Gotta Review 'Em All - Moves [Generation VII], Part 2

The second part of my coverage of Generation VII's moves! Again, there's a lot of new named moves here, even though a fair amount of them do just utilize similar animations with each other. As a refresher, this generation has a bunch of 'series' of moves, particularly the Z-Moves introduced in the Sun/Moon games -- each type has a Z-Move that corresponds whenever a Pokemon holding the requisite item decides to use a Z-Move to attack. There's also the partner Pikachu/Eevee moves, which are cute little special moves that's only given to the partnr Pikachu and Eevee in the Let's Go games, which admittedly does bloat up this list a fair bit.

Also at some point in this article I got a bit frustrated talking about a signature move followed by a signature Z-Move, and I kind of lump some of them together. 

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Dragon-type Moves:

• Devastating Drake (Arutimetto Doragon Ban/Ultimate Dragon Burn) After sitting out the previous generation and getting no new moves, Dragon returns with a vengeance! Which is... very interesting! Devastating Drake, or Ultimate Dragon Burn, is an interesting one. Dragon as a type has always been rather nebulous as far as being an 'element' or a type, but usually moves like Dragon Pulse or Dragon Claw can contend with just being purple-white glowing displays of power, draconic power. What is draconic power defined as, though? Well, the Generation VII team decides to literally make the beam created by the Dragon-type Z-move... as just pink-white energy in the form of a wyvern that swoops in and creates a big fuck-off anime explosion on the enemy! Pretty neat, it's been a while since we've seen a move that creates a construct that resembles a creature or something. 
• Dragon Hammer (Doragon Hamma/Dragon Hammer) This one is Alolan Exeggutor's signature move. The coconut tree that also happens to be a dragon. It's basically just Alolan Exeggutor using it's long-ass body as a makeshift warhammer, slamming down at the enemy and that's considered a hammer. Okay. Later generations give this move to Tropius of all Pokemon, which is not a dragon.
• Clanging Scales (Sukeru Noizu/Scale Noise) and Clangarous Soulblaze (Bureijingu Sorubito/Blazing Soulbeat) These are pseudo-legendary Kommo-o's signature move, as well as the associated Z-Move it transofrms into. Since Kommo-o is all about interlocking pieces of armour that clang around and make noises, his signature move is this, where it uses that noise to attack the enemy by rubbing his scales together. It has the bonus effect of lowering the enemy's Defense. The associated Z-Move, Clangarous Soulblaze, however, is a bit of a letdown compared to the base version of the move because... well, it's just exactly the same thing, but Kommo-o jumps into the air before unleashing the sonic boom. Not much to say here. 
• Core Enforcer (Koa Panissha/Core Punisher) Core Enforce is Zygarde's signature move, and... it's a beam! It's a multi-coloured beam, coming forth from the core of mighty Zygarde since it's Generation VII that finally gave Zygarde some attention and some brand-new forms. Because Zygarde has style, though, it carves a Z-shape on the ground with that beam. This alone is a pretty damn cool little detail that I do think separates it from the many, many 'legendary shoots a DBZ beam' attacks. 

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Poison-type Moves:

• Acid Downpour (Ashiddo Poizun Derito/Acid Poison Delete) Okay, 'Acid Downpour' is pretty cool sounding, but there's just something particularly badass about 'Acid Poison Delete'. No, the grammar syntax doesn't exactly work, but it's just one of those attack names that sound cool, y'know? It... it really does kind of feel very basic, though. It's basically what you'd expect from a Poison-type Z-move, and doesn't do anything particularly over-the-top with it. It's just a bunch of purple, noxious goop surrounding the terrain and then slamming onto the target. I really do like the Poison-type, so this one being kind of a letdown is, well, a bit disappointing. 
• Baneful Bunker (Tochika/Pillbox) Again, this is the generation of signature moves being basically tailor-made to certain Pokemon, and for Toxapex we've got Baneful Bunker, where Toxapex closes up its dome-like starfish hands and points all the spikes outwards. This essentially acts not just as a variation of the 'Protect' move, but also causes anyone that makes contact with Toxapex to suffer from the poisoned status, which is extremely flavourful for a dome/shield-based poisonous starfish Pokemon!
• Toxic Thread (Doku no Ito/Poison Thread) Of all Pokemon, Spinarak gets a signature move in Generation VII, and it is Toxic Thread. And at the time of writing, Spinarak and Ariados are still the only Pokemon able of using Toxic Thread! It's not the most novel move, basically reducing the enemy's speed and poisoning them, but I definitely appreciate it whenever an older Pokemon gets a brand-new signature ability or move! 
• Purify (Joka/Purify) Pyukumuku's signature move, and... this is an interesting one? It only works if the allied Pokemon has a status condition, but Pyukumuku will cure that condition and heal 50% of their HP. It's cute, but ultimately it's so situational even in double battle. I'm also not particularly sure what the idea of this attack is supposed to be, though. 

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Fighting-type Moves:

• All-Out Pummeling (Zenryoku Muso Gekiretsu Ken/Full Force Unrivaled Fierce Fist) Fighting only gets the single Z-Move, and after so many new Fighting-type moves in the past couple of generations, I do like it that it's taking a bit of a breather. All-Out Pummeling (or "FULL FORCE UNRIVALED FIERCE FIST") is probably one of my faovurite Z-Moves in just how over the top it is. They could've just settled with a big punch, or a simple ora-ora-ora animation... but no. The Pokemon punches/kicks so rapidly that a stream of giant palm thrusts, punches and kicks burst out of the force of their punches and slam onto the enemy like the bullets of a machinegun. Glorious. This is the Z-Move that you're likely to first experience, which I thought was particularly fun. 

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Fairy-type Moves:

• Twinkle Tackle (Raburi Suta Inpakuto/Lovely Star Impact) "Twinkle Tackle", or its funner Japanese name "Lovely Star Impact", isn't particularly impressive. The enemy is just tossed into a realm of weird gumball and cotton candy colours, and the Fairy-type just slams onto them and creates a whole lot of twinkle-twinkle little stars. Basically what you'd expect from a Fairy-type Z-Move, honestly, and while the animation is itself pretty, I don't find this particularly interesting.
  
• Let's Snuggle Forever (Poka-Boka Furendo Taimu/Bip-Bop Friend Time) Mimikyu gets a signature Z-move, and what a move! I recommend you guys check it out. First up, Mimikyu just... darts around in the landscape around the opponent, scaring the shit out of them... and then jumps up above them with the glowing eyes of its unknowable true form glowing creepily. This plays into Mimikyu's own lore as a creature with its original form unable to be comprehended by normal beings. Mimikyu then engulfs the enemy like a demonic blanket, actually becoming deformed and large... and then begins to beat the shit out of the enemy before spitting them out. Absolutely fun, and easily one of the best Z-Moves out there. It doesn't just have to be a beam, people!
• Floral Healing (Furawa Hiru/Flower Heal) Floral Healing is Comfey's signature move. It heals half of an ally's HP, and is increased if the terrain is Grass. Cute, and it fits with Comfey's whole "grass-themed healer that's not actually a grass-type", but otherwise not too unremarkable.
  

• Natrure's Madness (Shizen no Ikari/Nature's Wrath) This is the Tapu quartet's signature move, basically being the move Super Fang where the Tapus will cut down half of the enemy's current HP. It's animated as being... a bunch of purple light explosions? Boring, but then with the right item, you can upgrade it into:
  
• Guardian of Alola (Gadian De Arora/Guardian de Alola) Hell yeah. Another contender for the best Z-Move in the game, Guardian of Alola causes the Tapu to fold back into their 'mask' form... and then summon a gigantic humanoid construct of energy from the power of the earth. This is just so over-the-top, the Guardian of Alola is never really explained... and yet it really does fit them as being Tiki mask guardians that protect and reside over their island. You can just totally see the Tapus summon this gigantic body to fight against the Ultra Beast invasion, right? Very cool.
  
• Fleur Cannon (Fururu Kanon/Fleur Cannon) Speaking of being 'just a beam', Fleur Cannon is Magearna's signature move. It's a pink beam that decreases Magearna's Special Attack stat after being used. The idea is that it's a super-powerful cannon that can be fired once, I guess? Magearna has this whole vibe that it's a soul/death-powered wepaon, but while her ability Soul-Heart (buffs Sp. Atk when a Pokemon falls) and Fleur Cannon (a super-powerful weapon that cripples Magearna's Sp. Atk) on paper are flavourful, the way they're actually interact with each other with in-game mechanics isn't the best.
  
• Sparkly Swirl (Kirakira Sutom/Sparkle-Sparkle Storm) Let's Go Eevee's Sylveon-inspired move. It sure summons a pink tornado. I don't have anything else to say.
  

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Psychic-type Moves:

• Shattered Psyche (Makishimamu Sai-Bureika/Maximum Psy-Breaker) Oh, I actually really like Shattered Psyche (or Maximum Psy-breaker)! What initially just seems like a generic 'giant psychic field' attack has the user summon a giant psychic field, and then launch the opponent into the air, at which point they get tossed around like a pinball across a bunch of hexagonal invisible forcefields, and then they slam into the psychic background itself which shatters. Was it all a genjutsu all along? Pretty cool. 
• Glitzy Glow (Dobadoba Ora/Glitzy-Glitzy Aura) Right, the Let's Go Eevee move. This is sure an Espeon-inspired move with glowing purple Psychic effects. I don't have much to say here. 
• Psychic Terrain (Saiko Firudo/Psycho Field) All the other 'terrain' moves were introduced in the previous generation, and VII adds in Psychic Terrain... not much to say here. It increases Psychic-type damage and it disables priority moves. Never been the biggest fan of the Terrain moves, but Psychic Terrain felt one of the more forced ones. 
• Speed Swap (Supido Suwappu/Speed Swap) Tying up the trinity of moves with Power and Guard Swap, Speed Swap just swaps the speed stat with the target. I really don't have much to say here.

• Genesis Supernova (Orijinzu Supanova/Origins Supernova) Mew gets a signature Z-Move, which is meant to recall both its status as the 'original' primordial Pokemon and it using giant psychic bubble-shields in the first anime movie. Mew summons a bunch of bubbles, causes them to rise up in the form of a DNA double-helix, then combines it all into a gigantic psychic ball that it drops at the enemy. Pretty neat animation. 
• Psychic Fangs (Saiko Fangu/Psycho Fang) And this is just Fire Fang but Psychic. Yes, the act of biting someone with your fangs, a very physical attack... is psychic, which by definition is the act of using your mind over your body to do stuff. This one made sense in Generation VII where it's the signature move of the Water/Psychic biting fish Bruxish, but not so much when later generations made it much more available. I felt like, legendary signature moves aside, keeping Psychic as a mostly-Special-category type honestly works well. 
• Instruct (Saihai/Command) Instruct is Oranguru's signature move, where it uses the badass gravitas of a strategist or a guru or a teacher to force whoever it targets to use the move again. Okay. It's cute, and there are some niche uses for this one, I guess.

• Prismatic Laser (Purizumu Reza/Prism Laser) Necrozma gets three signature moves, thanks to being the star of the sequel games. The first of these is Necrozma's signature move in Sun and Moon, where it launches multi-coloured light by using its body as a giant prism, with a pretty badass animation. It's effectively a Psychic-type Hyper Beam, forcing Necrozma to recharge the next turn. 
• Photon Geyser (Foton Geiza/Photon Geyser) This one is available only in the Ultra games, where Necrozma or one of his forms creates what looks like a break in reality, and it becomes a ball of light that gets launched at the enemy. Not very impressive, if we're being honest... legendaries and Generation VII have so many giant balls of energy beams that this one really does fall by the wayside. 
• Light That Burns The Sky (Ten Kogasu Metsubo no Hikari/Heaven Scorching Light of Destruction) However, use Photon Geyser with the Necrozma from the Ultra games, in his full light-dragon mode, and it turns into "Light That Burns the Sky", which is the over-the-top final finisher move for Necrozma. It's basically a Spirit Bomb or something from Dragon Ball Z, where Necrozma gathers energy on the tip of his beak, with energy rising all over the surroundings of the battlefield... and then Necrozma creates an energy ball on the tip of his mouth. And as he points the energy ball upwards, it expands, doubles, triples, all done with sharp cuts that I felt was really damn cool! Again, while it's rather simple in the realm of anime over-the-top moves, the execution is cool enough and a boss fight against something like Ultra Necrozma does need a finisher like this. 

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Ground-type Moves:

• Tectonic Rage (Raijingu Rando Oba/Rising Land Over) The Z-Move for the Ground-type is Tectonic Rage, or "Rising Land Over". This is another one that I felt is particularly cool! The user splits the earth and drops the enemy into a gigantic fissure in the ground. That sounds like enough of an over-the-top move to count as a Z-Move... but then the user leaps up and charges in like a javelin, pushing the enemy so deep through the ground that they fall into a magma pocket, before a gigantic eruption appears. Very creative, and absolutely fun! I do really feel like half the fun of talking of Generation VII's moves is its insane Z-Moves. Man, I miss Gen VII. 
• High Horsepower (Juman Bariki/100,000 Horsepower) Despite its name, High Horsepower isn't actually the Mudbray line's signature move. It's given to a bunch of other Ground-types even in its debut generation, and it's been a recurring TM ever since. It's basically a physical category Ground-type move with no real secondary effect... and it's a bit special because it's so late into the franchise's life that we're getting such a vanilla move. I guess they wanted to give out a simple physical Ground-type single-target move that's not Dig? Eh. 
• Stomping Tantrum (Jidanda/Stomping Tantrum) Another basic single-target Ground-type move, this one has the flavour of the Pokemon stomping the ground in frustration... and we get the interesting flavour that the power doubles if the previous move failed. Cute effect, but I really don't see either 'High Horsepower' or 'Stomping Tantrum' being particularly flavoured as a Ground-type or involving anything with the earth or sand or mud. 
• Shore Up (Suna Atsume/Sand Gathering) Oh, this one is cool. This is the Sandygast line's signature move, where they heal by absorbing and gathering sand from their surroundings. It's a very 'elemental creature' thing, and I honestly am surprised that we haven't gotten something like this for other 'elemental'-esque like Grimer or Koffing... though I suppose Pokemon does actually shy away from straight up just making elementals? In a cute move, Shore Up heals even more HP if there's a Sandstorm brewing. 

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Steel-type Moves:

• Corkscrew Crash (Chozetsu Rasen Rengeki/Super Spiral Combo) The Z-move for Steel-types is "Corkscrew Crash", where the Steel-type will... spin around in place until it becomes a gigantic anime drill made up of nothing but force, and it just... zips towards the enemy and explodes. It sure is interesting, but not my favourite out of the generic Z-moves. 
• Sunsteel Strike (Meteo Doraibu/Meteor Drive) and Searing Sunraze Smash (Sanshain Sumassha/Sunshine Smasher) These are Solgaleo's signature move, as well as Dusk-Mane Necrozma. A lot of these legendary Z-Moves do more or less the same thing with their non-Z counterparts, so I'll really just lump them together. Sunsteel Strike or Meteor Drive is much cooler, I feel, with Solgaleo jumping into the sky, creating a miniature sun and then rushing down with the force of a fucking meteor that rams and explodes on the enemy. "Meteor Drive" indeed! Searing Sunraze Smash does the same thing but with a bit more fanfare. Solgaleo creates a portal into the Ultra Dimension, and instead of just charging down as a meteor, we get to see Solgaleo spin around into a ball (like Flame Wheel) before smashing into the enemy. Despite all of the fiery sun effects, however, this is still considered as a Steel-type move mostly for Solgaleo's STAB bonus, I guess.
  
• Smart Strike (Sumato Hon/Smart Horn) A bit of a random move that is originally TM-exclusive, Smart Strike (or "Smart Horn") is basically a Steel-type attack that never misses. I really do feel like they could've given this a much better or flavourful-sounding name like 'Heat-Seeking Strike' or 'Target-Hunting Strike' or something. As it is, it really does sound generic.
  

• Anchor Shot (Anka Shotto/Anchor Shot) This one is Dhelmise's signature move. Newer generations have changed the animation into a generic silvery, metally chain and anchor, but the original Generation VII animation includes a mossy-green chain and a golden anchor which fits with Dhelmise himself much better! In addition to the damage, Anchor Shot 'anchors' the enemy in place, preventing them to flee. Flavourful!
• Gear Up (Ashisuto Gia/Assist Gear) A rather bizarre move, this one is unique to Klinklang and Magearna. Man, they really like giving Klinklang gear-themed signature moves, huh? Gear Up increases the attacking stats of all Pokemon... with the Plus or Minus ability? Yeah. That's very niche, I'm not sure what having plus and minus have anything to do with gearing up, and honestly it really does feel redundant with Klinklang's other gear-themed moves.
  
• Double Iron Bash (Daburu Pantsa/Double Panzer) I like the Japanese name of 'Double Panzer', but it's basically just a multi-hit move. This is Melmetal's signature move, and it's... two punches? Really? That's honestly pretty disappointing. Melmetal is like this legendary Pokemon made up of liquid metal, comprised of several hundred Meltan melting into a single giant monstrosity, and its signature move is... punching the enemy twice? Really?
  

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Bug-type Moves:

• Savage Spin-Out (Zettai Hoshoku Kaitenzan/Absolute Predatory Spin-Out) This is another one that's a bit difficult to do, since there is such a wide variety of Bug-types in terms of how they look and how they attack, similiar to the dragons. So they decided to take one of the earliest and more iconic Bug-type moves, String Shot, and make it into an over-the-top attack. The Bug-type launches a whole lot of web that wraps the enemy up in a cocoon... and then spins around and slams it into the ground, does the titular 'spin-out' as they drag the cocoon across the terrain, before charging in and slashing the cocoon for one last move. Pretty cool, and it's a way that screams 'bug' while still looking relatively creative!
• There's also a running gag back in the day about Incineroar being able to use this move, and thanks to Incineroar's attack animation it looks like he's pelvic-thrusting and unleashing a gigantic white pillar from his crotch region. 
• Lunge (Tobikakaru/Lunge) A rather simple attack that feels is just added to pad out move variations, Lunge is a simple physical attack that has the chance to lower the enemy's Attack stat. I do feel like this does fit the Bug flavour in a way, since a lot of bugs either use jumping/lunging as a predatory or escape strategy. 
• First Impression (Deai Gashira/Head-On Collision) Originating as Golisopod's signature move, this would be given to a bunch of other Pokemon as well later on. I really do feel like this is a very flavourful move, though! Golisopod's whole deal is that it's a very imposing-looking giant isopod-monster that looks like it can tear you apart... which is its very powerful 'first impression'. This move is basically a more powerful Bug-type Fake Out, in that it can only be used in the first turn Golisopod enters the battlefield, but later on he'll have to rely on weaker Bug moves. 
• Pollen Puff (Kafun Dango/Pollen Ball) Originally Ribombee's signature move (and it's still the only Pokemon that learns this move naturally), this one is pretty simple and a typical usage of video-game healing mechanics. Pollen Puffs damages the enemy, but can heal the target. It really is similar to how in Pokemon you could handwave pollen or water or whatnot to heal or harm with the same breath, yeah? It's just how you flavour it.

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Ghost-type Moves:

• Shadow Bone (Shado Bon/Shadow Bone) This one is Alolan Marowak's signature move. It sure is bashing your enemy with a bone empowered with ghostly powers! I really can't muster much excitement for this. Some of the signature moves can be really fun, but some is just basically repeating what the original concept of the pokemon already is.
  
• Never-Ending Nightmare (Mugen Anya e no Izanai/Invitation to the Endless Night) This is the base Ghost-type Z-Move, and it's a simple but cool one. The Pokemon creates an illusory field of a spooky forest or something, and a dozen purple-black tentacle-hands rise up from the ground and start enveloping the enemy. This becomes a dome that then explodes. Pretty fun, but... as you'll see from the moves below, there are a lot of Ghost-type Z-Moves that kind of play a lot more with the theme of 'ghostly super move'.
  
• Moongeist Beam (Shado Rei/Shadow Ray) and Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom (Munraito Burasuta/Moonlight Blaster) Let's start off with these two. These are the signature moves of Lunala and Dawn-Wings Necrozma, by extension. Moongeist Beam is pretty simple, Lunala creates a bunch of little pinpoints of light, which combines into a big glowing beam that unleashes moonlight down onto the enemy. Empowered with the Z-Move power, it becomes Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom (much cooler than "Moonlight Blaster"). Lunala summons an Ultra Dimension portal, knocks the enemy inside, then creates six beams that converge into one to blast them apart. I'm... I'm really not sure why these moon and dimension-themed attacks are 'Ghost' type other than to give Lunala STAB.
  

 

• Spectral Thief (Shado Suchiru/Shadow Steal) and Soul-Stealing 7-Star Strike (Shichisei Dakkontai/Seven Star Soul Stealing Kick) These are Marshadow's moves. Spectral Thief has a pretty cool animation where Marshadow punches the enemy and a bunch of ghosts rise up after the punch hits. The idea is that Marshadow hides in the shadow and steals the enemy's power, or rather, the buffs they have, before the attack lands. Z-Moved up, it becomes "Soul-Stealing 7-Star Strike", which... it's basically a Kamen Rider kick combined with a Rurouni Kenshin strike. Marshadow punches in quick succession to create a seven-pointed seal, then does a Kamen Rider kick, and lands away from the enemy. A couple seconds later, the seal explodes. Neat!
  
• Spirit Shackle (Kagenui/Shadow-Stitch) and Sinister Arrow Raid (Shado Arozu Sutoraiku/Shadow Arrows Strike) My favourite starter signature move is Spirit Shackle, Decidueye's signature move. As a ghostly archer, Decidueye shoots a ghostly arrow... at the opponent's shadow! This basically 'pins' the shadow to the ground, causing the effect of them not being able to escape or switch out, which is way move flavourful than many of the signature moves given out in Generations VI and VII. Naruto fans would even recognize the Japanese name as "kagenui", or shadow stitch, the Nara Clan's signature ability! Powered up by the Z-Moves, it becomes 'Sinister Arrow Raid' which is another one that really does feel like a fighting game finisher. Decidueye flies up, summons a fan of like 20 arrows, and then divebombs down while the arrows fly behind him. Decidueye pulls up, but the arrows just impale the enemy like a goddamn air raid. Pretty badass!

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Dark-type Moves:

• Black Hole Eclipse (Burakku Horu Ikuripusu/Black Hole Eclipse) And we close this Generation VII move coverage with the Dark-type. Other than a couple select moves like Dark Pulse, the Dark-type has never really been all about using the powers of darkness or shadows or whatever, and has mostly been about fighting dirty. But Black Hole Eclipse just has the Pokemon unleash their inner Blackbeard and summon a gigantic black hole that sucks in the enemy, which then proceeds to shrink into a much smaller size then explode. Pretty cool move, very anime-esque.
  
• Baddy Bad (Waruwaru Zon/Bad-Bad Zone) The last Let's Go move, this one represents the power of Umbreon. It is a bit more interesting than the others, creating a blast of light and then darkness, but I've really ran out of anything to say about these uncreative Let's Go signature moves.
  
• Power Trip (Tsukeagaru/Be Audacious) Krookodile of all Pokemon gets a signature move for just a single generation. Krookodile doesn't even do anything in Alola! Power Trip (which doesn't include actually tripping the opponent) has Krookodile deal even more damage based on how many stat increases he has. Pretty... interesting move! I do find that this is totally a 'Dark-type' thing to do, just to get all high and mighty thanks to all of the energy and stat increases that the Pokemon has.
  

 

• Throat Chop (Jigoku Zuki/Hell Thrust) Called "Hell Thrust" in Japanese, this move has, I think, shown up a lot in the post-Alola games in the learn-sets of a lot of Dark-type Pokemon. The English name is very descriptive, though. Throat Chop has the user, well, do a karate-chop onto the opponent's throat, which deals damage and prevents them from using voice-based attacks for 2 turns. It's rather fun flavour, and it totally does fit with the idea of Dark-types being pragmatic and hitting them where it hurts.
  
• Brutal Swing (Bunmawasu/Brutal Swing) This was a bit more generic, basically just swinging around your arms wildly regardless of who you hit. Brutal Swing also damages allies. I do like the name, but it's otherwise a pretty generic physical Dark-type move. I guess you can't just Bite and Crunch all the time, huh?
  
• Darkest Lariat (DD Rariatto/DD Lariat) And we'll close this off with one of the best moves out there. Incineroar's two signature moves. Darkest Lariat, or DD Lariat, seems to just be a generic lariat move. But no. Incineroar T-poses and then spins around like a goddamn Tazmanian Devil before slamming into the enemy! I really am slightly sad that in modern-day games Darkest Lariat is no longer exclusive to Incineroar, but it's also hilarious that a bunch more Pokemon apparently are now able to unleash their inner wrestler upon their foes.
  
• Malicious Moonsault (Haipa Daku Kurassha/Hyper Dark Crusher) And empowered by the Z-move, Darkest Lariat transforms into Malicious Moonsault or "Hyper Dark Crusher", where Incineroar... summons a fucking wrestling ring and does the awesome wrestling smackdown on the enemy. Every adaptation of this move has a bit of a field day with hamming this up. The Super Smash Bros version even has Incineroar pummel the enemy upwards and upwards before doing the meteoric smashdown. 

Pretty cool, and I love that they really do play into the Z-Moves being spectacular for... well, for at least Incineroar, Decidueye, Mimikyu and Primarina. Not all of the Z-Moves really work, though, and I am actually a bit flummoxed that there's very few signature moves given to the Ultra Beasts. Only Blancephalon and Necrozma has them! And... I can kind of understand why this generation did cause a bunch of the moves to be axed come Generation VIII, with the sheer amount of Z-Moves and Let's Go Eevee and Pikachu's nonsensical attacks. I still find that it's a huge loss, though, particularly with how well-crafted a lot of the Generation VI-onwards signature moves are, and how many of them are tied to the identities of these Pokemon.

Gotta Review 'Em All - Moves [Generation VII], Part 1

And we're just chugging along with my insane commitment to talk about every single goddamn move in this franchise, an effort that has proven to be a bit more taxing than just talking about the creatures themselves.

...and Generation VII is the "move" generation, I feel, with nearly every single new line introduced in Alola getting a signature move. Except for most of the Ultra Beasts, for some reason? But I get it. The idea is that the extradimensional Ultra Beasts are equalized by the Alolan 'secret art' of Z-Moves, the gimmick of this region that converts any move you use into a predetermined over-the-top epic animation after your trainer does a dance and channels the power through a Z-crystal. Yeah, in retrospect, this generation really is probably the one that made Nintendo realize that they can't carry all these animations and moves forward without them severely impacting the oomph of future gimmickry?

Also released in Generation VII are a second batch of games, Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, which brings a second batch of Z-Moves specifically catered to a batch of special Pokemon... but more relevant to this article are the Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee games, which gives the partner Pikachu and Eevee basically a bunch of free coverage moves for the partner Pikachu and Eevee. Pikachu gets four moves based on the special event Pikachus distributed over the years, and Eevee gets one for each Eeveelution... so we're really going to have to listen to me repeat a lot of the "this is the Z-move/Pika-Vee move, but for this type!" Yeah, it's definitely two sets of moves that wouldn't really work outside of their debut games.

A little bit of housekeeping -- I've done a lot of "Gotta Review 'Em All" segments over the years. Moves, abilities, human characters, beta Pokemon, types... I've created a separate tag just for the Pokemon themselves, which is "Gotta Review 'Em All - National Dex", to declutter things and to make it easier for me to find stuff. 

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Normal-type Moves:

• Breakneck Blitz (Urutora Dasshu Atakku/Ultra Dash Attack) So let's just get this playlist of all Z-Moves in the game out of the way. I really do think it's something that I didn't appreciate until it's gone -- the team behind the games actually bothering to make so many unique animations while still preserving the previous generation's animations. It's something that I really did feel was sorely lacking in the post-Gen-VIII world. Basically, any kind of Normal-type attack combined with the held 'Normalium-Z' item gets converted into Breakneck Blitz. And Breakneck Blitz (or 'Ultra Dash Attack') is simple -- just a rushing charge where the Pokemon tramples the enemy. Pretty simple, no? The trainer also does a little dance, just for the hell of it. Oh, and the names of the attack pop up on the screen, like a Japanese samurai attack or something! That's neat, even if the font they use for the English version of Breakneck Blitz does admittedly look like a cheap WordArt project.

• Pulverizing Pancake (Honki o Dasu Kogeki/Go All out Attack) And some Pokemon get a special unique Z-Move of their own, with unique animations and needing a unique move + item combination. These Z-Move items, I think, tend to be given out in promotions? Snorlax's Giga Impact is upgraded by his Snorlium Z and it's honestly a fun little joke about how Snorlax is always asleep all the time... something that ironically doesn't apply for his 3D models, where Snorlax is always standing. But there's just something fun to see Snorlax go from lying down to standing up with his eyes glowing menacingly. The actual move itself is basically just an overdramatic jump and body slam, which is obviously devastating coming from Snorlax... but it's a fun, cute way to give some of these Pokemon an iconic and uniquely-animated move!
• Extreme Evoboost (Nain Iboru Busuto/Nine Evol Boost) Interestingly, Eevee and none of its evolutions are able to use Extreme Evoboost. Also, the specific name of its Japanese name (Nine Evol-Boost) does seem to imply that GameFreak is, at the moment, done with giving Eevee extra new evolutions? It's an interesting way to promote the base form itself, and presumably this was done in preparation for Let's Go Eevee, which propels Eevee up to being even more of a franchise mascot than it already is. The effect basically summons all nine Eeveelutions, all of whom boost Eevee's stats dramatically. 
• Veevee Volley (Buibui Bureiku/Veevee Break) I suppose I should talk about Veevee Volley, or 'Veevee Break' (the pun on the Japanese name only works with the katakana). Like mentioned above, Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee adds a bunch of moves unique to the partners in that game, and Veevee Volley is kind of a very basic one, being essentially a souped-up version of Return that deals a lot of damage based on Friendship. I get that these games are meant to cater to a younger audience, but I do really am just mostly underwhelmed by a lot of these Eevee/Pikachu-exclusive moves. 

• Spotlight (Supottoraito/Spotlight) We get a handful of extra Normal-moves, and it feels so weird not to have a dozen random Normal-type moves here! Learned by a bunch of Pokemon with natural lighting (Starmie, Lanturn, Morelull), Spotlight basically is a 'taunt' on any Pokemon, forcing all attacks -- but only from its foes -- to target it. 
• And I know Spotlight isn't the most interesting move, but it's one of the few moves that aren't specific to a certain situation (like the partner Let's Go Pokemon or Z-crystals) to basically only have a shelf life of a single generation before the Big Purge of Generation VIII eliminated it. 
• Laser Focus (Togisumasu/Hone) This one was originally available to a handful of serious warrior-like Pokemon like Kartana, Mewtwo and Lucario, before being granted to a lot of other Pokemon via move tutor and learnsets. It's not that exciting, the Pokemon focuses and the next move is guaranteed to be a critical hit. 
• Tearful Look (Namina Me/Teary Eyes) Another one that makes great use of the Espurr eye that they found so effective for Baby-Doll Eyes, Tearful Look basically has the user give one of those puppy-dog-eyes to cause the enemy to lower their guard and hold back, lowering both their Attack and Special Attack stats. This was originally a shared move between Wishiwashi and the Sudowoodo line, both very 'pathetic'-looking Pokemon, before being given to a lot more Pokemon. 
• Revelation Dance (Mezameru Dansu/Awakening Dance) A couple of extra signature moves, Revelation Dance is Oricorio's signature move. It's basically something similar to Genesect's Techno Blast or Arceus's Judgment, except on a dancing bird. Oricorio, as you guys might remember, is a dancing bird that can change its type and form depending on the nectar it drinks, and Revelation Dance will match that form's type, granting it the same-type attack bonus. Generation VII, I think, really tried to go 'deep' and give every single Pokemon a signature move or ability or even both, and the Pokemon in that generation feel far more memorable thanks to that!
• Multi-Attack (Maruchi Atakku/Multi Attack) A very underwhelming name that makes it sound like a generic multi-hit move instead of the signature move of an allegedly-legendary Pokemon, Multi Attack is Silvally's signature move. It's Silvally's version of Judgment, changing its type depending on the 'memory' item held by Silvally... and I dunno. Revelation Dance above does basically the same thing, but has a much more recognizable name and fits with Oricorio's theme of dancing. Multi Attack just sounds so generic! Couldn't they have made it sound cooler? Eh. 

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Flying-type Moves:

• Supersonic Skystrike (Fainaru Daibu Kurasshu/Final Dive Crash) I think we'll just start off with the Z-move for every single type going forward. And for the Flying-type, it's called 'Supersonic Skystrike' or 'Final Dive Crash'. And... it's a pretty simple, over-the-top version of Fly, I guess, where the Flying-type flies straight into the sky and then slams down and creates a gigantic explosion that fucks up the terrain. I found this move to be especially hilarious because it's clearly designed with a flying Pokemon in mind, but in reality anyone with a Flying-type move is able to do it. This includes Pokemon such as Dugtrio, who Supersonic Skystrikes their opponent while flying upwards with a lump of dirt carried with it. 
• Beak Blast (Kuchibashi Kyanon/Beak Cannon) Beak Blast is Toucannon's signature move, which is an interesting one. Toucannon's whole deal is that its multi-coloured giant beak is actually heating up and blasts the enemy. And during the turn that Toucannon charges up Beak Blast, any Pokemon that hits Toucannon will be burned. A weird move!
• Floaty Fall (Fuwafuwa Foru/Float-Float Fall) Our first Let's Go Pikachu move, Floaty Fall (the Japanese names use onomatopoeia) is a reference to the flying balloon Pikachu that made the rounds in a lot of promotions (like the TCG, minigames, the manga, etc) during the first generation. A bunch of balloons show up behind Pikachu, allowing him to fly up and deal Flying-type damage. I really am completely indifferent to all of these Pikachu/Eevee-exclusive moves. They're cute, they're gimmicky, but they're also just there. 

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Grass-type Moves:

• Bloom Doom (Burumu Shain Ekusutora/Bloom Shine Extra) The Grass-type move is called 'Bloom Shine Extra' in Japanese, which... just sounds nowhere as catchy as BLOOM DOOM. Animation-wise it does remind me of modern animations of Solarbeam, but it's just so... extra, y'know? The Pokemon casting the move creates a whole damn field of flowers, then a gigantic pillar of green light slams down onto the opponent, and the resulting shockwave creates a big, yellow flower bud projection. It's like something out of Naruto. I approve. 
• Leafage (Ko no Ha/Foliage) I really don't have much to say about this. This is basically an even lesser version of the iconic Razor Leaf, only basically 'dumbed down' so the Grass-type starters have an alternate early move akin to Ember and Bubble that doesn't rely on them spawning vines. I suppose I can understand the reasoning behind it, with Rowlet not looking like a Pokemon that can summon vines. 
• Strength Sap (Chikara o Suitoru/Strength Sapping) A very interesting one! This was originally the Morelull line's signature move, since they are a creepy fungus monster. Like many signature moves it was later handed out to other Pokemon... but they are all Ghost-types! Cool! Strength Sap is an interesting variation of moves like Giga Drain in that Morelull still regains health from the sapping... but he saps their Attack stat, debuffing them! Pretty cool! 

• Solar Blade (Sora Bureido/Solar Blade) Originally Lurantis's signature move, Solar Blade is basically a physical version of Solar Beam, doing basically the same thing -- charge up for one turn, then unleash one hell of an attack. Except instead of a giant solar cannon, this one is a glowing blade that is often portrayed as a giant fuck-off anime lightsaber or something. Pretty cool! Always a fan of Solarbeam, and seeing a variation on it is kinda neat. 
• Trop Kick (Toropikaru Kikku/Tropical Kick) I get it, it's a Drop Kick, but it's a tropical-themed attack, so it's a Trop Kick. Eh? EH? I thought the English translation team did a banger job translating this from the otherwise rather mundane 'Tropical Kick'. This is Tsareena's signature move, and it lowers the enemy's Attack stat. If they had kept the whole dual type moves from Hawlucha, this really should've been a Grass/Fighting move, huh? 
• Sappy Seed (Sukusuku Bonba/Grow-Grow Bomber) And this is another Let's Go move, for Eevee this time. It represents Leafeon (since the Let's Go partner Eevee can't evolve), and I do actually like this one a lot! Eevee summons a little seed that sprouts up, Jack and the Beanstalk style, into a gigantic vine-like tower. It also plants an effect analogous to Leech Seed on the enemy. 

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Fire-type Moves:

• Inferno Overdrive (Dainamikku Furu Fureimu/Dynamic Full Flame) Man, you gotta love the over-the-top names for these Z-Moves. Inferno Overdrive, or 'Dynamic Full Flame' in the original Japanese, is just honestly a big fireball with some over-the-top effects. It's pretty impressive looking just by virtue of being a big honking fireball of doom, but it's ultimately... again, it's a complaint that I had with Fire-type moves since Generation IV or V where it's all just a big ball of fire. It's appropriate for a Z-Move, but as you can see in with Bloom Doom or Hydro Vortex, at least those have a bit more pizazz!
• Burn Up (Moetsukiru/Burn Out) On the other hand, Burn Up is a very impressive move conceptually. The Pokemon deals massive damage, but it also 'burns out/up', in that it loses its Fire-typing entirely. Like, it loses all the fire it naturally produces for the rest of that battle! It's a move that I don't think would've worked in any other type other than Fire, and that is pretty damn creative! This was originally available to the Cyndaquil line and Moltres, which is very interesting since the Cyndaquil line has been rather infamous for how they don't actually show their flames in the base poses in the 3D engine! Ultimately it's one of those moves that's more impractical than not (the STAB is pretty valuable), though!
• Fire Lash (Hono no Muchi/Fire Whip) This one is just a whip on fire. This move is utterly bizarre, though, because Fire Lash is the signature move of Heatmor in Generation VII. Which is all right, we've had older Pokemon receive new signature moves in later generations... except Heatmor is unavailable to get in Generation VII without transferring it via the Pokemon Bank! Next generation would give Fire Lash to Salazzle too, which did debut in this generation, and I do wonder if Fire Lash was also intended to be Salazzle's signature move back then? 

• Shell Trap (Torappu Sheru/Trap Shell) One of those moves that really sells a Pokemon's gimmick, Shell Trap is Turtonator's signature move, and Turtonator is basically a Pokemon themed on a minefield. Turtonator always faces its exploding mine-like 'shell' at the enemy, and when it's hit by a physical move, if Turtonator selects Shell Trap, then it'll explode and blow up and damage the opponent! Pretty cool and thematic. 
• Mind Blown (Bikkuri Heddo/Surprise Head) A nice, punny name in both languages, Mind Blown is the signature move of the creepy circus-themed Ultra Beast Blancephalon. A high-damage move that hits every Pokemon on the battlefield, Mind Blown even has a unique animation where Blancephalon tosses its head into the air... and then it explodes! If you need a refresher on what Blancephalon looks like, it's a creepy circus-thing with the head being a disco ball. Which apparently doubles as a firework! In a very thematic effect, Blancephalon blowing up its own head also damages itself by half of its maximum HP, but it's such a fun, stylish move! I like it. 
• Sizzly Slide (Meramera Ban/Sizzle-Sizzle Burn) Oh, Mera Mera no Mi! That's the Flame-Flame Fruit from One Piece! This is Eevee's Flareon-themed Let's Go exclusive move. It sure is basically Flame Charge or something. I really don't think I can say too much about this Let's Go gimmick, honestly. 

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Ice-type Moves:

• Subzero Slammer (Reijingu Jio Furizu/Raging Geo Freeze) Okay, 'Geo Freeze' does make this sound a bit more like a Ground-type move. There's just something that doesn't quite hit right with 'Subzero Slammer', though. The animation of this one is a bit fancier, with the caster rising up on a giant conjured pillar of ice, before unleashing the mother of all ice beams that hits the enemy, and then explodes into a gigantic icy crystal flower-thing. Pretty cool!
• Aurora Veil (Orora Beru/Aurora Veil) A very niche ability that was TM-exclusive in this generation, Aurora Veil is only usable in Hail, and reduces damage to all allied Pokemon for five turns. Cute, but ultimately kinda too niche to be useful. 
• Ice Hammer (Aisu Hanma/Ice Hammer) Basically Hammer Arm, but Ice-type! This one is Crabominable's signature move. In the debut generation, however, the animation is a giant light-blue fist slamming down on the enemy instead of either a giant hammer or a crab-claw, though later generations turned it into a literal ice hammer. 
• Freezy Frost (Kochikochi Furosuto/Freeze-Freeze Frost) Let's Go Eevee's Glaceon-themed move, Freezy Frost hits the enemy with an ice crystal and... it doesn't freeze the enemy, but sets their stat changes to zero. Okay!

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Water-type Moves:

• Hydro Vortex (Supa Akua Torunedo/Super Aqua Tornado) Okay, I do really think that out of the 'basic' starter types, Water's Hydro Vortex (or 'Super Aqua Tornado' in Japanese) is the best, where the user literally just manifests a gigantic body of water radiating out of its body, then submerges both itself and the opponent under the water... and then the user charges in and creates the mother of all whirlpools. A giant water-spout would've been enough to get the point across, but I feel like manifesting a giant ocean is what makes this one stand out to me. 
• Oceanic Operetta (Wadatsumi no Shinfonia/Sea God's Symphonia) Sometimes, a Pokemon gets a signature move, and sometimes, a Pokemon gets a whole signature move animation crafted for it. And it's really a shame a lot of these stayed in Sun & Moon. Oceanic Operetta is the Water starter Primarina's Z-Move, and as its hair unfurls and goes wild, it creates a small sphere of ball that it telekinetically pushes towards the enemy as it slowly expands, engulfs the enemy... and then the 'operetta' or 'symphonia' part comes in where Primarina unleashes one of those high-pitched opera wail and shatters the giant ball of water. The extra bit where the remnants of the water ball rains down on Primarina as it takes a bow is the extra oomph. 
• Sparkling Aria (Utakata no Aria/Aria of Bubble) Primarina has a regular, non-Z signature move, where she sings and the singing creates bubbles that hits the enemy. This will also heal the Burn status effect, and, interestingly, is affected by abilities/moves like Soundproof and Throat Chop that affect 'sound' moves. Primarina needs to know Sparkling Aria, by the way, to convert it into Oceanic Operetta. 

• Liquidation (Akua Bureiku/Aqua Break) It really did feel like we needed a huge-power physical Water-type move, and with more physically-oriented Water-types like Golisopod and Araquanid introduced in this generation, we finally got one in Liquidation, or 'Aqua Break' in Japanese... both ambiguous enough in what it does. The animation doesn't really help either, not being quite as specific as something like Waterfall or whatever. The user coats itself in blue water, and slams at the enemy. Like Flare Blitz, that's... that's boring! The anime offers a far, far cooler interpretation. With most Pokemon, they just coat a part of their body in water and hit their opponent, but Golisopod summons a goddamn WATER KATANA that it does iai samurai moves with. This single interpretation of the move is now canon to every single user of Liquidation in my mind. 
• Splishy Splash (Zabuzabu Safu/Splash-Splash Surf) The Let's Go Pikachu Water-type move. Like Floaty Float or whatever it's called, Splishy Splash is a reference to the 'surfing Pikachu' seen in the anime, manga and some event-exclusive distributions in Generation I. It sure is a Water-type move Pikachu can use. 
• Bouncy Bubble (Iki-iki Babaru/Vivid-Vivid Bubble) And this one is Eevee's Let's Go Eevee move, featuring its Vaporeon DNA. This one heals Eevee like Absorb for some reason. You can tell I really am running out of things to say about these Let's Go moves. 

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Electric-type Moves:

• Gigavolt Havoc (Supakin Gigaboruto/Sparking Gigavolt) Like the Fire-type Z-Move, Gigavolt Havoc is basically what you'd expect from an Electric-type 'ultimate' move. Gigavolt Havoc has the Pokemon coat itself in electricity, charge at the enemy, cause some epic effects to happen and then a gigantic pillar of lightning slams down on the enemy. The original Japanese name of 'Thunderbolt', one of the most powerful Electric-type moves, is actually 100,000 volts, whereas a Gigavolt would add a couple of zeroes there, reaching 1,000,000,000.
• 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt (Issenman Boruto/10 Million Volts) ...which makes the 10 million Thunderbolt here feel a bit underwhelming in comparison, though obviously the comparison with Thunderbolt, or Juman Boruto (a hundred thousand volts), a bit more obvious. This is the specific Z-Move of event-exclusive 'Pikachu with a cap', of which they distributed a lot of. The lightning bolts are a bit fancier and coloured like a rainbow. 
• Catastropika (Hissatsu no Pikachuto/Certain Kill Pika-shoot) And just because they really want to give Pikachu a lot of unique Z-Moves, if you don't have an event 'hat' Pikachu, any regular Pikachu that has Volt Tackle has access to Catastropika. Or 'Pikachuuto/Pika-shoot', a pun that only really works in Japanese. This wouldn't be as notable if the animation didn't specifically show the trainer hug Pikachu... and then YEET that Pikachu into the air before it goes full lightning-mode and slams down on the enemy. 
• Stoked Sparksurfer (Raitoningu Safu Raido/Lightning Surf Ride) Not Pikachu, but Raichu this time. Hovering on its tail with its psychic powers, Alolan Raichu flies up, covers itself in blue and yellow energy and surfs down onto the enemy, with the effect kind of resembling a wave that it's riding. Kinda unique!

• Plasma Fists (Purazuma Fisuto/Plasma Fist) This one is Zeraora's signature move, and the animation is pretty over-the-top for an attack that kinda makes you think that it's like Thunderpunch. Zeraora coats his fists in bright blue energy before punching the enemy so hard that a gigantic storm appears around them. The effect basically creates a plasma field where other Normal-type moves get converted into Electric type moves for the remainder of the turn. Neat, I think?
• Zing Zap (Biribiri Chikuchiku/Shock Shock Prickle Prickle) The signature move of Togedemaru, and in a later generation shared with Pincurchin, Zing Zap is a blast of electricity that can flinch the enemy. From the name of the move, I think it's meant to be that prickling electrical sensation that makes the designers of Generation VII associate the 'pokey needles' of Pincurchin and Togedemaru with Electric type. 

• Zippy Zap (Bachibachi Akuseru/Crackle-Crackle Accel) This one is basically the animation of Volt Tackle, but has the effect of Quick Attack. Yeah. It's a Let's Go Pikachu move, and has nothing to do with Zing Zap. 
• Pika Papow (Pikapika Sanda/Pika-Pika Thunder) Because one Let's Go Electric-type move isn't enough, Pikachu gets two, and Pika Papow is similar to Veevee Volley where it depends on friendship. It sure is Pikachu shooting lightning. 
• Buzzy Buzz (Biribiri Ereki/Buzz-Buzz Elec) This one is Eevee's Jolteon-inspired move, dealing Electric-type damage and paralyzing the enemy. It sure is an Electric Eevee move.

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Rock-type Moves:

• Continental Crush (Waruzu Endo Foru/World's End Fall) The Z-Move for Rock type is pretty fun! The Pokemon leaps into the air, absorbs rocks from all around them and literally creates a gigantic mountain that slowly descends and blows up upon the enemy. Whether it's "Continental Crush" or "World's End Fall", the name of this move is pretty damn boss! It's honestly kind of what you expect from a Rock-type ultimate move, but it's pretty cool!
• Accelerock (Akuserurokku/Accel-Rock) A move only available to the mid-day and dusk forms of Lycanroc, this is a priority Rock-type move. I really used this move a lot in my playthroughs of Sun/Moon, but the flavour is rather bland. It's just basically Quick Attack used by a rocky wolf. 
• Splintered Stormshards (Rajiaru Ejjisutomu/Radial Edgestorm) Splintered Stormshards, or "Radial Edgestorm", is a special Z-Move for the dusk Lycanroc... and this really does feel like a Naruto move or something. Lycanroc summons a bunch of pointy rocks that float up and surround the enemy... and then they turn around one by one so the pointy edges are aimed towards the enemy. That's honestly a very cool shot, and then we cut to the trainer slamming their hands together before the rocks zoom in and stab the enemy. It's pretty fucking cool!

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...and that's it for now! As you can see, I'm a bit tired at the end with all the Electric-type moves and the Pikachu-exclusive moves and the Let's-Go exclusive moves. 

Gotta Review 'Em All, Part #52: Mega Evolutions, Part 4

And this is the second part of my reviews of the Mega Evolutions introduced in Legends ZA and its DLC, Mega Dimensions. And with this, we technically bring the ninth generation to a close, with the announcement of the upcoming Generation X to tie in with the 30th Anniversary of Pokemon as a franchise. What a ride it has been, huh?

This page starts off with the Generation VI Mega Evolutions, of which there are quite a bit of. Including the starters! I still don't quite understand the idea why Generation VI made such a big deal about Mega Evolution, and proceeded to only give it to older Pokemon from Generations I-IV. I guess the idea is that the new Pokemon are novel enough that fans would pick them up in spite of not having Mega Evolution, but... well, subsequent generations would use the brand-new Pokemon to also spotlight their respective gimmicks. And with the franchise returning to Kalos, Generation VI gets a belated boost by having a lot of their Pokemon get new mega evolutions... which includes the starters, of course. 

...and then they proceed to lock all three Mega Stones for the Kalos starters behind a time-gated paywall, forcing you to engage in 'seasonal rewards' for the multiplayer and essentially forcing people to speed through the game to get the stones before the seasons ended. It's horrible, and once the attention of the game developers move to the next game's online features, it will be abandoned. This is one of the things I most dislike of the new movement of the franchise towards more online integrations. 

Click here for the previous part.

Click here for the next part. 

Click here for the index.

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#652: Mega Chesnaught

• Types: Grass/Fighting
• Japanese names: Mega Burigaron
• Categories: Spiny Armor

Mega Chesnaught is probably the Mega Kalos starter I am the biggest fan of, because it keeps Chesnaught's 'vibe' very well but gives it such a cool update. Playing with the chestnut theme, Mega Chesnaught gets even darker colours for its greens and even gets a nice maroon-brown cape and highlights. The end result gives us a very pleasant look that's distinct from its regular form. More importantly, the two spikes on top of Chestnaught's spiked dome have evolved into two gigantic circular pauldrons, with lances pointing back and forth. To top off the look, Mega Chesnaught even gets a golden crown!

The end result gives us a much more improved design that genuinely looks badass and cool, and I feel like the two giant disk-shields are far more impressive of the hunch-backed defensive tank aesthetic than the weird turtle-shell-poncho that regular Chesnaught has. The two shields looking like how regular Chesnaught's forearms would turn into Spiky Shields when it uses its signature move is a nice bonus. 

But wait, we're not done yet! Mega Chesnaught's shoulder pauldrons are actually removable, and they transform. How cool is that? Mega Chesnaught pulls off its discs liek toys, and they start sprouting a giant vine handle and more thorny spikes, becoming a massive flail-spear thing. This is very cool, and plays to both Chesnaught's knightly vibe and his regular form's ability to morph its spikes and plant anatomy. 

I feel like this is such a cool concept, and having the accessories be more obviously integrated into the anatomy feels a lot more like a Pokemon compared to its fellow grass starter Rillaboom. Chesnaught is a starter that I don't really think about all that much, but this mega evolution really catapults it into being one of the coolest ones to come out of this game!

 5/6, could be 6.

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#655: Mega Delphox

• Types: Fire/Psychic
• Japanese names: Mega Mafokushi
• Categories: Fox

I still remember how Fennekin was my original Pokemon XY starter, and how Delphox... didn't really impress me. It's not a bad design, but there's just something really off about the vibe. And I think it's because Delphox didn't really go all the way with the 'witch' or the 'wizard' design. I think there's a reason why Braixen was chosen to represent the line in spinoff material like Pokken Tournament, and that's because Delphox just felt a bit boring. It's the final form of the line, and all it has is still a stick-wand? 

Mega Delphox dispenses with this subtlety, and goes full-in on the witch vibe. The colours, like Mega Chesnaught, also changes to have a dark purplish-black hue on her fur, including her 'sleeves', 'skirt' and two extra trailing bits from her ear. This really does sell the 'Psychic' part a lot better, something that regular Delphox didn't communicate as well with the colours. Mega Delphox also gains extensions to the white fur on her face and neck, giving her a quasi-Gandalf-look. 

But most importantly, Mega Delphox now flies around on a witch's broomstick. And she doesn't just sit on it, no. Mega Delphox surfs on its broom-stick, and instead of a bunch of straw, the end of the stick is on fire. Two smaller mini-sticks hover around Mega Delphox. Overall it really does make for a much more dynamic design in both visuals and animation. Excellent design!

0

 5/6.

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#658: Mega Greninja

• Types: Water/Dark
• Japanese names: Mega Gekkoga
• Categories: Ninja

They can't all be winners, I suppose, but everyone's favourite Kalos starter Greninja kind of stole the show in Generation VI, catapulting itself to one of the newer Pokemon that consistently tops popularity charts and showing up so much in other media like Smash Bros or the live-action Detective Pikachu movie. Greninja even got an anime and XY-exclusive quasi-mega-form with Ash-Greninja... a design that the Pokemon company has quietly been trying to ignore and not acknowledge, which is fair enough, Ash-Greninja isn't my favourite design. It is just regular Greninja with some extra spikes. A neat super mode, and one that was borne out of the aforementioned empty hole where the anime needed to spotlight both new Gen VI Pokemon and Mega Evolutions, but didn't have a crossover between the two. 

The real Mega Greninja, coming a decade later, is... interesting. It gains a bunch more black colouration, just like the other Kalos starters becoming a bit darker, although for Mega Greninja it's also a nod to the shiny form. Mega Greninja also has a bunch of watery shuriken-details, with two shuriken tucked in its 'belt', and its head-spikes having the watery consistency. 

It's also upside-down, and its feet are attached to a giant water shuriken that spins like an insane helicopter. It's so surreal and bizarre, and I get the joke. It's a joke on how some frogs, like tree frogs, can stick to surfaces. Ninjas can do that too. And with fiction like Naruto really exaggerating and playing up the things that a ninja can do, having Mega Greninja 'spin a giant shuriken at high speed to make it float, then clings to it upside-down' is... is the kind of super-ridiculous thing out of that trope. This is meant to be a distraction, and... yeah, a giant helicopter frog is most certainly distracting!

It's just hilarious that it's one of the most popular Pokemon out there that they gave this wacky form to, and this is after Chesnaught and Delphox received quite stellar updates to their 'warrior' and 'mage' looks. I respect this form and the commitment to the joke, but I can't really say I like it. 

 4/6, could be 3. 

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#668: Mega Pyroar

• Types: Fire/Normal
• Japanese names: Mega Kaenjishi
• Categories: Royal

Yeah, I'm not really feeling this one. Generation VI Pokemon getting mega evolutions is an overdue thing from the creators, and Pyroar is one of the mascots of the antagonistic Team Flare. But this is a combination of both taking a joke too far, and laziness in trying to make a single super-mode for two different forms. The end result is quite terrible-looking. Having the same super mode was done all the way back with Gigantamax Flapple/Appletun, where both alternate evolutions just turn into a giant version of Applin. It was a silly joke then, and while this game does the same shortcut for various Pokemon with multiple final forms, Mega Pyroar is a super-lazy one.

Instead of making a separate mega form for the male and female Pyroar, both genders just turn into the same mega evolution. And that Mega Evolution just turns the 火 kanji (usually translated into English as flame) on male Pyroar into a 炎 kanji (usually translated into English as blaze). I get it, I speak Mandarin. The 'blaze' is like, double the fire in 'flame'. Sure. If the design looked good, I wouldn't mind. As it is, it just looks uncomfortable and horrible, and that's not without mentioning that they elongated the top of the kanji mane to accommodate the female Pyroar's hair-mane. 

Just not a big fan of this one at all, and it's one of the few designs that I actively just dislike. 

 1/6.

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#670: Mega Eternal Floette

• Types: Fairy
• Japanese names: Mega Furaette
• Categories: Single Bloom

A decade after its debut in Pokemon XY as a unique model, AZ's "Eternal Flower" Floette finally makes it into the game after never being made available as a playable Pokemon. I suppose I should say something about the Eternal Floette design -- I've always find it a neat variation to show just how old AZ is. Floette herself is holding a strange, unnatural-looking jagged flower, while her body seems to be coloured in an almost-shiny version. Several generations down the line and I think they probably would've considered this Floette a 'Regional Variant', only a temporal-displaced one instead of a spatial-displaced one. 

Eternal Flower Floette also shows off her signature move, Fleur Cannon, a fair bit in Legends ZA. It's an attack that's as powerful as some legendary Pokemon signature moves. In the story of Pokemon XY, Eternal Flower Floette was brought to life with the power of ancient weapons and the energies of the legendary Pokemon of life and death, Xerneas and Yveltal, which explains her uniqueness... and while the games don't come out and say it, Eternal Flower Floette doesn't seem to be able to evolve into Florges. It was a plot point of how normally only fully-evolved Pokemon can Mega-Evolve, but Eternal Flower Floette can. 

And the Mega Evolution is an interesting design. Somewhat similarly to Mega Kangaskhan, the main body of Floette doesn't actually change, but the flower itself has morphed into a gigantic proportion. More disturbingly (and probably the coolest part of the design) is the stem that has turned all bumpy and has wrapped itself around Floette's body like an umbilical cord. The flower itself also resembles the opened-up version of the Ultimate Weapon, the plot device in Kalos... but I do think that Mega Floette is still relatively a nice standalone design even without knowing this context. 

In the game, Mega Floette also interacts with a different ultimate weapon called Ange, which transforms into a Biollante-esque giant plant monster that serves as the final boss of the main story. It's not exactly a form of Mega Floette, although I almost wished that it was the flower going out of control or something. 

It's an all right design, a nice little super form for Floette even if I'm not particularly taken by it.

 3/6.

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#678: Mega Meowstic

• Types: Psychic
• Japanese names: Mega Nyaonikusu
• Categories: Second Sight

Oh, look at how cool this is. This is how you do a 'two alternate forms merge into a single super form', Mega Pyroar! Debuting in the DLC is Mega Meowstic, which combines the the designs of male and female Meowstic together. Male Meowstic is primarily dark blue and female Meowstic is primarily white, but the Mega Meowstic form has the colours split down in the middle in something that reminds me of that creepy bear from Danganronpa. Mega Meowstic's ears are completely unfurled, showing its psychic eyes -- in stark contrast to both regular Espurr and Moewstic. 

I must stress just how cool the colours look, and how they keep alternating down the body with the arms, legs, 'scarf' and hair. As a little nice touch as well, Mega Meowstic keeps one tail from the male form and one tail from the female form. And I think my favourite feature has to be the heterochromatic eyes, with one being yellow and the other being blue -- both taken from the original Meowstic forms. 

I have always been someone who really didn't care all that much for Meowstic compared to its far cuter and far more interesting pre-evolution, but Mega Meowstic's design as a Pokemon that's completely unbound from its restraint is really cool. Its psychic powers allow Mega Meowstic to constantly float, and it can use its psychic power to compress and expand even space itself. 

 6/6.

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#687: Mega Malamar

• Types: Dark/Psychic
• Japanese names: Mega Karamanero
• Categories: Overturning

My friend Malamar got one of the coolest debut trailers, using live-action actors to showcase people who were brainwashed into considering Malamar as their best friend. I've always had a soft spot for Inkay and Malamar, having used one in my playthrough of not XY, but one of the Alola games. I've always loved cephalopods, and Malamar's kooky design has always been fun to me. 

Mega Malamar evolves into a very interesting design, with its mass of shorter tentacles wrapped up like a supervillain 'brain', while its two longer squid tentacles have expanded into an interesting layout. Mega Malamar has 'shoulderpads' similar to an archetypal supervillain,  and those arms are constantly circling the air, creating glowing green and purple lights that are meant to hypnotize anyone looking at it. 

Mega Malamar's squid body has also tapered down into a much thinner form, standing on pinpoint tiptoes, and the body glows in all colours of the rainbow. All of these features help Mega Malamar to overwrite the personalities of its victims, overwriting their personalities and memories. The haughty, borderline-evil Mega Malamar is even noted to be willing to brainwash their own trainers if they should disagree on matters. In combat, Mega Malamar also holds onto its 'brain', which apparently boosts its psychic powers. 

I really like Mega Malamar. The trailer helps a lot, of course, but I love them really going full-in on making Mega Malamar more evil and creepy. The design being distinct from regular Malamar while still clearly sharing the same basic anatomy is also a huge bonus too. 

 6/6.

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#689: Mega Barbaracle

• Types: Rock/Fighting
• Japanese names: Mega Gamenodesu
• Categories: Collective

Barbaracle gets a mega evolution, and what a cool and wacky design that this 'collective' Pokemon has! Mega Barbaracle was always presented as a colony organism, and Mega Barbaracle essentially is an exploratino to what happens if even more of the goose barnacles grow into limbs. The end result is an eight-armed monstrosity that's standing menacingly. There's just something abotu that pose, with one leg daintily in front of the other, that makes me find it really funny. 

Mega Barbaracle's extra arms have turned it to a Rock/Fighting type instead of a Rock/Water, which is unexpected. The colours of Mega Barbaracle have grown a bit darker, and I like that the rocky consistency that forms Mega Barbaracle's 'torso' and 'waist' are cracking under the pressure of so many barnacles growing out of it. Some of the arms have eyes facing forwards and others facing backwards. Mega Barbaracle's head is always shaped like a hand, but it's now making a 'rocker' sign to give it two horns. That's cool. 

Mega Barbaracle essentially runs around and pummels its foes with its many arms with a rapid-fire ora ora ora punch. While ultimately not my favourite mega evolution from this generation, I appreciate the attention being given to Barbaracle and it's a very appropriate extension of its original concept. 

 4/6.

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#691: Mega Dragalge

• Types: Poison/Dragon
• Japanese names: Mega Doramidoro
• Categories: Mock Kelp

I really, really like Mega Dragalge. Dragalge is always a nice Pokemon that skirts the line between graceful and nasty, and Mega Dragalge also goes full in on that. The main difference is Mega Dragalge's 'hair', which erupts into a flowing mane that overshadows even the main sea-dragon body. Two 'antennae' with false eyeballs sprout up from the center of Mega Dragalge's head. Those antennae-bulb seem to be specifically based on the cyst-like bulbs on the sargassum kelp, which I like. A bit more subtle, but Mega Dragalge's 'arms' and 'scarves' also have grown a lot longer. I particularly like the arms, which makes Mega Dragalge look more menacing. 

Real-world seaweed will absorb heavy metals from the ocean and many kelp and seaweed tend to be curative, but Mega Dragalge has a dex entry that many people quickly realize is an unexpected reference to cancer. "It spits a liquid that causes the regenerative power of cells to run wild. The liquid is deadly poison to everything other than itself." Mega Dragalge's poison is now cancer spit? Huuuh. 

Regardless of that strange bit, I really do like the expansion of Mega Dragalge to feature not just the weedy, reedy side of seaweed but also the more graceful side. The general look of the monster design is quite pleasant in general while still retaining its poisonous 'edge'. 

 5/6.

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#701: Mega Hawlucha

• Types: Fighting/Flying
• Japanese names: Mega Ruchaburu
• Categories: Wrestling

Oh, yeah. I just really like Hawlucha, and Mega Hawlucha just goes over-the-top by giving the luchador design just a more elaborate getup. Mega Hawlucha's mask is now a black-and-gold mask with orange head-feathers, and his torso has bulked up considerably, with an extra set of shoulderpads that are also black-and-gold. It's not visible on his official art, but the back side of Hawlucha's wing-cape has also gotten extra black/gold details. It's a really simple but effective exaggeration of Hawlucha's original design, and one that I absolutely adore. 

They even did a proper wrestling match IRL with a wrestler wearing a Mega Hawlucha mask to promote this form. That's super cool. There's not much else beyond that, I just really like the wrestling exaggeration here, and Mega Hawlucha definitely was a member of my Legends ZA team. 

 6/6.

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#718: Mega Zygarde

• Types: Dragon/Ground
• Japanese names: Mega Jigarude
• Categories: Order

Being the mascot character for Pokemon Legends ZA, of course Zygarde gets a Mega Evolution. Which... I thought felt tacked in. A huge chunk of the climax was done with Zygarde's original super form, Zygarde Complete, doing a lot of cool scenes. But of course, you need mega evolution for the mega evolution game, and... I just don't like it. The black hexagon-cells of Zygarde Complete's body has all retracted upwards to form a massive cannon, which is held precariously above a naked-looking Zygarde complete body.

The end result just looks very awkward, and I'm also not a huge fan of the X/Y/Z lights glowing on the barrel of the very clunky cannon. Sure, the one or two times that Mega Zygarde unleashes a gigantic fuck-off orbital laser cannon against a Fletchling or something is ha-ha funny, but as a super form, I just really don't like this design. 

The game remembers that Zygarde Complete was a form that was shoved into the Alola games unceremoniously when the original 'Pokemon Z' was cancelled, and characters in-game note that Zygarde's new signature move, "Nihil Light", has the properties of the Z-Moves of the Alola region that Zygarde seems to have picked up in-between the events of Sun/Moon and Legends ZA. That may be cool, but I still don't like the Mega Zygarde design. 

 1/6.

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#740: Mega Crabominable

• Types: Fighting/Ice
• Japanese names: Mega Kekenkani
• Categories: Woolly Crab

Crabominable is one of the few Pokemon designs that I outright hate. There are some Pokemon designs that make my eyes roll, that I shake my head at, but Crabominable is my absolute least favourite Pokemon. 

Imagine my surprise when Mega Crabominable shows up, and it basically fixes everything I have a problem with in Crabominable's design! That's unexpected. So let's just go through every single aspect of this much, much improved take on a fighting yeti crab Pokemon. The most eye-catching change are the fists, which are now giant spiky ice-knuckles with a shaggy set of dark purple hair around the gauntlets. A vast improvement from the... whatever the heck was going on with regular Crabominable's claws. 

Regular Crabominable also has a tuft of awkward yellow hair which is now expanded a bit! Mega Crabominable's hair is shaggier, and he's got a barbarian long-hair/cape. There's highlights of yellow here and there that looks a lot more natural, and the yellow isn't just clumped on top of Crabominable's head like an ugly accessory. Mega Crabominable also stands on two pointed legs made up of ice, with the front crab legs rearing up like an attacking horse. I'd probably prefer all four legs be extended to look more crab-like in that way, but this does give Mega Crabominable a nice silhouette. 

And finally, the face. Mega Crabominable loses its pupils and has completely whited-out eyes. With the shadow from his shaggy hair, this makes his goofy square teeth actually look menacing, and the end result really does sell the vibe of a monstrous ice berserker crab. Mega Crabominable moves by dragging itself with its massive claws like a gorilla, and... I am just genuinely flummoxed by just how well they have improved this design! Good job, good job.

 5/6.

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#768: Mega Golisopod

• Types: Bug/Steel
• Japanese names: Mega Gosukumusha
• Categories: Hard Scale

Golisopod is one of my favourite Pokemon to come out of Generation VII, and it gets a Mega Evolution that... doesn't quite change as much. Mega Golisopod does get a type change, though, becoming Bug/STEEL instead of Bug/Water. Not the most novel typing, but one that's quite interesting. Mega Golisopod's normally-white isopod chitin has changed to a steely gray, and it gets an extra pair of legs and arms. 

Mega Golisopod now scuttles on four legs instead of two, although this really isn't immediately apparent, as cool as it is. The legs are a bit too short and Mega Golisopod shares his base form having a lot of detail on the upper half of his body. Mega Golisopod's regular arms have grown a bit flatter and wider, with extra spikes that resemble Wimpod tails. Two more arms point up from his shoulders, and these actually serve like a mecha's shoulder-mounted cannons, launching its spike-claws in Mega Golisopod's ranged attack animations. 

Just like regular Golisopod, Mega Golisopod still has some hidden arms... although they aren't under his head/mouth, but under his 'skirt'. The arms under his head has seemingly degenerated to only leaving behind the black tips and do not extend for the animations, which I felt was a missed opportunity. Apparently these skirt-arms are important and the dex highlights that Mega Golisopod assails its prey with its four main arms, and finishes them off with the skirt-arms. No one ever expects the skirt-arms, I suppose. 

It does just enough to make me like it, and it is still a bigger, multi-armed Golisopod, but I kind of wished that they had done a bit more with him. No major complaints, otherwise. 

 5/6.

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#780: Mega Drampa

• Types: Normal/Dragon
• Japanese names: Mega Jijiron
• Categories: Imposing

Mega Drampa is a simple concept. Mega Evolution has allowed Drampa to 'regain its youth', making its cells reinvigorated. All of the white hair has turned black again, and they are now depicted like roiling storm-clouds in traditional Japanese art. Mega Drampa's hair and arms are also always in its aggressive stance, which is a nice nod to regular Drampa's animations. Just making Mega Drampa 'a young, angry Drampa' would have been kind of boring, so I am happy that they also arrived at the conclusion of tying the theme to dark, roiling storm-clouds.

The animations for Mega Drampa is also nicely dramatic, with all of the stormcloud-like tails unfurling and standing straight whenever Mega Drampa attacks. They want you to know how angry Mega Drampa is!  

 4/6.

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#801: Mega Magearna

• Types: Steel/Fairy
• Japanese names: Mega Magiana
• Categories: Artificial

Okay, they made Magearna look a bit cooler. This was a problem I had with regular Diancie that the mega form did fix, where the regular design was just... there. Magearna is a Pokemon whose lore really felt like a good tie-in to the 'Ultimate Weapon' and 'life/death' storyline of Pokemon XY and I'm disappointed a bit that she didn't get integrated into the themes of the Kalos stories a bit more... but this game is also probably the biggest acknowledgement that Magearna even exists, considering she has spent all of her appearances in the games being handed off by mystery gifts. 

Mega Magearna has gain the colour of her event-exclusive 'original Pokeball' colouration, which in-lore was the colour she had originally before time eroded her colours to gray. A pretty cool design, and while I'm a bit iffy about the red horns, I find the design of her chest armour, the proportions of her legs and arms, and general look to be so much better than the awkwardness of her original design. 

Two gear-halves rotate around Magearna, and this does make the design look more like a super form instead of a Mega-Scrafty-esque 'only the colours really change'. The gears are dynamic and clamp around Mega Magearna's arm cannons when she does her attacks, which is very cool. I like the lore as well, where the Mega Stone actually functions as a 'limit breaker' that unlocks Magearna's inhibitions and limitations... and actually seals Magearna's emotions 'as it fells foe after foe'. I didn't really care for Magearna before, but this unexpectedly dark addition to Magearna's lore is very welcome! 

 5/6 due to improving Magearna's design so much. 

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#807: Mega Zeraora

• Types: Electric
• Japanese names: Mega Zeraora
• Categories: Thunderclap

I've gone on record that I'm not the biggest fan of Zeraora, one of the mythical Pokemon introduced in Generation VII. I don't think my opinion has really changed, although I'm sure that Zeraora has a lot of fans, still. Its Mega Evolution essentially remixes the colours, swapping its yellow and black parts and giving it a colour scheme not dissimilar to Luxray. It's a cooler design for sure, and looking at Mega Zeraora and regular Zeraora side by side, there are some additional differences like the arm-spikes and having two scarf-tails instead of one. The fact that I had to pull up images and see them side by side really highlights how Mega Zeraora looks more like a shiny than a mega evolution, though, which is a similar problem I had with Mega Scrafty.

It is a nice mega evolution for a Pokemon that I am completely and utterly apathetic about, but I will still acknowledge that it's a very cool colour scheme that they decided to give him. Its dex entry is still quite bland, though, for a mega legendary Pokemon -- 'when it stops limiting itself, it's in the strongest class of electric pokemon'. You don't say? The mythical Pokemon that's mythical for no real reason is in the strongest class of electric-types?

 3/6.

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#870: Mega Falinks

• Types: Fighting
• Japanese names: Mega Tairetsu
• Categories: Formation

Being the solo rep in this game from Generation VIII is Mega Falinks, which... is a hilarious design. Where regular Falinks is a troop of spherical Pokemon that are considered a single entity, Mega Falinks has combined together in the ultimate battle formation... which is combining into a single Megazord-esque layout. There are some physical changes, of course, with three of the Falinks-es expanding into a larger size. The main leader forms the 'torso/head', and two of the Falinks have had their heads morph into a massive blade and spiked shield. 

But of course, the funniest part is the Falinks that forms the crotch segment, who really doesn't look like he's having the best time. His eyes are squinting in effort, and he's using his hands to hold his leader up! Do the other Falinks-es take turns, or is crotchy doomed to always be there any time they mega-evolve? 

It's a design that I find extremely fun, and done arguably a lot better than Mega Starmie since Mega Falinks's design actually fits a fair bit with its lore of being a unit of soldiers that are so close that they are considered a single entity. I was very confused when I first saw it, but now I quite like this one. 

 5/6.

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#952: Mega Scovillain

• Types: Grass/Fire
• Japanese names: Mega Sukoviran
• Categories: Spicy Pepper

I am quite surprised that Generation IX Pokemon from Scarlet/Violet got mega evolutions too, although they're all from the DLC. And for Scovillain to get it? Mega Scovillain is... all right? I honestly just feel like this is what regular Scovillain should look like, with more elaborate bell pepper heads and seeds forming cooler 'horns' and 'teeth'. I quite like the upper body being a shade of black as well, which makes the body segments pop up a bit better compared to the regular Scovillain. 

The weirdest thing about this design is the random glowing zigzag chili that also functions as a necktie. Which... it's distinctive all right, but I am just not a huge fan of it. Apparently, Mega Scovillain uses this chili necktie to wallop its foes? 

 4/6.

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#970: Mega Glimmora

• Types: Rock/Poison
• Japanese names: Mega Kirafuroru
• Categories: Ore

Oh, this one is cool. Mega Glimmora is a design that takes the rather dynamic Glimmora and makes it even more over-the-top. Regular Glimmora constantly moves around from being 'covered' up like an oval pod, or opening up like a flower. Mega Glimmora, in full battle mode, has six petals constantly detached and rotating around its body, while the main 'flower' is always in bloom, with the horn extending far further to pierce enemies and the eyes glow red. There's also an extra bulb growing from behind Mega Glimmora's body that looks like pre-evolution Glimmet's bulb. 

Also, as the petals rotate, poisonous rock fragments are continually shed by Mega Glimmora. This gives the effect of the 'stun spore' or 'poison powder' trope that many of the plant-based Pokemon do, where their pollen are shed by their flowers or leaves... except Glimmora is a poisonous rock creature that just happens to resemble a flower. I like this a lot. 

Absolutely neat design, and one I find absolutely cool in animation with the petals converging in animation as Mega Glimmora launches attacks that resemble sci-fi laser cannons. 

 5/6.

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#978: Mega Tatsugiri

• Types: Dragon/Water
• Japanese names: Mega Sharitatsu
• Categories: Mimicry

Another multi-form Pokemon who shares a single mega evolution, Mega Tatsugiri is an interesting one. All three Tatsugiris transform into a full sushi platter, with mega evolution creating copies of the other two forms. They did do an attempt to make three separate forms, even if it's just rearranging which Tatsugiri is in the center. That little bit of effort to make sure you know what the real Tatsugiri form is actually quite neat. 

The design is also quite interesting, with a giant energy 'plate' in the shape of the Mega Evolution symbol beneath the three Tatsugiris. The central Tatsugiri also has a crown of salmon roe, and the three Tatsugiris are separated with fake decorative 'grass'. That grass, by the way, extends when Mega Tatsugiri attacks with physical attacks. The whole idea is that the mega evolution has given Tatsugiri such an outpouring of energy that it can solidify this energy to create the plate and the copies. 

The designers clearly wanted to highlight Mega Tatsugiri a fair bit, with its debut in the story mode being shown in a strange dream-like giant sushi restaurant, and a fully-detailed model of a 'real' sushi platter being shown before Mega Tatsugiri appears. Also very fun in the boss fight and detailed in the dex entries is that Mega Tatsugiri launches the salmon roe as projectiles... as Draco Meteor projectiles. 

 

It isn't my favourite mega evolution if we're being honest, but I must really appreciate the sheer audacity and hilarity of this design. 

 4/6.

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#998: Mega Baxcalibur

• Types: Dragon/Ice
• Japanese names: Mega Segureibu
• Categories: Ice Dragon

Mega Baxcalibur is our last Mega Evolution, also introduced in the DLC via online gameplay.  And it's... it's a neat exaggeration of the base Baxcalibur design. For the most part, the main Baxcalibur body stays the same, but the sword-fin expands into a more massive, more ornate blade. A 'ring' of ice wraps around Mega Baxcalibur's torso like a belt, and a 'handle' made up of ice and the same black quasi-metal material just out of Mega Baxcalibur's chest. The end result is a design that makes it look like a gigantic Final Fantasy sword has just pierced this dinosaur through the chest. 

Bizarrely, the pokedex entry highlights the expansion of the blade... then proceeds to describe how Mega Baxcalibur 'fires beams from the hilt at its solar plexus'. Not exactly what I'd expect a blade hilt to do, but okay?

I'm perfectly neutral about this design. Baxcalibur is a Pokemon that I just don't find to be particularly interesting even in its debut game, but a design that I also find inoffensive and neat. Seeing the most prominent features exaggerated for the mega evolution is the right thing to do; it's just that I'm not the biggest fan of said prominent feature. It's all right. 

 3/6.