Category: Pokemon

My 10 Favourite Generation 8 Pokemon

It’s been just over two weeks now since Pokemon Sword & Shield were released to the world and to put it simply, I had a lot of fun with these games. I want to give it a bit more time before I make any judgement calls on how it fits into my ranking of the generations, but having played through the game twice now I can confidently say that these games were what I wanted them to be and I really like them.

Naturally, when it comes to a new generation of Pokemon, one of the biggest factors that contribute to how much I get out of the game, is the Pokemon themselves. Not counting regional variants, Generation 8 has (so far) given us 81 new Pokemon and there’s a huge variety in all of these new creatures. Naturally, there are going to be a handful of Pokemon that rise to the top and stand out to me as the best of what this generation has to offer, and that’s what I’m discussing today.

SPOILER WARNING

This list will contain story spoilers for Pokemon Sword & Shield and also contains Pokemon that have not been officially revealed or referenced anywhere outside of the games themselves, so if you wish to remain unspoiled then maybe give this one a miss for the time being.

10 – Orbeetle

Maybe it’s because of the altered visual style, but almost every Pokemon Galar has to offer feels very different from that of the previous seven generations. That’s something which isn’t always for the better (see the abominations that are the fossil Pokemon) but Orbeetle is a case where it works to its benefit.

For the longest time, the regional bugs have been lame. Don’t get me wrong, I like Butterfree & Vivilon as much as the next guy, but when it comes to viable team members for the whole game they don’t ever make the cut. Vikavolt from Alola had the chance to turn that around, but it was unfortunately hampered by the fact that it couldn’t evolve until one of the final areas of the game. Orbeetle is a Pokemon that takes the usefulness, strength and cool design of Vikavolt and removes the stupid restriction on its evolution.

The first thing that struck me about Orbeetle is how sleek it looks. Psychic typing isn’t what I would’ve initially guessed for this one, but I think it works with the design. It’s a Pokemon that feels a little off in its design, but kind of in a good way, the fullness of the red is very striking and draws your eyes away from its body, which makes for quite the surprise when you notice it. I personally would’ve liked its body to be a little fuller, but the sharpness of its limbs and intimidation factor on its face is brilliant.

When I first caught Blipbug on Route 2, I wasn’t expecting it to remain in my team for very long, but sure enough, it proved me wrong and Orbeetle stood proudly alongside me when I entered the Hall of Fame.

9 – Runerigious

Sword & Shield played around with the idea of adding evolutions to already existing Pokemon and I love the stuff that came out. Instead of doing what Generation 4 did and adding unnecessary third stages onto Pokemon like Rhydon, it combined the concept of regional variants and new evolutions in fun way that I thought added a new layer to how the world of Pokemon works.

Unlike all of the other Pokemon on this list, I’m yet to have a chance to use Runerigious in any capacity, I just think it’s a really cool looking Pokemon. The way it’s body looks like a series of puzzle pieces is such a cool concept and the simplistic art on its body adds loads to that effect. Something about the red, white & black colour scheme really brings the whole design together to create a creepy feeling Pokemon, which is exactly what you’d expect from any evolution of Yamask.

8 – Dragapult

I mean come on, it fires it’s pre-evolution out of cannons it’s head, how can you not love this thing.

Whenever a new generation of Pokemon comes about, I always worry that the region’s pseudo-legendary is going to be ridiculously over-designed. Hydreigon and Kommo-o are examples of Pokemon that, while cool looking, are a bit much in terms of the elements in their design, so I was very pleased to see that Galar’s pseudo-legendary took a much more minimalist design.

I love the concept of a lizard-like Pokemon with something extra to it and the choice to make it a ghost type and have it hover was probably the best decision the design team could’ve made. Its body seems like that of a normal lizard Pokemon but then you get to the head and realise that it looks more like a glider than a creature, which I know sounds stupid, but it’s something that absolutely works for this design.

The colour choice is perfect too, there aren’t many Pokemon that have a gradient running through its body and there are even fewer that pull it off well, but Dragpult manages it, the darkness of it’s upper-body and head give these creeping feeling of danger and add that important intimidation factor, while the slow lightening of the tone down its tail creates this ghostly presence that makes it an all-round very threatening Pokemon.

7 – Eternatus

When I saw how similar Zacian & Zamazenta were in regards to the basic elements of their design, I was very interested to see what kind of Pokemon would round out the trio, because surely it had to be something wildly different right? Well, I was right, but I didn’t realise just how different it would end up being.

I liked how it kept the red & blue colour scheme of the main duo, but instead cranked the saturation all the way up on the colours, as it’s colour scheme feels very fully. I also really like the very jagged design, the way it looks almost like a skeleton or fossil goes along with its theme of being a creature that’s lived on the earth for 10’s of thousands of years and potentially even longer out in space.

It has this incredible sense of presence about it, despite not actually being all that big and even though it is a little on-the-nose, I enjoy the concept of it being the mighty dragon for the sword and shield to slay. It’s not the perfect legendary by any means, but I think it works as the third member of this trio.

6 – Boltund

Look at that face, that is the face of a good boy.

When Yamper was first revealed, I liked it, but I had no intention to ever put it on my team and for my first playthrough, I didn’t, but when I realised it had an evolution, and that’s evolution look like THIS, I knew I had to have it with me for my second go-round and sure enough, Boltund is best boy.

Yellow and Dark Green aren’t colours that I would’ve thought could work well together, but the placement of them on Boltund’s body makes the yellow more of a framing device for the green that covers the majority of its body, so I think it works.

The design of its face is the exact traditional representation of dogs when it comes to animation and the wideness of its eyes makes it seem like such a happy Pokemon all the time. I can imagine it running around happily, doing all the things you’d expect any other dog to do, only with lightning powers, which is an instant improvement.

5 – Zacian

Ok, I know that screenshot doesn’t have it’s “crowned” stuff, but that’s Pokemon Camp for you.

Even though I’ve ragged on Zacian & Zamazenta for being very similar before, when it came to putting this list together, I realised there were a whole bunch fo key reasons I preferred Zacian over its counterpart.

Firstly, I’m a sucker for swords, especially ones that look like ancient artefacts like the one Zacian holds in its mouth during battle, then you look at the other crowned features like that around its head,  and the “wings” sticking out of it’s back and it creates an extremely regal-looking Pokemon, aided by its general expression & posture. On top of that, I think Zacian’s body as a whole looks nice and sleek compared to its counterpart, the ribbons and tail add a nice sense of flow to the design, and the light blue & light red pairs up better than the fuller blue & red on Zamazenta.

As a whole, I would say Zacian fits in more with a trio like the legendary beasts than as a cover legendary, but that doesn’t stop it from being a design that I love the look of.

4 – Thievul

Wow, the Route 1 Pokemon really were something else in this generation.

Before anyone says it, I’m well aware that one of the reasons I probably like this Pokemon so much is how it’s design elements resemble that of Absol’s, but let’s put that to one side. When I found out that this generation was going to be based on the UK, I was sure there would be some sort of urban fox design for a Pokemon, but I didn’t know they’d do this great of a job with it.

What I love most about this design is the colours, the shade of orangy brown is just right to keep the feeling of a fox, without having to go with a brighter orange while the white of it’s chest makes everything around it stand out, all framed nicely by the sparing use of black. I also love the idea of it being a thief, since urban foxes in the UK are known to go rummaging through bins and steal just about anything left out on the streets at night. The “mask” around its eyes is a great indication of this. I would argue the little “cartoon thief” moustache was a bit much, but I still find it cute in a way.

3 – Grookey

One of the things that I was most disappointed about in this generation was the evolutions of the starter Pokemon. I like all three of the basic forms, but when it comes to the 1st and 2nd stages, I can only honestly say that I like one of them and even that one I’m not a massive fan of. I get what they were going for, but I think keeping the final evolutions restricted to a single type was a bad call and put unnecessary restrictions on their designs.

That said, I love Grookey.

It’s just an adorable little monkey that likes to hit things with sticks and in a way, deep down, I think we can all relate to that. Its body is just the right shade of green to give the impression of a cheerful Pokemon, while the brown and yellow are there to break up what is a fairly basic colour scheme and highlight aspects like the tail and ears.

I don’t really have much more to articulate as to why I love this Pokemon, I just think it’s adorable, I can imagine sitting around, playing with it as it cheerfully jumps about the place.

2 – Corviknight

If you’ve ever read anything I’ve written on Pokemon then you’ll know I love the regional birds of each generation (except Pidove, which knows what it did) and I generally hold these Pokemon up to a pretty high standard. So, when this generation’s regional bird was revealed to be a jet-black armoured raven of death with glowing red eyes, it’s safe to say I was pretty satisfied.

This thing looks like an absolute killer and I love it. The armour covers most of the body, but it’s still applied in a way that makes sense, still allowing it’s limbs to be shown, revealing they’re the exact same colour as the armour itself. It was a tad worrying when these games were initially revealed as it seemed like the entire region was going to be based very heavily on Arthurian legend, however it turned out that this was pretty much the only Pokemon that conforms to it, which makes it awesome; even if I did nickname mine “Gisborne” which is the wrong English myth entirely.

1 – Nickit

Take everything I’ve said I love about Thievul and turn the cuteness up to eleven.

When I encountered Nickit on Route 1 during the first few moments of proper gameplay, my heart melted at the sight of this thing and I knew it was staying with me until the end. Everything from its expression to its shape, to its colours, is brilliant and it makes this Pokemon a real work of art as far as I’m concerned.

The more I look at this more detail I notice, like the little tear marks around its eyes and an adorable timid smile that it likely uses to trick the victims of its theft. Then there’s the way that the black highlights on its feet look like little boots to make sure its prints can’t be tracked, alongside the smokelike imprint on the base of its tail from where it’s been dragging it along the ground; not to mention that the tail itself looks like a lovely little pillow.

It’s a Pokemon that ticks pretty much all my boxes of what I love from a Pokemon design: Quadruped; Mostly dark colours with light contrasts; Perfectly fits its theme and just the right mixture of cute and cool, this Pokemon was always going to end up topping this list.

So there you have it! Those are my favourite Pokemon from Generation 8 so far. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this list, please let me know what your favourite new Pokemon are, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back next week as we’re going to be looking back at the best and worst parts of WWE from the past decade!

Every Cover Legnedary Pokemon Ranked

With Pokemon Sword & Pokemon Shield just 6 days away from release, it’s fair to say that I’m pretty damn excited. Thanks to Game Freak keeping their cards relatively close to their chest this year and my painstaking effort to avoid any and all leaks like the plague, I’m going into the game this year not really knowing what to expect outside of what I’ve already seen (which is all stuff I like).

One of the main draws for new Pokemon games is the Pokemon that are designed to literally sell the games to you, the cover legendaries. These Pokemon are the ones that sit on the cover of the game (usually the feature legendary of the game) and will often have a pretty heavy hand in the marketing of the game and deciding which version people buy; unless you’re a nerd like me who always buys both.

However, in a franchise with coming up on 1000 different creatures, some were never going to capture my attention in the same way others were, so here’s my ranking of every cover legendary Pokemon.

NOTE: A couple of caveats before we begin. Firstly, the Kanto starters aren’t on this list because, although they have been on game covers, they’re not legendary Pokemon and secondly, Zyguard isn’t on this list because, although it is part of the main Kalos trio, it never made it onto a game cover for whatever reason. Finally – and this one is important – as I mentioned above, I haven’t seen any of the leaks that have come out in the past week or so, so if I say something speculative about Sword & Shield that one of these leaks has already confirmed PLEASE DON’T TELL ME because I want to go into these games as blind as possible.

Finally, if you want more Pokemon content from me, then check out my rankings of every Pokemon generation so far!

With that out of the way, onto the list.

17 – Kyurem

So there’s a couple of things that contribute to Kyurem coming in last, first is the design. Visually, I don’t think Kyurem is anything interesting to look at. There are cool elements with the jagged icicle shaped body, but that is pretty overwhelmed by the copious amount of grey that covers its whole body. I understand that it’s thematically appropriate but that doesn’t stop it being a boring colour.

Then there are the hybrid forms which admittedly improve Kyurem’s look and I like the idea of it mechanically, unfortunately, I think that both alternate forms look worse than Reshiram and Zekrom respectively so I can’t see it as much of a positive. Then there’s the fact that, for many years, Black 2 & White 2 were the only main-series games that I hadn’t played (I only bought and played a copy for the first time a month ago) so I’ve not had much of a chance to have any real experiences with Kyurem outside of Black & White’s post-game.

Kyurem has some cool points, but ultimately whenever I look at it, I can’t help but feel underwhelmed.

16 – Reshiram

Ok, I should probably mention at this point that I like Gen 5, I honestly do, but the cover legendaries were really weak.

The colour scheme can fit the theme all they like, but the fact of the matter is, one matted colour is boring, especially when it’s just white. Reshiram’s general look has a nice majestic streak to it, I think the wings could be a bit smoother but I like the overall look and I especially like the tuft of…is it hair? on the back on its head that looks like a trail of smoke. Unfortunately, the colouring pulls it down a lot for me.

On top of that, there are the feet which really don’t seem like they fit in with the rest of the design. The point of the gen 5 legendary duo is that they’re supposed to be opposed to each other, with Reshiram having a smoother, more elegant design, but the feet really jagged and seem out of place compared the rest of the Pokemon.

There’s a lot to like about Reshiram, but I just can’t get past the boring colour scheme and general lack of cohesion in the style on its body, it would only take a few minor tweaks and I really think this could’ve been a great design.

15 – Necrozma

Necrosma suffers from many of the same problems that I’ve mentioned already in the previous two entries, but there’s a couple of features that go a long way to redeeming Necrozma in my eyes.

First of all, there’s the fact of just how unbelievably different Necrozma looks compared to every other legendary Pokemon. The whole point of Necrozma is that it’s quite literally from another plane of existence, it was sealed away in Ultra Space for so long that looking at it is so very alien without being overbearing about it. Then there’s it’s Ultra form, which looks like an absolute monster, honestly, if I’d ranked Ultra Necrozma separately, it’d be near the top I can tell you that.

That said, it still suffers largely from the single colour problem that I’ve already expressed my distaste for and I’m not the biggest fan of its hybrid forms with Lunala & Solgaleo as, much like with Kyurem, I think they look worse than their original forms. I didn’t think these problems would drag it down as much as it did because I still really like Necrozma, but when I compared it to all the other legendaries, it just didn’t hold up.

14 – Zekrom

I promise this is the last time I’m going to talk about boring colours.

For my problems with Zekrom, you can pretty much just parrot what I said about both Kyurem & Reshiram, except Zekrom has a couple of nice features that those two don’t. For one thing, although it is entirely black, there’s at least more than one shade of black on its body, which is nice, then there’s this seemingly pure evil look it seems to have with the shape and expression of its face which I think looks cool.

Its hands and feet look a bit weird, but the hands at least fit in with the design of its wings, which also fit really well with the jagged design to go with its electric typing. The tail is another thing I really like, as it looks a lot like a battery where it stores most of its power and I especially like the neon blue colour it glows when it’s charging up an attack.

Ultimately, Zekrom suffers from the same issues as it’s Gen 5 brethren, but its cool factor is significantly higher in my eyes, which brings it above the pack just a little.

13 – Kyogre

This is where the order of this list gets a little iffy because I don’t have much in the way of negative things to say about Kyogre, so putting it below a few other Pokemon on this list comes down to minor elements and gut feelings more than anything else.

What drags Kyogre down for me is the relative simplicity in its design. The colours are much more favourable to that of the Pokemon I’ve discussed so far, but its body is still almost entirely a single colour, having its massive blue body broken up only by the occasional red line. That said, the colours that were chosen for this design still make Kyogre somewhat interesting to look at and it feels like there’s a lot more character behind the design than in previous entries.

Kyogre is also helped out by its Primal form, which adds a whole new layer of detail into the design and boosted it up significantly in my estimations. I really love the much deeper blue of the primal form, along with the glowing lines on its body that make it look exactly like what a creature from the beginning of the Earth’s lifespan would look like. Even without the extra form though, Kyogre succeeds at being a good looking Pokemon while staying true to its themes and origins.

12 – Lunala

One thing I really liked about the Generation 7 cover legendaries is how strikingly different they looked. In all other generations (including Gen 8) the legendaries always had the same sort of feel to them even when they’re colours were quite different, Lunala however, feels worlds away from its counterpart which is something I love.

In terms of intricacy in the visuals, this ticks the boxes. The way the gold frames its whole body while the glorious purple wings are detailed by the occasional white mark makes it look exactly like I’d imagine an embodiment of the night sky would look like. Once again, the problems I have are fairly minor. For one thing, I’m not a big fan of the shape of its body, I know it’s the Moon Pokemon, but there’s something a bit off-putting to me about how…well…round it is; silly I know, but I can’t quite get past it. Also, I don’t think the look of its face quite fits with the calmness and elegance of its design, the eyes and teeth seem a bit too sharp and evil-looking, which is something I don’t think fits the rest of the design.

11 – Groudon

Groudon suffers from almost the exact opposite problem as it’s counterpart Kyogre, as where Kyogre borders on too little detail, Groudon borders on too much.

Groudon is a very intense feeling Pokemon, everything about it is sharp and vicious, from the lines of spikes on it’s head to the very same lines of spikes on its tail, Groudon is a Pokemon that is extremely intimidating to face down. The colours help add loads to this feeling, with the red jumping out at you, being cut up by the black lines and eyes that are filled with menace. The problem I have with Groudon is that all of this detail becomes a bit much after a certain point, there are a lot of the black lines to the point of overkill and its whole body is covered in spikes everywhere you look, again, to the point of overkill.

Groudon’s Primal form is slightly different to Kyogres as instead of adding depth and detail, Groundon’s Primal form simply serves to add more boldness to everything that’s already there, ramping the intimidation factor up to 11, making Primal Groudon look like a monster to end all monsters. Groudon’s design can be a bit much, but at the end of the day, I’d rather have an over-designed Pokemon than an under-designed one.

10 – Lugia

This is where things get difficult because, from this entry onwards, I honestly adore all of these designs.

Up until now, I’ve criticised the more simplistic designs, but Lugia is the exception to this rule as I think it’s the lack of detail in Lugia that makes it so beautiful. Whoever coloured this thing knew exactly what they were doing because even though there are only three colours on its body all three are the perfect shade and in the perfect places. The white paired with the pale blue on its stomach gives this calming and majestic vibe, which goes along with how Lugia has always been presented in the Pokemon world as a fairly chill Pokemon. Then there’s the dark blue around its eyes and along it’s back that add just the right amount of sharpness to it that you still get the vibe of an all-powerful Pokemon.

The only real criticism I could level at it is that the “wings” essentially being giant hands is a tad goofy, but I find even this facet of its design somewhat endearing. Lugia proves to me that just because a legendary Pokemon has a simpler design, doesn’t mean it can’t fit the bill of a legendary Pokemon.

9 – Suicune

Suicune is a Pokemon that always feels a little out of place amongst the cover legendary group, as it’s technically a member of the secondary trio of the Johto region instead of a main-feature legendary. However, it’s on the cover of Crystal so that makes it a cover legendary.

Suicune isn’t actually my favourite of the legendary beast trio, but it’s definitely the one that I think works best for the cover of a game. The other two beasts look a bit rough compared to Suicune, Entei has a regal feel to it, but the colours don’t quite work for the cover a game and while I adore Raikou, it’s a bit sharp and messy. Suicune doesn’t have these issues though, it’s sleek and elegant in every aspect of its design.

Once again, the combination of white and a faded blue create an elegant and calming feel when you look at it, combining well with the diamond pattern along its body. The cape is a feature that would’ve worked in almost any colour, but the soft purple is perfect for creating this feeling of the wind flowing all around Suicune’s body, to the point where the cape almost looks to be in motion in every still image it features in. Finally, there’s the brilliant detail of its tails that act as ribbons along its sides. Suicune would’ve been a beautiful looking Pokemon without the ribbons along its side, but somehow the addition of such a simple feature takes the design to a whole other level.

Suicune is a Pokemon that had every element designed for a specific purpose and it all came together to make a Pokemon that could never be relegated to merely a secondary legendary trio, it had to make a cover.

8 – Palkia

If you’ve ever read anything Pokemon related by me before, you’ll know I love Generation 4 and it’s cover legendaries are no exception.

Palkia has this aura to it of a creature that is eternally angry about something. There’s something about the way its face is designed that makes it look like a Pokemon that’s absolutely furious at all times. The multiple sharp edges around its eyes and the way its body looks like it’s plated with some kind of space-metal give off this aura of an eternal guardian that’s really not happy about the whole situation.

The dark shade of pink that outlines every part of its body looks great too, it gives the white/grey that covers most of its body a greater sense of character and helps it to stand out in a legendary trio that is already very colourful. In fact, my main complaint about Palkia’s design is that there’s not enough pink on its body.

One of my favourite things about legendary Pokemon designs is how the designers are able to take the same design elements, apply them to 2, maybe even 3 Pokemon, and create Pokemon that all have the same feel while looking distinctly different from each other and Palkia is the perfect example of that. If I didn’t know Dialga & Palkia were part of a trio, I’d instantly group the two of them together because so many elements of their designs tie them together, even though Palkia looks nothing like Dialga at first glance.

7 – Solgaleo

I wasn’t until writing this list that I realised I tend to prefer quadruped Pokemon to biped ones. I’ve always preferred more animalistic Pokemon anyway and being a quadruped really adds to that feeling and Solgaleo is perhaps the best example of that.

On one level, you could argue Solgaleo is just a lion, however, I would argue that it’s actually a cosmic super-lion with a body of metal that would kill you as soon as look at you; and who doesn’t want that feeling from their legendary Pokemon. Solgaleo takes the animal it’s based on and takes the emotions and auras that we associate with that animal to whole other level, creating a beast that looks genuinely terrifying in the best way possible.

Tangentially, this is where I think the new Zacian & Zamamzenta fall down in their design slightly. I refrained from including them in this list because pre-release stuff is all we have on them so far, but right now all I see in their designs in that they’re slightly fancy wolves, they don’t do what Solgaleo does here which is amplify the design of the animal to create something special.

Solgaleo’s whole body looks like it’s been welded together, with marks and dents all over its legs that create a feeling of a Pokemon that gets in fights a lot. Then there’s the face, which has just the right amount of colouring on it to bring out the full effect of mane while keeping the ferocious look it has on its face. The semi-sphere for blue around its eyes only serve to highlight just how striking the rest of the facial design is, your eyes are instantly drawn to it before letting you take a look at everything that surrounds it.

If you’ve ever wondered what was the “right way” to design an animalistic Pokemon, this is the way to go about it.

6 – Ho-Oh

My love for Ho-Oh comes for many of the same reasons I love Solgaleo; it’s an animal I already know and love, but infinitely cooler looking.

What makes Ho-Oh so great of a design to me is the colouring. It’s bright and bold without being too in-your-face about it, it walks up to the line of garish, but stops just before it in order to make the second coolest looking bird Pokemon to ever exist (ain’t no-one surpassing my girl, Talonflame). The dark orange instantly makes it stand out, especially against its counterpart, Lugia, but its boldness is quickly softened by the white and light green on the tips of its wings, which are such a nice touch.

I never would’ve guessed that light green would’ve been the best colour to go with that shade of red/orange, but it grounds the design in a way that it definitely would’ve been missing with a bolder colour. Then there’s the golden highlights on its head and back that frame the whole design perfectly. Also, I don’t normally mention this, but its shiny form looks amazing.

Compared to most of the other cover legendaries, Ho-Oh is still a fairly simple design, but it has complexities in just the right places in order to make a Pokemon worthy of the “Gold” version.

5 – Yveltal

I did not expect that I would end up liking either of the generation 6 legendaries this much, but here we are.

Both gen 6 cover legendaries feel very different from all the others. I know that’s an odd thing to say since all of them are different, but Xerneas & Yveltal feel an extra step away than the rest. Maybe it was to do with this being the first generation to feature 3D models as standard, but whatever it is, I like it.

Yveltal is another bird Pokemon, but it’s a slightly wrong bird and it’s wrong in all the right ways…my head hurts. What I mean is, it has a lot of the elements you’d expect a bird Pokemon to have – tiny feet with sharp claws, massive wings and a pointed face – but it warps them slightly so they’re all a bit off. The wings aren’t made of feathers, their long strips that seem to be part of its body and giant claws on the end instead of talon feathers; it doesn’t have a mouth, only horns and very angry looking eyes and its tail looks exactly like its wings. It’s all slightly wrong, which makes for the feeling of a very warped Pokemon, which is exactly what Yveltal is supposed to be.

Red and Black is a colour scheme that I’ve always loved the look of and this is the perfect Pokemon for it, this Pokemon looks genuinely evil and I think it’s a wonderful design, I couldn’t think of anything better to embody death.

4 – Rayquaza

We need more green legendaries, I’m sick of the shade of red vs shade of blue versions we’ve got in all but two generations so far.

Rayquaza is a Pokemon that’s subtle in its complexity. Its body shape is incredibly simple, it’s literally just a straight line but the design is able to cram jus the right amount of detail onto that straight line that it’s got a great sense of beauty to it. I’m not the biggest fan of the colour green, but it really works here because it’s very striking in how different it is, both in comparison it’s trio-mates, Groudon & Kyogre, and against every cover legendary as a whole.

The green is highlighted by yellow, red and black, which on paper sounds like a horrible combination, but each of the colours is used sparing and in the right places to stop everything crashing and falling apart. The red on its talons that stick out act almost as go-faster stripes and then there are the yellow patters that stretch across its body, keeping with Kyogre & Groudon’s designs of the ancient & tribal looking patterns on their body.

In a twist from the Gen 3 trio, I actually like Mega-Rayquaza less than I like regular Rayquaza, the glowing golden ribbons that come off its head are a brilliant inclusion, but the rest of the design just seems a bit much to me. Outside of that, Rayquaza is an absolute winner of a Pokemon that deserves its status as the head of the weather trio. Wins the award for the best name too.

3 – Giratina

I’m going to be honest here, this top three was tough to order.

I talked a little while ago about how Yveltal looked like pure evil in its design and how Solgaleo looked terrifying. Well mash that sense of evil and terror together and that’s how Giratina makes me feel. The wonderful red & black colouring is back again, only this time it’s mixed in with grey & yellow highlights to bring a new level of pop to the design and somehow make it look even more menacing.

Its alternate form is undeniably great, but weaker than it’s origin form in my opinion. The alternate form still keeps the terrifying-looking face and I adore the design of its wings, but the shape of the body feels a bit off and I don’t think six legs quite work for the design. The origin form is a whole other story. The shape of its body changes to be that of something I can’t even really describe, with yellow spikes sticking out from a grey body that is covered with black & red stripes, as giant black and red spikes stick out from it’s back acting almost like terrifying shadow arms.

I don’t know about you, but that’s certainly way better than anything I could’ve imagined for Pokemon’s embodiment of the ruler of the underworld. Giratina manages to be all this, while still staying true to the design elements of the creation trio to form a Pokemon that lives exclusively in the nightmares of children.

2 – Xerneas

Xerneas is a prime example of a Pokemon that “grew on me” over time.

Maybe it’s because I was a stupid teenage boy at the time, but “life-giving rainbow deer” didn’t quite strike a chord with me when I first saw it, however over time I’ve come to love Xerneas as one of my all-time favourite Pokemon. Aside from the fact that it was the first Pokemon I ever had any real competitive success with, Xerneas’ design is the definition of a majestic looking Pokemon.

First things first, its horns are rainbows; quite frankly that should be all that’s necessary for an explanation, but I’ll go on. The shape of its face is interestingly designed in such a way so that it still keeps the sharp look of Yveltal’s face – thus keeping them on the same theme visually – but the narrow snout and rounded chin are able to make what is almost an identical face seem kind and benevolent instead of menacing. The darker shade of blue matches up nicely with the black of it’s lower body, where its tail is an adorable little puff of fur and its legs are shaped so gracefully and I absolutely love the way this thing moves.

While I would argue that other Pokemon on this list are more visually impressive, Xerneas’ design comes together with the theme and feel that the Pokemon is supposed to give off in order to elevate it into something better than just something pretty looking.

1 – Dialga

I mean, come on, have you ever seen a more bold, imposing and yet somehow graceful Pokemon?

Dialga flips the design from its counterpart, using the grey armour-looking material simply as detailing in this design, as opposed to Palkia, where it seems to be its entire body. I’ve always been fairly apathetic to the colour blue, but the particular shade they have for Dialga’s body here looks beautiful, made all the more brilliant by the light blue highlights all over its body.

The way the armour outlines its body makes it seem regal with its presence, like how a medieval king wears minimal armour just because it looks impressive; only, instead of ruling a small country, Dialga is the lord of time. I particularly love the segment on Dialga’s chest that houses its gem. Not only does it put the gem front and centre where it can look it’s best, but the shape of the plate stick out and forms around its body in just the right way to draw attention towards the centre of the chest.

When designing a Pokemon to represent time, it would’ve been easy for Game Freak to create a Pokemon with giant clocks of some description, but instead, they were able to create a Pokemon that I honestly hold up as one of my all-time favourites.

And that’s my list! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, I’m sure your rankings will look very different to mine so please let me know what cover legendaries you love, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back at the same time next week where I’ll be ranking every episode from Series 5 of Doctor Who!

Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield: Brand New Information!

So after a good few months of silence following the announcement of Pokemon Sword and Shield, we have our first batch of brand new information on the 8th generation of Pokemon. Nintendo live streamed a 15-minute feature today (watch here) on some of the brand new things you can expect from the games come November 15th.

It was a bit of a mixed bag, and there’s some stuff which I can see the Pokemon community at large rejecting, but honestly, there wasn’t a great deal for me to hate on here, let’s get into it.

New Pokemon

 

Ok, so let’s kick off with the thing you probably care the most about, the new Pokemon. This showcase revealed to us 7 of the new Pokemon from the Galar region, I’m going to take a look at them one by one and let you know what I think.

Wooloo: It’s a big fluffy sheep ball. I think it looks nice and cute, the tiny little horns on its head are a nice little touch (and hopefully means it will evolve). I think it does a good job of capturing the English vibe these games are going for and will fit seamlessly into the world.

Gossifleur: The more I look at this one, the more I like it. The two flowers on its head do a great job of looking like hair and work really well with the design of its face to give me a good sense of charm from it. I’m not entirely sure how it’s supposed to move with just a point to stand on, but we’ll see.

Eldegoss: The evolution of Gossifleur, it takes all of the things I like about Gossifleur and gets rid of them. It has its charms, the new face it’s got looks a little mischievous and the big ball on its head actually fits well with the rest of the design. My main problem is how all of the colours seem to have got dulled from Gossifleur and leaves Eldegoss just a little more boring to look at.

Drednaw: I don’t know if I’ll get more fond of it with time, but something about Drednaw’s design just doesn’t quite seem right to me. Something about the cylindrical shape of its head and the slightly strange colour scheme just make it look a bit like it doesn’t fit in the Pokemon world. I’m sure my opinion will evolve once I’ve seen more Pokemon from this region, but right now I’m not overly fond of Drednaw.

Corviknight: It’s a black, armoured raven with glowing red eyes and looks like it wants to kill me. I freaking love it. Every part of its armour is so brilliantly designed to fit the style of a raven of death and the whole thing just looks seamless, even down to the little covers of armour on its toes. This thing looks like it’ll rip you to shreds as soon as it looks at you and I love it.

Zacian: The first of the two cover legendaries, Zacian is the one for Sword, and while I think there was a better way to represent it than just sticking a sword in a dog’s mouth, I quick like the overall design of this one. The colour scheme really strikes me as beautiful here, especially with the lighter blue and red, with what looks like a crown on its head and golden wing-like things on it’s back, the whole design of Zacian seems so aerodynamic, like it’s evolved over time to have a body that allows it to move with the sword perfectly.

Zamazenta: First off, let’s take a second to appreciate how great that name is. Now looking at the rest of the design, I think I like this one too, although the pair of legendaries as a whole does have a problem. While I admittedly didn’t like it at first, now I’ve seen the official artwork, I actually quite like Zamazenta’s beard shield thing, and it shares many of the same qualities as to what draws me to Zacian so much. However, that brings me to the problem, which is that I just think the pair look too similar. Look at all the previous cover legendaries, all of them look so strikingly different where each one brings out different emotions in you, that’s the point of them, to be opposites, but here the colour scheme and body design just look so similar that it just doesn’t really fit with what the rest of the franchise has done. That said, individually, I do still like both Pokemon.

Dynamax Pokemon

And the award for most over the top name for a feature in a video game goes to…

So this generation’s battle gimmick (because since Mega Evolutions we just HAVE to have one apparently) is Dynamaxing, which is a fancy way of saying making your Pokemon flipping massive, increasing their power in the process. It’s stupid, absolutely bloody stupid, but I kind of love it for that reason. Yes, it’s a pointless gimmick that will never be seen again past Gen 8, just the same as Mega Evolution and Z-Moves, but seeing a 10-year-old kid have to grab a Pokeball bigger than their head and throw it only for a 50 foot tall Magikarp come out is a visual just too brilliant to hate.

Even the name “dynamaxing” is stupid, but stupid in an over the top, fun kind of way where you can’t help but smile at it. Given that it only lasts three turns it might have some interesting tactics behind it depending on what the specifics of “more powerful” are, but I don’t think it’s going to live up to Mega Evolution as a beloved feature.

The Wild Area

FINALLY!

A massive open area where Pokemon roam about the place, with a huge variety of terrain and direct camera control to wander about it. Perfect. One of the biggest cries has been for Pokemon to go “open world” and while I don’t think a full open world experience would work, this is a brilliant compromise.

Having vast open spaces between town and cities where there are Pokemon running around all over the place seems like a wonderful addition. Although we didn’t get anything confirmed just yet, it also looked like there were new ways to hunt down Pokemon in these wild areas, with the video showing trainers sneaking around, whistling into the grass and chasing down certain Pokemon, there could be a huge variety of stuff to do in these areas.

Gyms Return & Main Characters Revealed

Lumping these two together because there’s not a great deal to say about them.

As most of us expected Gyms will be making a return in Sword & Shield, and we got to take a look at what they will be like. Disappointingly, it seems they may be going more down the anime root of just a big open battlefield where you challenge the Gym leader, hopefully, this isn’t the case and we get puzzles and challenges like we used to, but there was no indication of that here. A nice little touch is also the fact that not only is every Gym a stadium packed with supporters, but it’s also being filmed on TV. I doubt it’ll have any impact on the actual gameplay, but it’s nice that a little touch that I felt was missing for so long is finally being added.

We were also introduced to all of our favourite trope characters. Firstly we have the champion Leon, who looks a bit like a teacher that’s trying too hard to be cool, but honestly, any champion that isn’t named “Arthur” and wearing a suit of armour is fine by me. Then there’s your friendly rival Hop, admittedly it didn’t specify “friendly” in the trailer, but the few interactions that were shown between Hop and the main character seem like they were friends, which is fine, I don’t mind the rival being friendly, but it would be nice to see the trend bucked for once.

Then there’s the Professor, who this time is a lovely old lady named Magnolia, personally, I hope they make her a sharp and slightly bitter lady because I think it would be funnier and also it would bounce really well off of the assistant Sonia, who looks much warmer and welcoming.

Release Date: November 15th 2019

Pretty much what we all expected, but it’s nice to have it in writing.

So that’s that! There are all my thoughts on the new information we received today about Pokemon Sword & Shield! Let me know what you think of the info, and what your hopes are for more features to be revealed in the future in either the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Stay tuned tomorrow for my WWE Super Showdown predictions!

Pokemon Sword & Shield: Predictions & Wishlist

So, the cat is officially out of the bag, and the next entries in the main series Pokemon franchise have been revealed. Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield will launch in the latter quarter of 2019 and are officially the first games in the 8th generation of Pokemon.

With it, we had some key reveals, such as the brand new Galar Region, which is essentially mainland Britain (sans Wales) flipped upside down, with various style of cute English towns. We also were introduced to the brand new starter Pokemon: Grookey, Scorbunny and Sobble.

So the information we have right now is very exciting, but also quite basic, which means it’s open to wild speculation, which is always one of the most exciting times for the Pokemon community. As those of you who read my wrestling articles will know, I love to make grand predictions for what to come, only to point and laugh at just how wrong I was when I look back on them.

With that in mind, I’ve come up with a whole bunch of predictions/wishes that I have for the new Pokemon games. They’re all over the spectrum, covering large aspects of the game and some smaller ones that only I will care about, in addition, some of these are things I actually think will happen, and others are just things I want.

So let’s not waste any more time get right into it.

Prediction: Starter Pokemon Evolutions & Types

So let’s look at the obvious first, what will these adorable new starter Pokemon transform into as you take them on your journey?

Let’s start with the one I’m most confident about: Sobble.

In the trailer, it showed Sobble camouflaged as it peaks its head out of the water. Combining that fact with the look of its tail and out it walks, I think it’s roughly based off of a Chameleon, with the head of something like an Axolotl. I think its evolutions will keep going down this route, keeping the lizard vibe, with the final evolution resembling something similar to a Komodo Dragon, with a chameleon’s tail.

As such, a Water/Poison type seems to make the most sense to me, you could perhaps even give it’s later evolutions fangs so it can learn a lot of the biting moves.

Moving onto Scorbunny, I’m not too sure about this one, but I have a lot of cool ideas.

It’s a little harder to tell where Scorbunny’s going to go, the most obvious one seems like it would take the form of a Fire/Fighting route, but I doubt that’s what we’ll actually get. The Pokemon Company are self-aware enough to not go down that route again though since many fans would be at best, disappointed and at worst, angry about it. So looking at some alternatives, the two that I keep going back and forth between are Fire/Electric or Fire/Fairy.

Electric is a bit of a stretch, but I can see it’s fur getting a bit more jagged and the small amount of yellow on its ear becoming more prominent. I could also see it going the exact opposite way, and its fur gets light and fluffier, as some of the red fades into pink and we get an adorable Fire/Fairy type instead.

I also have a couple more slightly out there theories, for example, perhaps it’s wings could grow out to be massive and it uses them as propellers to become Fire/Flying? Or what if it’s white fur is actually meant to be more snowy, as it’s flame starts to burn cold and we get a Fire/Ice type instead?

There’s a huge number of ways I can see this one going and as long as it’s not Fire/Fighting, I think it’ll be really cool.

Finally, we have Grookey, and I can really only see this one going one way.

The trailer here showed us Grookey hitting a rock with a stick in order scare off Sobble, which makes me thinks that when it evolves, it will start to use sticks or logs as weapons, similar to Delphox’s wand or Gurdr’s Gurder. This would naturally end up with it being a Grass/Fighting type.

Dependant on the design, I’d be happy with this, although it would be fairly similar to other fighting monkeys in the past like Infernape and Passimian, and we did get a Grass/Fighting type just two generations ago with Chespin, although that’s never stopped them before. You could also theorise that we would have a Grass/Rock type coming, which I’d be down for, as it grows to be fast and uses small rocks as weapons perhaps.

Wishlist: Doctor Who reference

This is one that’s almost definitely not going to happen, but I’d be so damn happy if it did. Just imagine it, you’re wandering around the back alleys in the big London-esque town when you come across a mysterious blue box, and when you interact with it, it says something like “You can hear noises coming from inside…”

It doesn’t actually have to do anything, (although giving Looker some sort of interaction with it would be amazing) I just think it would be a really cool Easter egg for Whovians such as myself.

Why stop there? You could potentially have references to loads of UK based elements of pop-culture, like a castle reminiscent of Hogwarts, or a house labelled “221B” where Looker lives, just something small like that to make us British Pokemon fans squeal with excitement.

Prediction: The cover legendaries will be based on the UK coat of arms

This one is a little bit of leap admittedly since Game Freak seldom themes the legendaries based on the region that it draws its inspiration from, but I like this idea.

As you can see pictured above the UK coat of arms features a shield in the middle, with a Lion (England’s national animal) on one side, and a Unicorn (Scotland’s national animal) on the other, so what better to base you cover legendaries off of?

The Lion is admittedly a bit problematic since we had Solgaleo in generation 7 which was also based off of a Lion, but we had two sets of Dragons in a row from gens 4 to 5, so it’s not like they haven’t done something similar before. In addition to this, if you were a bit creative with the typing and made it something like Electric/Poison, you’d be able to create something pretty unique looking so it wouldn’t be too much of a worry.

As for the Unicorn, I like the idea of upgrading it isn’t a Pegasus, to give it a secondary type of flying, however, I’m a little stumped for the primary type. Fairy seems like the obvious choice, but I’m looking for something a little bit more creative like that. The next one I jumped to was Water since we haven’t had a Water-type cover legendary in quite a while and you could quite easily explain it in law why it’s a water type (Maybe it’s responsible for it raining in the UK 99% of the time?).

That would create the issue that one of the legendaries is 4x effective against the other, which could be an issue, so maybe Fairy/Flying is the more likely type, I think Water/Flying would be cooler.

Wishlist: Gyms based on various English landmarks

Since we now know that Gyms are coming back (and at least one is going to be based on a football stadium), why not throw in other English landmarks to theme your gyms around.

The London Eye would be a great place to have a gym, with teleport pads going between each of the cabins until you fight the gym leader in the very top pod. It’ll probably have to be a normal type gym for it to make sense, but what a setting for a gym battle.

You want a steel type gym? Easy, just look to the abandoned steel mills in places like Sheffield, you could quite easily create a multilayered building where you’re walking over the metal walkways in a maze in order to reach the gym leader.

The one that I desperately want to see the most though, is one based on the London Underground. I don’t really know what type it would be (perhaps ground?), but I love the idea of a gym puzzle where you have to navigate a train network like the London Underground. Imagine Elesa’s Gym from Black and White but bigger. Making people read a simplified version of the tube map and navigate their way to the gym leader, battling trainers on the platforms, or maybe even on the trains would be a really fun time, and I hope we get something like it.

Prediction: The evil team will be based on cockney Victorian gangsters

Not really sure how likely this one is since there’s a whole bunch of things that the evil team could be based on, but I like this idea the best.

The evil team grunts are often presented to be bumbling idiots the whole time, and imagine how much funnier that will be if everyone involved has cockney accents while looking like they’re supposed to be somewhat high class. I’m imagining a design fairly similar to that of The Rooks in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate or the Peaky Blinders,  with flat caps and thick jackets who just go around roughing people up and causing trouble for the local Bobbys.

The admins and leaders could then be based on notable British criminals (real & fictional) with visual designs reminiscent of Moriarty, The Kray Twins or Jack the Ripper (without the chainsaw) being personal favourites of mine. As for what their goal would be, revolution seems like the easiest one. If we make the Elite Four themed like a monarchy then the evil team’s goal could ultimately be to overthrow them using the powers of the legendary Pokemon and establish their own government.

So there you have it! There are my predictions and wishes for Pokemon Sword and Shield. Let me know what you thought, and give me your own suggestions @10ryawoo on Twitter since like I said, this is always a very exciting time to be a Pokemon fan. I’ll see you next time.

Ranking All 7 Pokemon Generations

Ok, I know, you don’t have to say it. You’re not going to agree with this list, I imagine very few people will, but hear me out.

I’ve wanted to make this list for a while, but it’s taken some time for me to put it together, because when it comes to picking your favourite Pokemon generation, there’s so much you have to consider. Game Freak always create such intricately detailed worlds that it almost seems like pulling them apart would be a disservice to everything that went into it.

I’ve also been thinking about what I’d like to see when Generation 8 launches later this year (more on that in a few weeks), so I’ve been looking back on older generations to see what ideas I can come up with.

First off, what constitutes a generation?
The widely accepted way to measure it is that, whenever a main series game with a new region and new Pokemon are released, that’s the start of a new generation. The main distinction that needs to be made here, is that remakes count towards the generation they  were released in, not the games they were originally based off; for example Heartgold and Soulsilver are Generation 4, not Generation 2.

Secondly, how am I ranking them?
As I’ve said, there’s so much to break down when it comes to how much you like a particular generation, so I’ve distilled it down into the following elements:
– The new Pokemon
– The new Region
– The new Features
– The Remakes (if any were released)
– Nostalgia

That last one is the main reason you won’t agree with this list. Everyone has different experiences with Pokemon at different times in their lives, so we’ll look back on certain games very differently depending at what time in our lives we encountered them.

Now you know the rules, let’s waste no more time and get to ranking all 7 generations of Pokemon.

7 – Generation 3

I feel a tad bad saying that this is my least favourite, because there isn’t really anything about it I hate, I just think a lot of things about it are a tad forgettable.

The new Pokemon – A bit of a mixed bag for me here, on the one hand there are some really boring Pokemon like Spinda and Nosepass, while it is also home to some awesome Pokemon like Rayquaza and Sceptile, not to mention my all time favourite Pokemon, Absol. The vast majority of Generation 3’s roster are Pokemon that I simply look at and think “meh”. Sure, I don’t hate any of them, but most of them don’t really any sort of emotion out of me at all, which is arguably worse.

The new region – I’d love to just say “too much water” and leave it at that, but this list is going to make people mad enough as it is.

I actually quite like the design of the Hoenn region, you’re in a pretty contained loop for the first half of the game, before eventually new paths start to open up and you find yourself crisscrossing all about the place. While I know that re-treading old ground can sometimes be a bit boring, it’s done just enough to make certain locations feel very familiar to the player which I think can really enhance a Pokemon journey.

All that said, when I compare it to other regions that we’ve seen, I can’t help but feel like it ranks quite low down overall. While the vast ocean does help to add some variety to your adventure, I feel like a lot more could’ve been done with your time on land.

The new Features – This is one of the strongest points in this generation’s favour, because Generation 3 added so much that we take for granted when we battle today. Abilities, Natures and Weather were all introduced into Pokemon for the first time, and it completely overhauled how competitive battling worked in Pokemon. Even if you weren’t a competitive battler then it added a much deeper level of strategy to the single player, to really pull you into one of the biggest parts of the franchise.

Then of course we had the addition of Double battles, which have now become the most prominent form of battling in the competitive scene, adding yet another layer of strategy to a system that was becoming more and more complex by the year.

Remakes – Generation 3 was our first taste of remakes in the franchise, with Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green giving us the authentic Kanto experience for the first time since the franchise began. While it wouldn’t break the kind of ground that later remakes would, it must be noted for starting a trend that carried on for years to come.

Nostalgia – This one is an absolute zero here, I didn’t experience a Hoenn game until Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire were released in 2014, and I didn’t play the originals until much later. Unfortunately for me, Generation 3 is simply the most forgettable of all the generations which is why I’ve put it so low.

6 – Generation 5

It annoys me to no end that they changed which colour corresponded to which legendary, but that’s not important.

Generation 5 is perhaps the most polarizing of the generations, with the majority of Pokemon fans either ripping it to shreds or standing firm in its defence with no middle ground. This means that I get to upset both sides of the argument, when I say I do feel pretty in the middle on it.

The new Pokemon – This is definitely the weakest part of this generation, it was clear that the Pokemon Company were going for a soft reset on the franchise when Generation 5 was released. A whopping 156 Pokemon were added in this generation – the most ever added in a single generation – and I can’t really claim to be a fan of many of them.

We had the overall worst set of starter Pokemon (not counting Snivy, who I adore) and pretty much all of the legendaries rank among my least favourite. The rest of the Unova dex had a lot of Pokemon that weren’t bad, but I certainly wouldn’t call any of them my favourites (again, except for Snivy).

The new Region – Say what you will about it being a circle, but I really love the Unova region. This was the first region to not be based on a region of Japan, and they really did a great job with it. They nailed the Urban vibe and, as someone who grew up in London, it felt very homely, in a strange way.

While I would’ve prefered a more interesting layout than a simple circle, the fact that the region doesn’t have to cross over itself at all means we were able to get a larger amount of variety in the feel and design of every route than a lot of other layouts have allowed for in the past.

What really made the region feel alive however, was all the characters that inhabited it. Although not every character was interesting (*cough*Cheren), I did actually feel like I was going around the Unova region and meeting as many different people I could, which is something that not enough Pokemon games have done, before or since.

The new Features – There isn’t a great deal to be proud of here.

We got the addition of Triple and Rotation battles, which are a feature that I personally loved, but nothing ever came of them for the franchise as a whole, to the point where they weren’t even programmed into the Generation 7 games at all. We also had the addition of seasons, which were a nice thought, but all it really meant was that we had to explore every route 4 times to see everything.

There were also a couple of minor changes, like TM’s having infinite uses and the battle sprites animating, and while those are nice to have, I’d hardly say they were groundbreaking.

Remakes – While there were no remakes, we instead got sequels, with Black 2 and White 2 marking the first time we’d had direct sequels in the Pokemon franchise since the release of Generation 2. Given that Generation 5 had (to my mind) the best story in the franchise, giving it a sequel was a great idea and something I’d love to see more of in the future.

Nostalgia – While not at zero, my nostalgia for this generation isn’t very high. I played Pokemon Black and White not long after they came out and actually had a lot of fun with them. However I stopped playing the series for a couple of years shortly after they came out, meaning I missed Black 2 and White 2 completely, not playing them until 2016. I do look back on my time in the originals fondly, I don’t have a great deal of nostalgia for the generation as a whole.

5 – Generation 1

I’m not even sorry.

Generation one gets a whole heap of bonus points here for simply being the one to start it all and I understand why so many people will rank it much higher than this in their personal lists. However, this is my list, and it’s my rules and to me, while nothing that came after it would be possible without these games, it’s hard to argue against the fact that later generations do a lot of stuff better.

The new Pokemon – I’ve got no complaints here really, while I don’t love every single Pokemon in the gen one dex, I most certainly don’t hate any of them either (except for the one YOU really like, which totally sucks). While I think other generations had better Pokemon than these, this was certainly the most consistent generation in terms of the quality of designs.

The new Region – Granted, this is down to the hardware limitations of 1996, but the Kanto region isn’t exactly the most interesting region we’ve ever seen. Game Freak did impress with their use of music and the Game Boy’s limited colour pallet to make it feel like each area was as unique as possible, but most of the routes in the game do feel very samey. In addition to this, I felt that the Pokemon weren’t themed to the routes as much as they were in later generations, with some quite random Pokemon popping up in places you wouldn’t really expect them to.

The new Features – Once again, it’s hard to complain about anything here, since everything was new, and while a lot of things weren’t quite at the quality we expect from the franchise today, it laid the groundwork for everything that came after it.

Remakes – It’s a bit hard to remake a game when there are no games to remake, so there’s nothing really to say here.

Nostalgia – While I wasn’t around at the time to experience these classics as they came out, over the years I’ve found myself looking back more and more fondly on the Pokemon that came from this generation. It feels as though everyone elses nostalgia for generation 1 has rubbed off on me a bit, so strangely, I do feel a little bit of nostalgia here, despite not being born when they were released.

4 – Generation 6

Many people seem to hate this generation, due to it being one of the biggest examples of the games becoming more “aimed at kids” (even though Pokemon’s always been aimed at kids, but let’s not go there). X and Y in particular are definitely the easiest Pokemon games in my estimation, but there’s a whole lot more to Pokemon than just its difficulty.

The new Pokemon – This generation added the fewest new Pokemon to the franchise so far, with just 72 being added (not counting Mega Evolutions). Few in number they may be, but I like pretty much all of them at least a little bit. Pokemon like Slurpuff and Aromtise aren’t exactly the height of Pokemon design, but Pokemon like Aegislash, Malamar and the always beautiful Talonflame being some extremely good additions to the roster. I also want to make special mention of the two cover legendaries in this generation, while they’re not my favourites they’re certainly among the top of the crop, which is quite difficult considering just how many legendary Pokemon there are now.

The new Region – When it comes to region design, I think the Kalos region is far and away my favourite. It may have something to do with it being the first time the franchise had entered the land of three dimensions, but it seems the whole region was designed to be full of grand sites that would blow you away when you witnessed them for the first time. Having Lumiose City as a central hub for the entire region that you would keep coming back to really made it feel like a proper capital city for the region, and having certain bit of the region locked off for the first portion of the game, meant you kept discovering new things, even when you came back to old places.

The new Features – I’ve already mentioned the leap to 3D graphics, which were very impressive for what could run on the 3DS at the time, but we also got a couple of other major additions to the franchise. First of all we got the brand new Fairy Type, which was the first time a new type had been added since generation 2, adding a much-needed counter to the extremely powerful Dragon type. Then of course we have perhaps my favourite feature to ever be added in a new generation, Mega Evolution. While it sucks that we’ll likely never get any new ones, what we did get was really great to see giving some Pokemon brilliant new designs and a huge boost in power.

Remakes – Generation 6 gave us the wonderful remakes for Generation 3 in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. While I have my grievances with generation 3, the newer mechanics in place here, along with some brand new ideas like the Dex Nav meant that these remakes were a much more enjoyable experience.

Nostalgia – While it’s not overly high, since these games were only about 5 years ago, generation 6 was responsible for getting me back into Pokemon after I stopped playing it for a few years, so it holds a special place for me in that regards.

3 – Generation 2

Generation 1 may be what started it all, but generation 2 is when the franchise really started to look like what it does today. To me these are the games that truly showed that the Pokmon franchise wasn’t just a fluke success and had the power to become the juggernaut it is today.

The new Pokemon – I’m not going to be very popular for this, but the Pokemon of generation 2 are probably my least favourite part of the generation. There aren’t really any that I flat-out dislike, but generally across the whole generation I found the colour pallet for the Pokemon to be rather dull and there wasn’t a huge amount of variety. Granted that is in part to the introduction of Dark and Steel types, so there were a large amount of grey Pokemon that needed to be added, I just feel that some of the Pokemon could’ve been made to look a lot brighter and more interesting visually.

The new Region – While Johto does suffer from some of the same problems that the Kanto region did, I find Johto having a kind of warmth to it that Kanto didn’t. The music and route design make it feel like the entire region is perpetually in early autumn, when it’s still warm but the nights are getting longer and it’s starting to rain more often. I just love the feeling as you wander through places like the Ilex Forest and Violet City.

The new Features – As you can imagine from the first sequels in the Pokemon franchise, there was a lot added in these games. As I mentioned above, we had the introduction of the Dark and Steel types to balance out some of generation 1’s more overpowered types. In addition to this was so many other features we take for granted today, like Shiny Pokemon, friendship as a stat for all Pokemon – not just Pikachu – and breeding, which would become a feature integral to competitive Pokemon very quickly. Finally, the addition of a female player character in Crystal really was sending out the message that Pokemon is for everyone and it’s here to stay. Which is impressive for games that were originally planned to be the last in the franchise.

Remakes – Just a tad early for that, don’t you think?

Nostalgia – I’ve got a fairly middling level of nostalgia for these games, while I didn’t play them as a kid, the remakes in generation 4 and 3DS re-releases meant I’ve spent a fairly large amount of time in Johto and I think back on those times rather fondly.

2 – Generation 7

This generation is another one that tends to split the fanbase pretty heavily, and while I try my best not to get involved in fanbase civil wars, I loved the generation 7 games. Nintendo once again pushed their hardware to its limits with the Alola region and once again tried their hand at a fairly complex story (and succeeded if you ask me).

The new Pokemon – While I don’t love all of the Pokemon in Alola, for the first time ever in the Pokemon franchise I really feel like all of the Pokemon generation 7 added actually are properly themed to the Alola region. Sure, plenty of other generations have a handful of themed Pokemon, but every single Pokemon that was added in generation 7 just screams “Alola” to me. Along with that, there were plenty of solid designs, with some of my favourite starter and legendary Pokemon come from this generation and there were plenty of other designs to be happy with as well.

The new Region – The Alola region is absolutely gorgeous, how they got that game to run on a 3DS I will never know. The whole region feels like everything flows together so well, instead of other regions which just have “the sandstorm area” and “the snowy area”, all of the different climates that are around the place make sense in terms of the region design.

Having the game spread across 4 different islands was also a really good idea, as it made sure the designers weren’t hampered by having a single landmass to work with. Each island felt like it had its own theme and vibe to it, and it meant things were always feeling different throughout my journey.

The new Features – This is perhaps where this generation has its weakness since, while there were a lot of features, a lot of them felt experimental and I doubt we’ll see many of them in future games. Things like the Rotom Dex and Z-moves, though cool, are the height of gimmicks for the sake of gimmicks to me. I can’t see either of those – along with things like Battle Royales and Alolan Forms – making a major return to the franchise anytime soon.

The trials were a neat replacement for the standard gyms, and while I did enjoy them, I still think I prefer having Gyms to face instead of Totem Pokemon. SOS Chaining was also a very cool feature, but it only really matters if you’re an avid shiny hunter such as myself. We did see the death of HMs though, so that’s pretty cool.

Remakes – Nope, sorry Sinnoh fanboys.

Nostalgia – Since this is the latest generation, there hasn’t really been any time for me to form nostalgia for this generation, however I do think in the future I’ll look back with a great deal of nostalgia for the land of Alola.

1 – Generation 4

Speaking of Sinnoh fanboys…..

I don’t think anyone would be surprised when I say that my favourite generation of Pokemon, is the one that introduced be to the franchise.

The new Pokemon – Admittedly, this generation did  add a handful of stinker Pokemon, I’m not really a fan of any of the “baby” Pokemon that were added, and a lot of the additional evolutions to existing Pokemon like Magmortar, Rhyperior and Tangrowth weren’t all that hot either. However, this generation makes up for it because the Pokemon that were good in this generation, were REALLY good.

While I can take or leave Torterra, both Infernape and Empoleon are brilliantly designed starter Pokemon. We got another winner of a regional bird in Staraptor, and in my opinion the best early route Pokemon in Luxray. Then you take a look at some of the mid-game Pokemon and it’s great all across the board; Garchomp, Lucario, Spiritomb, Electavire; I could go on.

Then you’ve got the legendaries and just wow…. This generation’s legendaries were themed around the creation of the universe and I really can’t think of any Pokemon better at visually representing those concepts than the Creation Trio as pictured above. I mean, just look at Giratina, that thing is terrifying, and absolutely fits it’s role as the ruler of what is essentially Pokemon’s version of the underworld.

The new Region – Sinnoh is a bit of a mixed reason for me. There are plenty of cities that seem so unique and full of life, such as Jubilife, Canalave or Eterna; then on the flip side you have some of the most generic cities in the franchise like Pastoria and Veilstone. That said, the routes have a nice variety and having Mount Coronette as the center piece of everything gives the region a nice layout that works well with how the story plays out in Sinnoh.

The new Features – While generation 4 was a little light on big features, since a lot of them were just gimmicks to take advantage of the DS’s two screens. Though we did get the extremely highly praise Physical/Special split, allowing Pokemon that didn’t have a great deal of use competitively in the past rework their move sets in order to play to their strengths much easier.

A big feature that perhaps gets taken for granted now however is the addition of wi-fi to the franchise, which took battling and trading from something you did in the playground to something you could now do with people all across the world whenever you wanted. It’s something that properly formed the idea of community and bonding that Nintendo have tried to push so hard with Pokemon in recent years.

Remakes – Generation 4 gave us our second round of remakes with Heart Gold and Soul Silver releasing in late 2009/early 2010 depending on where you live. These games really showed what Game Freak can do with these remakes and a large portion of the fanbase hold these up high as the best entries ever in the franchise.

Nostalgia – Naturally, the nostalgia is very high for this generation since it was my introduction to the franchise. I’d tried my best to review these generations with critical eyes, but I’d be lying if the nostalgia didn’t factor into my love of it. This is the generation I have to thank for hooking me into my favourite gaming franchise after all.