate evolution for good ol' Spritzee, which is one of the Pokemon whose evolution that a large, vocal amount of the fandom disliked back when XY came out. And while I don't hate Aromatisse, I do agree that going from a little bird perfume plague doctor into a burlesque dancer is a bit of a far leap. A lot of fan-made Spritzee 'fix' evolutions tended to go too far on the sinister part, though, while Uranium's Miasmedic is a lot more... friendly-looking? Which is appropriate, because while they've sort of risen among horror imagery, plague doctors are actually meant to be doctors and healers.

Miasmedic is still somewhat sinister, since she's Fairy/Poison, but it's still meant to be someone that can simultaneously cure and cause disease. I do like the long, noodle-like arms that end in claws, the friendly-looking eyes above the plague doctor beak, and the vague witch-like set of robes and 'hat' that Miasmedic has... but doesn't go too far in trying to be sinister, and with all of the fluff Miasmedic has, it does feel like it belongs in the same evolutionary family as Aromatisse and Spritzee. It's also noted that Miasmedic stabs people with its claws and injects pathogens through those. Nasty!

Jackdeary, Winotinger

Jackdeary and Winotinger are a pair of Fairy/Fighting Pokemon based on the jackalope, a cryptid animal that's basically a rabbit with deer horns. Jackdeary is pretty awesome, looking pretty scrappy and angry like a little bunny, and I do love the little addition of fur around its neck and ears. Winotinger looks a bit too large and buff for my liking, but it's not a terrible design. I do find that it's perhaps a wee bit too cluttered, but it's kind of appropriate for a hybridized animal? The game makes it clear through dex entries and various NPC's that only drunk people can see Winotinger in the wild, something that I feel is probably inspired by some real-life legend or other. Also, does that mean that your Uranium protagonist is perpetually drunk? Very Fairy-esque little detail.

Duplicat

It's not-Ditto! But there's a pun on 'copycat' there somewhere. Any self-respecting fan game needs to have Ditto or a Ditto equivalent, because you need to breed your Pokeymans for competitive reasons. Duplciat is adorable, simple without too much detailing and I absolutely adore the :3 cat face. Or, well, the ::3 cat-face. it's got four eyes! Duplicat's movepool is filled with moves like Transform, Mirror Coat, Copycat and Substitute, basically all moves that involve transforming or copying, and the dex notes that instead of technically transforming into the enemy like Ditto, Duplicat instead creates a temporary copy of the enemy to fight for it. Which is sadly not actually seen in gameplay, a modified Substitute move would've been pretty badass.

Nucleon

Eevee, of course, gets a Nuclear-typed evolution in this game, evolving if you carry a nuclear-type Pokemon in your party ala Pangoro. I guess poor Eevee's mutable genes are straight-up mutated and warped from close contact to that radioactive raccoon you captured earlier, turning it into Nucleon... but unlike other Nuclear-type Pokemon in the game, Nucleon is a natural Nuclear-type, meaning that it doesn't have the self-control problems that the other corrupted Nuclear Pokemon has. Plus, "Nucleon" is just such a beautifully appropriate name for an Eeveelution.

I used one for my playthrough and called it Blight, and Nucleon's pretty badass. Its ability is simple -- any normal type move gets turned into a Nuclear-type move, which gets boosted by both STAB and its ability, and Nucleon is pretty min-maxed stat-wise. It's a pretty cool Eeveelution, too, fitting with the style and design of a lot of the later Eeveelutions, and the floating, hovering triangular shapes on Nucleon's chest, as well as the ones that make its ears and tail are really neat-looking. Also love the three eyes. Pretty cool design!

Ratsy, Raffiti

Ratsy and Raffiti are punk rats, and they use their tails to paint graffiti. The concept's strange but neat, and Ratsy's got a charmingly dopey look about it. I like the Smeargle-esque tail and the tuft of punk hair. But I feel that Raffiti might be going a bit too much into basically just making an anthropomorphize'd rat, and between the giant tuft of purple hair, the spray paint can on the tail and the goth-punk bangles, I feel like there's just a bit too much going on here. Certainly not a design I'm overly fond of, even if I do find the basic concept interesting.

Gargryph

A Pokemon based on a gargoyle, or gargoyle monsters in general, are pretty cool... but Gargryph is just a gargoyle gryphon, y'know? There's really not a whole ton to it beyond combining two concepts. I really do think that they could've done more for this creature, either mechanically or visually, but instead it's just kind of a rare creature that's a bit hard to get in the game. Bit of a shame, with just one or two extra details, the Rock-type Gargryph could've been something that's much more memorable. Its dex entry talks about how they perch above the rooftops of not-Venice City, and I kinda wished they actually did something with that in-game.

Masking, Dramsama, Mega Dramsama

Another favourite of mine is Masking, the Psychic bird with a very asymmetric look that's half black, half white. The design is simple but neat, looking like one of those ghostly spirit birds that often show up in some cultures. In the game itself, Masking is the signature Pokemon of one of the gyms which is based all on a Shakespearean, operatic theme. The dex entry itself sort of implies that Masking is much more powerful than it is, that the true Masking is something that our minds cannot comprehend, and this is what our mind ends up coming up with. Well, thankfully, instead of Cthulhu or whatever, we get this adorable black and white opera swan. I love this.

Masking evolves into the Psychic/Ghost Dramsama, who gains a fabulous Santa Claus cloak and also has sprouted a bunch of tiny little colourful tail-things with eye dots on both her head and tail. It's pretty fabulous looking, I'm not going to lie. I'm not sure what they're meant to be. Extra heads? Mere feathers? The souls of the creatures Dramsama has slain and now hold as trophies? That last one is what the pokedex claims it is, so hooray for our fabulous-looking swan who steals souls as fashion accessories. Dramsama is just the right amount of complexity, I feel, while Mega Dramsama is just a tad too much. It's basically Dramsama but with the details ratched up to eleven. I kinda wished they had toned down the clutter for Mega Dramsama. Dramsama's shiny form, in particular, sells the concept a lot better, looking far more haunting and majestic.

Antarki

A random standalone Pokemon, Antarki is actually a very cool Ghost/Fire creature that also resembles a will-o-wisp. It kinda looks like some sort of weird lobster creature hugging a floating ball of flame, and apparently it's a guide for lost souls to the afterlife. I'm not sure if it's actually based on a specific legend or not. I actually like this one a fair bit, but I don't remember ever encountering one of these during my playthrough through Uranium.

Chupacho, Luchabra

Chupacabras are pretty cool legendary creatures, and Chupacho is a pretty cool looking gremlin creature monster that's based on one of those. It's a pure Poison-type, which is a nice way of interpreting the chupacabra's blood-sucking abilities. The colour scheme, the massive red eyes and the adorable little onion head are all very cute.

Then it turns into Luchabra and... eh? And this is from someone who tends to really like random wrestling references, but Luchabra just looks so awkward, and doesn't really look a whole lot like it evolved from Chupacho, y'know? I get what they're going for, but at the same time I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of it. Also, Chupacho is one of the few Uranium-mons to have a Nuclear form, which I find to be particularly neat for Chupacho.

Linkite, Chainite

Oh shit, it's the freaking Substitute Doll, now as a Pokemon! A ghost Pokemon! Probably by favourite concept in the entire fan-game, and one that's easily the most unapologetic in its fanwankiness. Linkite is a Ghost-type of a Pokemon that died inside its Poke Ball, which is such a logical concern if you're able to shrink down your pets into portable containers which has the very real chance of being dropped or left behind somewhere. Linkites forget their true appearance due to this torment, which is why they take the form of the substitute doll. And it's quite literally chained to the memories when they are alive, which is pretty well-visualized with a literal chain. It's the sort of edgy backstory that only fanmade Pokemon can get away with, since you'll never see something like this in official material. Linkite doesn't quite go too over-the-top, which is why I feel like it works. Also, they also serve as the 'Mimic' style enemies in the way that Voltorb and Foongus tend to be.

Its evolution, Chainite, is Ghost/Dark, and has fully embraced its anger and became a horror movie antagonist. And... it's not a terrible design at all, but my feelings about it is basically the same as when I talked about Digitamamon and Devitamamon... it's a lot cooler to keep the mystery of the 'demon within' under wraps. It's kinda impressive, of course, seeing the shadowy demon within the doll pop up, but now we know exactly what it looks like, and Chainite is a shadowy crocodile-man wearing a turtle-themed hoodie jacket. I dunno, though, I like the simple and sweet nature of Linkite, but Chainite being a shadow demon with a hoodie jacket is funny.

Pufluff, Alpico, Anderind

Pufluff is a cute little Ice/Fairy little bear or puppy, constantly covering itself with its huge tail. It's adorable! It's always cold and it's so sad and look at that face, it's adorable. It's an ice type that's always cold and oh no will someone give him some hot cocoa? Straight-up a superior design compared to the actual official 'Ice-type that is cute but is cold all the time', Cubchoo. Pufluff is cute.

Unfortunately, its two alternate evolutions, the skater bunny-man Alpico and the snowboarding bear-man Anderind, are just... I don't really want to go "these suck!" but I have to be honest and say that I really, really don't like either of these two. There's the concept that Pufluff's huge puffy tail evolves into the ice-themed sports equipment for Alpico and Anderind, but I dunno, the fact that they've spontaneously sprouted like goggles and jackets are just kind of bizarre to me. Really not my thing.

Colarva, Frosulo, Frosthra

More bugs yay! Colarva is a Bug/Ice baby little spider-mite that's apparently based on the jewel caterpillar, and... I personally don't see it all that much. Sure, the spikes are kinda jewel caterpiller-esque, but Colarva's body looks a lot more like a tick or a beetle of some sort. It's a pretty neat little bug buddy, though, and a very colourful one. Pokemon would eventually, two generations after the release of Uranium, coincidentally release a Bug/Ice moth based on the same bug, and while I adore Snom to hell and back, Colarva's still pretty adorable.

Frosulo is a chrysalis that apparently also shows the Pokemon's head prominently, and... and it's not my favourite pupa, mostly due to the odd perspective. Mostly because that pupa looks like you chopped off the head of Frosthra and glued it onto a rupee from Zelda. I do like that Frosulo looks so irritated in that sprite, though. It just wants to get out and be a badass moth kaiju.

And Frosthra is pretty cool! It's not quite just a huge Mothra-style moth monster with an ice theme, but the way the body of the creature poses makes it look somewhat... bull-like? With somewhat grasshopper-like feet? It looks like a big moth monster, instead of just a particularly large moth, which I do appreciate. What else can I say? I like me my bug monsters, I love Mothra, and giving it an ice spin is pretty neat! Again, it's a completely different direction compared to the canon ice moth Pokemon, Frosmoth, and I do like just how much more monstrous Frosthra is.

Fafurr, Fafninter

Fafurr is an adorable little dog-deer thing whose body is like fifty percent a fluffy white cloak. It's adorable, and I love that you can't see his eyes. Fafurr evolves into the Ice/Dragon Fafninter, which doesn't really look too much like a traditional dragon, but I can kind of see it, sort of? Sure, it does look more like a huge, mammoth-deer with snow leopard fur, but I suppose any creature that combines a sufficient amount of different animals together can be classified as a dragon.

While Fafninter is a very docile, nice-looking beast, its namesake Fafnir of Norse myth isn't. Sometimes depicted as a dwarf and sometimes a giant depending on the version of the legend, Fafnir (or Fafner) is a jealous man who ended up killing his own brothers in order to get possession of a powerful treasure given by the gods, and eventually turned into a dragon to guard the treasure, before eventually being killed by the heroic Sigurd (or Siegfried). Incidentally, this legend is what inspired Tolkien's take on dragons, which, in turn, would inspire a lot of Western fantasy dragons. So it's kind of interesting that this Fakemon based on Fafnir is actually a very unconventional looking dragon by Western fantasy standards.

Shrimputy, Krilvolver

These two are kind of like like Clauncher and Clawitzer, but with revolvers instead of a huge lobster-claw cannon, and with more of a cowboy theme. These two are neat, but also have the unfortunate situation of being comparable to a Pokemon with a near-identical concept that does the whole "pistol shrimp, but literal" thing in a far more organic way. Still, it's not like I dislike these two, and I really, really do like Shrimputy a lot. His hand-cannon (claw-cannon?) looks somewhat organic, and I do like how the antennae sort of form parts of his cowboy hat. I'm not quite as enthused about Krilvolver, since it looks a bit too much like a regular shrimp with a gun glued to his arm. They could've done more to make it look better and have the revolver more integrated into the prawn anatomy.

Also, the colours of this evolutionary line also is a reference to another badass shrimp, the mantis shrimp, is also great! I actually genuinely like these two, even if Krilvolver's gun arm is a wee bit awkward-looking. Overall, they're still pretty neat designs.

Lavent

How many "half-emerging serpents" are there in this region? Between Grozard and Titanice, Uranium's makers do like the 'creature with half its body hidden' trope, huh? Lavent is a Fire/Dragon that pops out, interestingly, out of crevasses specifically in the ocean, and while at a first glance it's just a generic eel dragon, a closer examination of his lore and his design reveals that it's a giant tube worm, one of my favourite wacky deep-sea creatures that do live near volcanic vents. That's actually extremely clever, and they just replaced the red parts of the worm with a moray eel or something, which are fishes that actually do like to live within crevices and stuff. And Lavent is, of course, a lava dragon on top of it all. A very, very clever and ingenuous design, and probably gets my award for "best showcase of real-world biology" for the region. Good stuff, shame that Lavent's not actually particularly good or worthwile to raise in Uranium.

Swabone, Skelerogue, Navighast

Ghost pirate Cubones yarrr! These are all Ghost/Fighting, and... well, they're basically what you'd expect from ghost pirate Pokemon with a theme around animal bones. And while they'd look out of place in regular Pokemon, in a fan game they work amazingly well! Swabone is the most Cubone-looking of the bunch, with one hook hand and one bony hand, and I love the little ribcage around his torso.

Skelerogue is the expected more badass-looking version, with a Kamen Rider muffler, a peg leg, and generally looking meaner in every way. Meaner skull, meaner chunky-arm, and I think that's like a spinal cord jutting out of his back? Skelerogue's dex notes that it can't swim, and navigates the ocean by walking across the seafloor. Which is pretty dang cool, and reminds me of my favourite scene from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. And then it evolves into Navighast, which abandons being a corporeal pirate and turns into a ghostly being. I like the little details like the crossbones around the head, as well as the fact that the cutlass is connected with a spectral arm,

Stenowatt

Where Raptorch is a bit of an unconventional dromaesaurid Pokemon, Stenowatt is far more conventional. I really do like that Stenowatt has the feathers that modern palaentology recognizes many dinosaurs as having. The little detail that it basically flaps its wings to generate electricity and store it in its glowing tail, which it then uses to power its legs for bursts of speed is a neat one. Overall, Stenowatt is kind of a fun fun and simple design but it looks cool nonetheless. A cool one.

Jungore, Majungold

Another pair of fossil Pokemon, this time based on the Majungasaurus. I'm a bit of a paleontology geek, but even then I wouldn't be able to tell you that these twoPokemon are supposed to be based on a dinosaur, let alone a specific one. This line is also a bit of a 'secret' fossil-type that requires you to travel to an out-of-the-way location to get, and the result is this? Okay. They are Fighting/Rock, which makes sense. Their front legs are giant chunks of golden metal, so I get it, they beat the shit out of people with their gold arms.

Jungore sort of looks like a weird crocodile baby with yellow bricks taped on, and... and there's a neat anatomy there that Jungore's non-sprite artwork on the wiki makes him look a lot more cohesive, Majungold is a bit more weird, though, and I'm definitely not a fan. It's weird, and not the sort of weird that I like. Apparently they were hunted to extinction because parts of them are solid gold, but... wouldn't that make these guys Rock/Steel instead of Rock/Fighting? I dunno.

Hagoop, Haagross

Oooo I love these two! Is it obvious yet that I like my creepy, gross poison-types? Hagoop and Haagross are Poison/Electric monsters, and are seemingly based on a combination of like, hagfishes and centipedes or something? A very cool combination! The combination of slime-green, purplish-blue and a bright yellow mask quickly communicate that this is a pretty dangerous creature, but look at Hagoop! Especially the artwork in the wiki -- he's more like a huge, confused smart puppy-fish creature. I like the eye-less face and cute little orc fangs, and the droopy little green things from its chin.

Haagross, meanwhile, has shades of Scolipede and Eelektross in its design, but definitely looks pretty unique as this monstrous poison goop centipede worm thing. Love the sharp lightning-bolt antennae, and I like that it looks like he's got eyes without having them, I think. They're noted to trap prey with their slimy goop and then shock them with their electric attacks. A neat combination of a hagfish's sticky-goop ability and an electric eel's zappy ability. Very cool design all around. Big fan of these two, and I definitely wouldn't mind seeing official Pokemon that looks exactly like this. I remembered being disappointed that Hagoop was available so late in the game, because by the point he became available I already had a full team. Boo.

Xenomite, Xenogen, Xenoqueen

Yeah, I know, these are obvious references to the Alien franchise. Again, as a fanmade project, they can do that, and Alien is a franchise that has a metamorphosing titular creature anyway, pretty ripe into being adapted into one of these evolving-monster franchises. Interestingly, despite the game having a bunch of aliens like Comite and S-51, Xenomite are just born out of eggs that are irradiated from nuclear radiation. The Xenomite line is the first pure-Nuclear-typed line that's not Nucleon. Xenomite, based on the Alien Facehugger stage, is way more adorable compared to its inspiration, looking like the non-yonic, chibi plush toy version of the xenomorph Facehugger. Look at that face, he's adorable, he's not going to face-rape anyone and shove a chest-bursting larva into their gasters.

The middle stage, Xenogen, theoretically is based on the regular 'gangly humanoid' look of the titular Alien, but instead of being skeletal and ridged, Xenogen looks more flexible, sort of like a rubber toy. I like that the oblong, elongated head looks more like a cuttlefish than a dong, and I like that the two arms and tail look like they have sucker tips or something. These creatures aren't as horrifying as their xenomorph inspirations, but Xenogen is still a parasite that sucks away the life force of other Pokemon.

Based on the Alien Queen, the Xenoqueen is very, very wacky looking. It has Xenogen's head but with extra spikes, but the main part of its body is one long eel-like noodle with wacky-looking feet. Also, it spits metal-destroying acid (like the Aliens) but sadly this doesn't translate to Xenoqueen being able to harm Steel-types better than other Nuclear-types. It's hilarious how much it kind of evokes the xenomorphs its homaging, but also looks very much its own thing, like a funky serpentine dragon. Best of all are thelittle T-rex hands Xenoqueen has. Overall, a neat trio.

Hazma

Another pure-Nuclear Pokemon, Hazma is... I think it's meant to just be a sentient little Hazmat suit. It's got a cute version of one of those breathing masks, and for some reason it's shaped like an armless cartoon dinosaur? Hazma's cute, and its whole deal is that despite it being a Nuclear-type, it's basically a Nuclear-type that can purify nuclear energy and is actually used as part of the storyline because of its ability, Lead Skin, that gives it complete immunity from Nuclear-type attacks. The characters in the game end up using Hazma to purify the radiation and the rabid nuclear Pokemon. Hazma is a cutie potato. Just imagine this dumb thing waddling along.

Geigeroach

The trope of cockroaches surviving a nuclear fallout (albeit sometimes mutated) is a pretty old sci-fi trope. The Bug/Nuclear Geigeroach is honestly the most obvious look that a nuclear-mutated cockroach would be and it's probably the most natural-looking out of the 'natural' Nuclear Pokemon, yeah? Nucleon is a mutated Eeveelution, Xenomite is born out of a mutated egg, Hazma's a hazmat suit and Geigeroach is a cockroach on to feet that's glowing with nuclear energy. I do appreciate that Geigeroach doesn't quite glow with as neon a green as the other Nuclear Pokemon. The idea of a mutant cockroach Pokemon is pretty cool, but I dunno, there's just something about Geigeroach that just isn't super impressive. Geigeroach's all right, though, but I wished it was something more. More buggier, more mutated, had an evolution, something.

Minicorn, Kiricorn, Mega Kiricorn, Oblivicorn

[insert My Little Pony joke]. Got that out of your system? Anyway, Minicorn is obviously a My Little Pony reference/homage, and... it just looks too much like "just an MLP character" and not enough like a unicorn Pokemon. Minicorn's cute, and apparently in-universe it's a marketable star of a toy franchise. Not much to say here.  Its two branching evolutions, Kiricorn and Oblivicorn, are pretty neat, I suppose, allowing the little pony to choose whether you want to be a pretty princess unicorn (with a fork for a horn?) or an edgy dark brooding evil hell-mare. They look a bit more like actual Pokemon, and Kiricorn's... Kiricorn's kind of neat, fork-horn notwithstanding, and I like the huge chunk of pink hair, and I think I actually prefer her compared to Oblivicorn.

Oblivicorn's a pretty neat-looking evil horse, and I kinda think Oblivicorn's horns could've stood to look a bit meaner and sharper, but I guess for a Dark/Fairy evil nightmare moon horse creature, it works? I dunno. I'm not sure why Kiricorn gets a mega evolution while Oblivicorn doesn't. Maybe they didn't manage to put in Mega Oblivicorn into the game prior to the C&D stuff. Mega Kiricorn is neat, and I think its eyes are glowing and creepy. It's at an odd angle so it's hard to tell, but it's got a hilarious super-forked horn.

Luxi, Luxor, Luxelong

I think we're starting to enter the series of pseudo-legendary Pokemon in Uranium. The Luxi line are all Dragon/Fairy, and they're based on Chinese jade statues. It's actually a pretty fun concept for a Dragon/Fairy Pokemon, even if they don't actually look like actual Chinese dragons. They're adorable, though. Luxi is the cutest of the three, and it's a nondescript mammal creature that's like a combination of cats, dogs, squirrels and rabbits and none of them. Another pretty cool nondescript animal monster. They're adorable. All the dex entries are basically the same, how the sight of the rare Luxi, Luxor and Luxelong gives anyone who sees them luck for a long time.

Luxor is a bit more complex, with a but more yellow ornamentation like the necklace and detail on the front legs, and I really love that it's sitting on its own tail. Luxelong is a bit more draconic, but not much -- it's still like an adorable rabbit-corgi with a longer neck, with the only real draconic part of it being the teeny tiny horns on its forehead and the little swirly wing ornaments. They are cute jade puppy dragons. I like them a lot.

Praseopunk & Neopunk

...Fakemon based on Daft Punk.

No, wait, Legendary Fakemon based on Daft Punk.

Okay sure. It's dumb, but okay.

I mean, as electrical robot ghost-things they're all right. They sure as hell don't look like Pokemon, but they could be like a Ghostbusters enemy or something. Eh. I dunno. Any sort of monster that homages something from pop culture too hard tends to feel kind of off to me.

Sheebit, Terrabbit, Laissure

Okay, it's a pretty interesting concept for a pseudo-legendary. Pseudos tend to be dragons and kaiju and stuff (as goofy as some of the dragons are), but the Sheebit line is a pretty interesting creature. As far as I know, it isn't really based on any sort of mythological or legendary creature from real life, so it's completely original that someone in the Uranium development team decided to make a long-legged horned rabbit able to cause earthquakes as one of the mightiest creatures in Tandor. Neat! Sheebit is... a sheep rabbit? It's an adorable little bunny with horns. It's adorable.

Terrabit has the look of a kangaroo, but is still unmistakably a rabbit with those ears and tooth, and it's interesting that the entire line has two tails. I like that Terrabit looks like it could hold itself up with nothing but its tails. I do like the fact that Terrabit and Laissure have actually a fair amount of details on their body, but since their colour palette is only limited to two shades of brown it doesn't actually look as cluttered as it could've been. That's nice. Laissure, meanwhile, takes the longer-than-you'd-expect legs of a jackrabbit and extends it so much that this thing looks more like a large goat or something. Laissure creates, well, fissures by slapping the ground with its tail. It's a bunny that can wreck entire continents with its tail. Don't fuck with bunnies.

Volchik, Voltasu, Yatagaryu

A more standard-looking pseudo legendary, but we start off with the absolutely adorable Volchick! LOOK AT THAT LITTLE BUDS. The lightning bolt shaped head threw me off a little bit, but the adorable face and the pudgy little body and the little smoky tail is adorable, and I love the fact that they apparently chirp around and make sounds that somehow 'sound like static electricity', however that works. Volchik evolves into the cool Voltasu, which is based on the Yatagarasu, the three-legged crow of Japanese legend. Voltasu isn't completely a crow, though, but rather a huge chunky bird creature whose head reminds me more of a vulture or an ostrich instead of a crow... and I suppose it works a bit better this way to prepare us for the final form. I still think I like Voltasu better than Yatagaryu, because I kind of see so much of the dragon look, but both are pretty cool. The gimmick of this line is that they can cause a special weather effect called 'thunderstorm'.

And Yatagaryu is a combination of the yatagarasu and an oriental dragon, swapping its pre-evolutions' electric/flying typing for electric/dragon. It's kinda neat, and at least we keep the three crow legs and the crow beak, but at the same time it's also kind of the obvious route to go. It's cool, and there are a lot of parts of Yatagaryu that I like (mostly that huge chunky mustache) but I dunno, I feel like this is kind of the obvious route to go and I feel like I've seen this sort of monster multiple times in other games. It's still a solid design, just not quite as special as Laissure, y'know?

Devimp, Fallengel, Beliaddon

The last of our pseudo-legendaries is also easily the ones that look the least like Pokemon, and they're based on devils! It's kind of a personal pet peeve for me any time anyone does a Fakemon that's basically just an angel or a demon. But... okay, sure, at least these devil-demon fakemon do actually try their best to fit with the Pokemon aesthetic. Devimp in particular is something I believe would actually be a real Pokemon, it looks pretty adorable with that beaked face and that horned tail. The entire line is, for obvious reasons, Fire/Dark.

Likewise, while they probably won't get away with the name "Fallengel", it's a pretty all right design that sort of feels like a Pokemon. Even the, uh, boobs don't feel super out of place, Nidoqueen and the Unova genies kind of have them. Fallengel has just enough details to not feel too cluttered. All of them are noted to come from "a separate plane of existence", which probably is meant to represent hell but we're talking about Pokemon here so I'm going to assume they came from an Ultra Space plane that just resembles hell.

Beliaddon is a decent devil dinosaur design, but if ever a Fakemon in Uranium ever fit the "this should be a Digimon" tag, Beliaddon is it. And it's not a bad devil-dinosaur design either, it's got a lot of charm with its hooves, horns and giant molten-magma wings. Honestly, by virtue of being a devil dinosaur, Beliaddon and her pre-evolutions look a lot more interesting than a lot of general humanoid devil enemies. I didn't like them the first time I saw them, but they're all right monsters, I suppose.

Seikamater

And here we go, with something that was foreshadowed way at the beginning of the Uranium dex! Seikamater is a legendary Bug/Normal Pokemon, and the queen of all bugs in the region... and uniquely, she evolves from one of the random little baby ants like Smore, Sponee and Tricwe while holding a super-rare item that you obtain by beating up the first Seikamater you fight, the Queen of Anthell. That Seikamater is actually the queen of the colony, and has been abducting people, including one of the gym leaders that you're sent in to rescue. It's basically said that Seikamater abducts and eats people, and all of the 'trainers' in Anthell are essentially mind-controlled by the hive.

It's honestly a very cool concept, that this hive of separate species are all implied to be the brood of Seikamater, and once you got rid of the queen, you're able to use the 'royal jelly' item to turn one of your own unevolved elemental ants into a Seikamater of your own. Or maybe Seikamater is actually enslaving the Smores, Sponees and Tricwes? Either way, She's a god dang queen, and I very much appreciate that. Seikamater's design is perhaps a bit too busy with so many colours and having such a huge torso relative to her wings and legs, but I really do enjoy the concept of a random loser ant drone becoming the Queen of the Hive and basically becoming a legendary Pokemon. Needless to say, I used one in my playthrough and she kicks all sorts of ass.

Garlikid

I went "what the fuck?" the first time I saw Garlikid. He's just some dude in a bodysuit with a garlic hat and a superhero cape. What? Is he, like, a superhero knockoff or something? He's less of a pokemon and more a character, a Grass/Fighting dude that essentially fights for LIBERATION of Pokemon, and he's like sort of like an elf or someone who doesn't know about all this new-fangled 'pokeballs'. Eventually you befriend him and he helps you escape an evil villain's lair, and joins you in the party. I just straight-up don't like the design. It works as like a superhero costume in a parody comic or whatever, but as a Pokemon? Nah.

Baitatao, Leviathao, Krakanao

There's a trio of sea monsters that's a series of 'big' legendaries, but I think you can't actually capture them because they were supposed to be part of a later post-game update, but the game's development was cut short afterwards. It's a shame, because I really do like deep-sea creatures, and I really would love to see how these would be implemented.  The first one, Baitatao, is based on the Brazilian myth of the Boitata. It's a pretty cool-looking sea serpent! I enjoy the glowing little yellow markings that run down its length. Baitatao is Water/Fire, and it's apparently called the "Boiling Wrath" and it causes ships around it to melt from its presence. I don't think I've ever seen a sea monster actually do that, it's pretty fucking cool, and a far cooler Water/Fire monster concept than Volcanion.

Leviathao, based on the biblical Leviathan, is Water/Ice. It's a big-ass giant whale with a big-ass unicorn horn and sharp angry teeth. Again, I do really love the simple concept of various myths of aquatic beasts being turned into legendaries. Leviathao isn't breaking the mould either, but I do like its rows of fins and its massive "Unstoppable Spear". I really do like the different tropes that we're exploring for deep-sea overlords, although unlike Baitatao, deep-sea creatures that control ice is a bit more common.

Krakanao, based on the Kraken, is the most creative visually, I feel. It's not just a giant squid, or just simply Cthulhu, but an octopus-man whose 'body' and 'cape' is made up of tentacles with webbing between them. It's a very neat adaptation of a feature that some cephalopods like the Vampire Squid have, and the result is that Krakanao is still unmistakably an octopus, but also looks like a cloaked overlord of the depths. There is a lot of personality in Krakanao's sprite, from the extra neck collar to the octopus beak to the skull head tattoo to the shape of the head to the four 'hand' tentacles. I do really like how the design ends up turning out. A very solid design all around, shame they never got implemented into the game.

Lanthan & Actan

The designers evidently really liked Heatran (...which bizarrely isn't in this game at all), huh? Heatran is a weird little standalone legendary from Generation IV, and Uranium decided to make it part of a legendary trio with two brothers, Lanthan and Actan. Lanthan is Ground/Steel, apparently responsible for metallic ores, and it's... I'm sorry, it really does look like a Heatran that munched one too many donus, and has an oddly mournful face and two deer horns slapped onto it. I kinda get that they want to communicate that Lanthan is like buddies with Heatran, but the result just looks very derivative.

Actan, meanwhile, is sleek, smooth and pretty badass looking with spikes all over, some neat proportions with his head and jointed legs, and the Dark/Steel Actan acts as something resembling 'Prometheus', and, uh... taught humanity about radioactivity. Ooookay? I do still like it, though, it's like a Xenomorph version of Dialga. Really do love the way those feet are drawn, and the head and tail are sleek and badass. The problem of making Lanthan really looking like Heatran is that Actan ends up looking like a massive oddball. Actan is actually involved significantly in the climax of the Uranium storyline, but as you can see in my playthrough, he's actually a pansy that talks a huge game and ends up accidentally sabotaging my playthrough instead of helping me out.

Urayne

The main character and misunderstood villain of the story, Urayne is a radioactive alien-like Pokemon that requires radioactive consumption or it dies. It's essentially the 'cover' legendary, and we encounter him in three forms. Pictured here are Alpha and Beta, and Gamma is like a super-duper form that only exists for the purposes of a boss fight.

So Urayne is basically the main plot device of the storyline, a Pokemon that's able to create nuclear energy. Its eventual 'true' form is the Alpha form we see on the left, all skinny and alien/robotic-like. Most of the time, though, we see Urayne in his 'beta' form, which is significantly more threatening and looks more like an 80's/90's sci-fi cartoon robot is rampaging. It's not my favourite design, but it's threatening enough and I do like that all forms of Urayne are just hovering above the ground. It's kinda cool, and if nothing else, the main story of Uranium, as infodump-heavy a it is, does make me feel kinda sad for this big boy.

Aotius & Mutios

Rounding out our legendaries are the "Yang and Yin" Pokemon, Aotius and Mutios. They're actually featured very heavily in some parts of the game, being the official religion of Tandor, and their sprites were even changed, originally looking like minimalist black-and-white masked serpents with only a single wing each -- basically kind of Masking, which is nice. Eventually, they were given 'true' sprites, which... okay? They're serpents with lots and lots of wings -- red burning wings for Aotius and purple devil wings for Mutios. The dex entries don't tell us much and are just cryptic. NPCs in the game itself tell us that every other paired legendary Pokemon are actually mere aspects of these two. Okay, then. Not a big fan of the myth or the frankly unimpressive designs, but I do appreciate the world-building part of them.

Zephy

And the final Pokemon in the Uranium dex is apparently the fan-made Pokemon of one of the creators of Uranium when he/she was a child, Zephy, a fusion of Plusle and Articuno. I appreciate the commitment and the easter egg, and, hell, I suppose if you made an entire fully working fan-made region, you'll want to put in the very first critter that you ever created. Zephy's even noted to inspire artists to create their next masterpiece, and I can't dislike that. Zephy's design is even kind of pleasing, looking like some sort of wacky rat-fairy thing. It's neat.
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And with that, we're done with Uranium! I was actually briefly planning on making a reviewing monsters segment for other Pokemon fan-games, but the other huge, completed and diverse fan-made Pokemon game is Clover and that's, uh... I'm probably not going to do that, or if I do, I'll heavily abridge their pokedex. Quartz is another one I would like to do, but there aren't good sprites for every single Quartz-mon as I can tell.

Oh well, on to the next D&D and M:TG thing, I suppose.