#038 - Ninetales

NINETALES

IN SHOW

Suzy, the same person who originally owned Brock’s Vulpix, had a friend Zane who owned Ninetales. Brock was also confused for an ancient Ninetales’ old master as it tried to convince Brock to stay with it. Brock just seems to have a thing for getting involved with this pokemon family . I think the joke here was that Ninetales and Vulpix were supposed to be the beautiful pokemon of Kanto, and perhaps the rest of the world, Brock has a thing for beauty and so of course he would get tangled up in situations with these two.

WHY YOU WANT A NINETALES

Ninetales was a pokemon you could only get if you happened to have pokemon blue and decided you want to catch a Vulpix. For the rarity factor alone Ninetales was worth the capture. If you got up to the Flamethrower move with your Vulpix, if you could be patient enough to wait for this beauty of a pokemon, than Ninetales improved stats could actually be worth it.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A NINETALES

Ninetales suffers from evolutionary stone-itis. It doesn’t get moves other than the ones Vulpix gives it, and that can bite the big one if you caught a Vulpix went to Celadon and bought a fire stone, and then evolved your cute new pokemon into a useless Ninetales that would only know Ember. And for the most beautiful pokemon in existence its sprite definitely didn’t show it. Though I will admit the sprite for it in yellow is worlds better.

IN SUMMARY

I hate to break it to you, but you’re not going to have a good Ninetales if you’re not patient. I know, you want to rush your Vulpix up into its next evolutionary stage, but you can’t. You have to wait it out if you want to have a lethal beauty. This sucks for some of the more immature trainers, and normally I would say it’s a total drawback to the pokemon. In my personal opinion a strong Ninetales is worth the wait though. Or you could just evolve it quickly and then stick it in your box and only bring it out to show your friends that you were awesome and got a different version than them.

#037 - Vulpix

VULPIX

IN SHOW

Was Vulpix in the show? Vulpix was in the show for so long it managed to finish season one, briefly appeared in Orange Islands, and finished its trip with Brock in Johto. This pokemon was even in the movie Mewtwo Strikes Back. That’s a total of 141 episodes, not all of which it appeared in, but in which it was owned by a main party member, and one movie if you’re counting. That’s a pretty long run. And for a pokemon that lasted so long, it barely got any air time. It wasn’t really Vulpix’s fault though it was the fact that though Brock was a main character none of his pokemon actually were. Usually we’d see Vulpix getting brushed and taken care of by Brock and not actually doing any of the fighting. But that was okay because Vulpix was ADORABLE. Yes, I had to write it in all caps because it was that cute. And when Vulpix did fight it may not have always one but it was definitely shown to be very, very strong. Other Vulpix have appeared as background characters throughout the rest of the show but people only ever remember Brock’s Vulpix, a wonderful edition to the team that only was ever there because Brock wanted to become a breeder and get a girlfriend.

WHY YOU WANT A VULPIX

Well, first of all it was an exclusive pokemon so unless you owned pokemon blue, or had a very nice friend, you could probably just skip this entire section. Fire was one of the strongest types in the original games, except for that tragic ice miscalculation and it’s never a bad thing to have a fire type on your team. It did start out with a fire attack right away, and even got some pretty good attacks, starting with Ember and working its way up to Flamethrower all at reasonable levels. Especially since you would be catching your Vulpix at a pretty late level, just due to how late in the game it was available.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A VULPIX

The only reason I can honestly see for not wanting a Vulpix, and maybe it’s because its cuteness has disarmed me, is because you simply can’t. It’s not available in your game and you didn’t team up with your friend and buy a separate version so that you guys could trade between yourselves. Or the face on the game sprite sucks. I mean, yes, it’s still cute but it’s not Vulpix cute. That’s a weak argument against a pokemon isn’t it? Let me try again. After Ember you don’t learn another fire type move until level 35 and sure it’s an incredibly strong fire type move, but that’s a long time to wait.

IN SUMMARY
Vulpix is too cute and too strong for me to be annoyed at it. It’s true. Normally I go into these reviews with such a negative point of view, basically asking the pokemon to prove to my why it’s good. Vulpix came in and just did it. I mean, yes if you went a bought a fire stone and then immediately evolved it you might run into some problems, but Vulpix does everything else right. It learns moves at a steady pace, and yes it only ever naturally learns 3 fire type moves and you’d have to wait, if you caught the lowest level Vulpix the moment you could 17 levels to get it but that’s not as tragic as some other examples I’ve seen so far. So I suppose Vulpix is just too cute to hate. Go out and get one.

#036 - Clefable

CLEFABLE

IN SHOW

Clefable, like its evolutionary counterpart Clefairy, are only ever seen when people happen around Mt. Moon. These guys are so reclusive that they’re not even around when it’s time to build spaceships. Clefable are so rare in the show, that they’ve only ever made two major appearances. Both of these times it was when they were trying to help their pre-evolutions from screwing things up too much, either by being lost or by simply leading Team Rocket straight to the Moon Stone that they worship.

WHY YOU WANT A CLEFABLE

Clefable is only weak to one thing, fighting, and despite the fact that there’s a lot of battling in the pokemon world, there aren’t a lot of fighting type pokemon, so Clefable has an advantage there. The picture of Clefable is...well it is definitely a Clefable but...there’s just something off putting about it and I can’t quite put my finger on it...

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A CLEFABLE

That smile! What is with that smile? Is it supposed to be charming? Because it’s not! It’s terrifying in a sort of ‘I-want-to-kill-you’ kind of way. It doesn’t put me at ease at all. I wouldn’t want to be carrying a pokemon around knowing that when I tried to use it for a battle it might smile at me like that! Not that I ever would use it for a battle because it knows only two aggressive moves and learns nothing else once it has evolved from Clefairy.

IN SUMMARY
Clefable has two problems, I think, and one is that it happens to be a pokemon that evolves from a stone. This means it will never learn anything useful, unless you use TM’s, again. This would be okay if you weren’t going to find the stone that would evolve it in the exact same area that you catch Clefairy and will probably use on Clefairy unless you have caught a better pokemon, because if you use it on Clefairy immediately you will have to use TM’s for the rest of its lifetime. The second problem with Clefable is that smile. I just cannot get over it. I know I’m spending too much time on the art for this pokemon, and some people may think I’m blowing it way out of proportion but I don’t think I ever actually evolved any Clefairy I ever got because I didn’t want to see that Clefable looking at me for any length of time. Maybe it’s so rare in the show because it’s embarrassed that its game art looked like that? Maybe that’s the way you smile when you’re an alien? I don’t know, but I don’t like it.

#035 - Clefairy

CLEFAIRY

IN SHOW

People remember Clefairy for one reason; Mt. Moon. That impassable beast of a mountain was littered with rare Clefairy in the show, which people would think meant that you would never see one. Ash happens across one the moment he steps foot on the path leading to the mountain, and he does this not once but twice. Clefairy would be just jumping around being lost and scared, or trying to find a member of its clan that was lost or scared and Ash would have no choice but to help it. It showed where the Moon Stone was in Mt. Moon, which was actually more like a giant meteorite and less like the stone we were expecting. Clefairy also showed up in another town trying to gather parts for its space ship. Oh right, did I forget to mention that? Clefairy is from space! It’s a proven fact because at the end of the episode you see them go up into space. No wonder they’re so lost down here on Poke-Earth.

WHY YOU WANT A CLEFAIRY

Despite the fact that Clefairy apparently gets lost even when it’s in the only location in Kanto where you can find it so you’d think it’d know its way around the place, Clefairy actually happens to be a pretty useful pokemon. Easy to evolve, as almost all pokemon found around Mt. Moon are because hey, the Moon Stone is just within the mountain, and even as a Clefairy it can still learn some interesting moves. Maybe not any moves that would actually be particularly useful for fighting, but it does learn Sing which can make it pretty useful for catching other pokemon. Also, the picture is definitely a Clefairy. Bonus points!

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A CLEFAIRY

If you caught a Clefairy it was because you actually happened to come across one, harder to do than Ash Ketchum makes it appear, and you were so stunned that you couldn’t help but catch it. It’s from outer space! You’re not gonna let that one pass you by. But if you were looking for damage dealing moves, Clefairy is not the pokemon. Sure it gets a bonus to Pound and Double Slap, but other than Metronome which (as many trainers would tell you) is better for a laugh than relying on it to be useful, those will be the only damage dealing moves it will learn. Forever.

IN SUMMARY

Clefairy was hard to get in the games, and thinking in turns of flavour, it’s because they’re peaceful shy little things that don’t want to hurt anyone. And guess what? They’re move set actually shows that. They don’t want to be caught and it’s not because they don’t like you, but they just don’t want to hurt your feelings when you expect the pokemon you catch to be able to hold their own in a tough fighting world and all they can do is gently sing your opponents to sleep. Clefairy is actually a really neat addition to the pokemon games because their move set reflects what they’re personalities are supposed to be like.

#034 - Nidoking

NIDOKING

IN SHOW

Not only did Gary own a Nidoqueen, he also owned a Nidoking which he used to face one of the most terrifying gym leaders of all time, Giovanni. He lost, but it left an impression on us. Nidoking is only to be used for the most badass of occasions. Nidoking has been shown to be the choice among Ash’s rivals as well, Paul also owning one, which must mean that Nidoking can also only be owned by the toughest guys that are intent on beating the best and showing that they’re better than the pathetic guy with a Pikachu who things always seem to work out for.

WHY YOU WANT A NIDOKING

Nidoking is the exact same type combination as Nidoqueen, also making it immune to electricity and a popular choice among potential Lt. Surge combatants. It was as easy to evolve as Nidoqueen as well, with a Moon Stone not being hard to come by. If you were a male, Nidoking was the pick of the pokemon you wanted to evolve the moment you left Mt. Moon, and who could blame you? The picture was even better than Nidoqueen’s! It was intimidating as hell and looked just like the pokemon.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A NIDOKING

The same reason as Nidoqueen; the move set caps out at level 23, so once again you want to milk your Nidorino for as many moves as it can give you because you won’t get them from Nidoking. Who wants a pokemon to cap out at level 23, especially with a move like thrash? You get confused if it completes fully, and you could have to work through that for the rest of the battle. Yes, it’s a strong move but it can also be detrimental to your health.

IN SUMMARY

Nidoking was a tough as nails pokemon and it was owned by tough as nails trainers. Everyone wanted to be tough, to kick butt and take names in the pokemon world, and everyone wanted Nidoking. But his move set sucked. I’m learning quite quickly that this seems to be a habit among pokemon who use evolutionary stones because it’s supposed to take time to evolve them so that the pokemon that comes before it has time to learn a lot of useful moves so the final form doesn’t really need to. But you get a Moon Stone in Mt. Moon, and you can have a Nidorino before you even enter the location, so of course you’re going to use it immediately when you’re a kid and of course you’re going to be disappointed when your pokemon never learns anything ever again. So Nidoking in show, amazing, Nidoking in game, everything except move set also amazing.

#033 - Nidorino

NIDORINO

IN SHOW

Nidorino was actually the first pokemon ever seen on the show, being in a battle with a Gengar that Ash was watching the night before he went out to get his first pokemon. This is actually a huge honour to bestow on any pokemon, and it’s odd that they would bestow it on a pokemon that only ever had one episode to itself and even then that was just a brief appearance after evolving when it kissed its one true love. Other Nidorino were shown in the background of shows, sure, but this was the first animated pokemon battle we’d ever seen, it was the first pokemon we’d ever seen, and it got nothing more than a Romeo and Juliet story line.

WHY YOU WANT A NIDORINO

Nidorino was pure poison, though he would only ever learn one poison move, but even just having the type under his name meant that he carried all the strengths and weaknesses of the type. So Erica would find a hard time getting foothold on this pokemon. Plus its picture actually looked just like a Nidorino. There’s no beating around the bush here. We didn’t have to go around trying to guess how the artist might have thought this could remotely look like a Nidorino, it actually looked like the very first pokemon we had seen in the show! And in the game too! The opening sequence contains the exact same battle! Maybe that’s why the sprite art had to look so good.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A NIDORINO

Poison types are really offensively good for one thing, poisoning other pokemon. But when that poison type move is as weak as poison sting then we have a problem. Sure it would do the same poison damage over and over again and you could move on to some stronger attacks, but if you wanted to beat a grass pokemon you would just spam poison sting, and get the same pathetic result over and over again.

IN SUMMARY

Nidorino looks great, and it’s hard to bad talk him when for many of us he is the first pokemon we ever saw in action. We may have seen the pictures on the cards, or owned a stuffed pokemon or a little keychain, but if we watched the show we saw that iconic battle, and the moment we first turned on our game we saw that very same battle. Many people remember the battle between Nidorino and Gengar so vividly and I can’t blame them. Sure, for a poison type there are better pokemon out there, but I’m gonna go with my gut on this one and say Nidorino showed a generation of pokemon trainers just how cool battling with your prized pet could be and I can’t give him a negative review on that one.

#032 - Nidoran♂

NIDORAN♂

IN SHOW

Nidoran♂ was once again one of those pokemon who is a background character. It has a lot of episodes under its belt but none that can really be mentioned as important except for the Romeo and Juliet-esque episode where he was in love with a Nidoran♀ but their trainers refused to allow them to see one another. It was cute romance that could only be done because the Nidoran group where the only pokemon to have official genders to their species. How sweet.

WHY YOU WANT A NIDORAN

You want a Nidoran♂ for all the same reasons you would want a Nidoran♀. Only this time Nidoran♂ eventually evolves into Nidoking and not Nidoqueen. Usually, since they were the only two pokemon with gender, it just came down to whether or not you were a boy or a girl. Nidoran♂ had horn attack though whereas Nidoran♀ had scratch, and sometimes it came down to which attack you found to be more useful as well.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A NIDORAN

The same reasons you didn’t want a Nidoran♂ would become the same reasons you didn’t want a Nidoran♀. The picture was definitely Nidoran♂-like, but not exactly like the show and it does suck when they get so close to the actual thing and miss it by just enough to be annoying. It would only ever learn poison sting before evolving and when your main type is poison you’d think you could start off with a poison type move.

IN SUMMARY

The problem with writing this review for Nidoran♂ is that Nidoran♂ and Nidoran♀ were essentially the same pokemon except one was female and started off with scratch and one was male and started off with horn attack. Everything I wanted to say for Nidoran♂ I had already said for Nidoran♀, and I didn’t really want to have to repeat myself. So if you want to know what I have to think about Nidoran♂, go look up what I have to think about Nidoran♀.

#031 - Nidoqueen

NIDOQUEEN

IN SHOW

Nidoqueen actually first appeared in the movie, and not the show, but it did hold some big roles in the show itself. One of the gym leaders in the Orange Islands owned a Nidoqueen, and even Gary owned one though no one knows where he got it from. Nidoqueen is usually the pokemon that is seen to be owned by ‘the girlfriend’, as was demonstrated at least once in the show as well.

WHY YOU WANT A NIDOQUEEN

Nidoqueen was the first pokemon ever to have its type combination, poison and ground, and this gave it some pretty unique strengths and weaknesses. It was absolutely untouchable by electric attacks, which means if you got a moon stone and decided to evolve it before you reached Lt. Surge, you were golden because you could cancel out most of his attacks. And Moon Stones were pretty easy to come by, being found in at least 4 different locations so you could at least evolve it relatively painlessly. It could learn Surf and Strength making it pretty useful in the HM department too. And the picture? It looked GOOD. Everyone has a favourite pokedex picture but this is by far the best one so far. It looked exactly like the Nidoqueen in the show, down to every last detail.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A NIDOQUEEN

You need to hold off on levelling it. If you want an effective Nidoqueen you have to milk Nidorina for every last move it can learn because otherwise your Nidoqueen will cap out at level 23 by learning body slam. A strong move, yes, but pokemon should learn moves steadily as they level. There’s no fun in levelling the pokemon for stat boosts only, when other pokemon are learning much stronger moves that take advantage of those stats much better than the moves a pokemon will learn at 23 ever could.

IN SUMMARY

Nidoqueen has way more good points than bad points; interesting type combination, easy availability for levelling, a good amount of HM’s, a healthy amount of cameos on the show, and an amazing pokedex picture. But its move set is lacking so much that it ruins the entire pokemon. Now, I know, you can teach it tons of TM’s to make it a wonderful addition to any team, but I don’t review based on that. I review based on a pokemon’s natural ability to be as good as it can be, and it is up to the trainer to take it from there. Any pokemon can be spruced up with moves but those can only take them so far. This is why I haven’t mentioned TM’s up until this point, but with Nidoqueen it needs to be addressed. TM’s are useful for trainers, they give a pokemon a lot of tactical boost and make them strong in situations where they might have been weak. But that is a human choice, not a choice that is naturally programmed into the pokemon’s move sets and I will not review pokemon by them. So Nidoqueen, you’re great if a trainer wants to give you TM’s, and you had so much potential that I wanted to give you a gold star. But sadly, it couldn’t be done.

#030 - Nidorina

NIDORINA

IN SHOW

Nidorina almost never appear in the show, though one did appear when a female Nidoran evolved after kissing a male Nidoran. Other than that there has been no real example of any Nidorina in the pokemon world.

WHY YOU WANT A NIDORINA

If you catch a Nidorina in pokemon Yellow and don’t simply evolve a Nidoran♀ you can actually get a whole extra move out of it, that move being the very useful double kick, which many may think is pretty weak, but was actually one of the first fighting moves to be learned naturally in the game, and so this move can be pretty useful. Nidorina also learns double kick in pokemon red and blue but it’s at a much later level. Nidorina’s picture is actually one of the rare instances where the pokemon red and blue pokedex entry could actually be considered superior to the yellow one.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A NIDORINA

Yes, the pokedex picture in red and blue are superior to the one in yellow, but both of the pictures suck. Nidorina didn’t have that much screen time, but we at least knew it was supposed to be a poisonous rabbit, not some type of pig. Who thought it was a good idea to give Nidorina a pig nose? Also, other than double kick the move set is pretty much identical to that of Nidoran♀.

IN SUMMARY

Now, though Nidoran was a good ends to the means pokemon, Nidorina took whatever Nidoran had built on and...sat on it. It wasn’t an improvement, and it was really not very much of a progression. It was only given the one fighting move, which it would only ever get if you waited until level 50 to allow it to evolve, and by then many other pokemon were getting much better moves. And what was with the pig nose? Who thought bunny and drew pig nose? I’m sure they had actual art for what the pokemon were supposed to look like at that point, at least for the television series, so couldn’t the sprite artists have taken a look? I don’t really mind the awful pictures at this generation because the medium was so limited as long as it at least looks like they were trying, but when you add a pig nose to a pokemon who clearly doesn’t have one...But Nidorina is a pretty solid middle pokemon, as long as you didn’t keep it for too long.

#029 - Nidoran♀

NIDORAN♀

IN SHOW

Nidoran♀is another one of those pokemon in a long line of pokemon that are there as background characters, though they are often seen to be owned by younger children. There was one main Nidoran♀ though, one who was involved in romance with another Nidoran♂. When their trainers found this out the plot essentially began to copy that of the Romeo and Juliet. The two pokemon were constantly trying to find one another, but their families had forbidden them from ever seeing their one true love. At the end, the two pokemon kiss and Nidoran♀ evolves into Nidorina. It’s cute and romantic, and it’s what we expected from the only two pokemon with actual genders.

WHY YOU WANT A NIDORAN

Nidoran♀ evolved at a pretty steady rate and when it did evolve it evolved into some pretty powerful pokemon. There wasn’t a lot of problem catching it pretty early on, so it was good pokemon to have to balance out your team if you wanted the poison attacks without the bug type weighing you down, and you just weren’t that into Ekans.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A NIDORAN

Nidoran♀ only ever learned the most basic poison type attack before it evolved. The picture in the pokedex was definitely Nidoran♀ like, but it wasn’t the Nidoran♀ in the show at all. This was a pity because Nidoran♀ actually had a pretty simple design, and I at least thought that the people in charge of the pictures couldn’t have screwed that up. Of course, as usual, they totally let me down, and I think just dropped the ball in general.

IN SUMMARY

Nidoran♀ is definitely an ends to a means, but it can stand up on its own two feet. Sure, it’s only really shown as the pokemon that young children have, but if I were a kid and had a Nidoran♀ I’d be really happy. Because by the time I could be an actual trainer I’d probably have already evolved my little Nidoran♀ into one of the pokemon in its bad ass evolutionary line and could actually kick some serious butt out of the starting gate. Yes, it only learns the most basic poison type move, but it doesn’t have the TIME to learn anything else because it evolves so quickly. This is actually a pokemon that only exists to evolve that was done right. It’s not a drawn out evolution where they pretend the pokemon is meant to be its own creature, but because it’s not Nidoran♀ actually does become its own creature. Maybe this was totally coincidental, but it’s the best coincidence to ever happen to what has become one of the staples of pokemon.

#028 - Sandslash

SANDSLASH

IN SHOW
Sandslash was another background pokemon, one that was often seen in the background while the heroes were walking by to show the peaceful pokemon world, or one show as an opponent’s pokemon or in a flash of a pokemon battle. The most memorable Sandslash, for me anyways, was the Sandslash that was stuck in an Onix. Somehow the poor animal had gotten lodged in their causing pain for everyone involved and a truly terrifying Onix.

WHY YOU WANT A SANDSLASH

Sandslash was definitely a step up from Sandshrew, at least in the looks department. It was much more intimidating in its picture and you could actually see how your cute little Sandshrew could actually become your tough and scary Sandslash. The pokedex picture was actually pretty good, it definitely looked like a Sandslash, though Yellow’s picture was much better.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A SANDSLASH

Sandslash has an identical move set to Sandshrew, other than the strange fact that Sandslash can apparently learn Sand Attack twice, and Sandshrew actually learns the same moves faster than Sandslash! Sandshrew can even learn the exact same HM’s as Sandslash so Sandslash doesn’t even have that going for him. The poor thing.

IN SUMMARY

Sandslash literally only exists for the stat bonuses. You could actually simply keep your cute and cuddly little Sandshrew forever and never even attempt to evolve it if you don’t care about stats, or are planning on boosting them with different items, because Sandslash would bring nothing else to the table but better stats and a new hair cut. It’s true that Sandlash didn’t ever really make an impression on us in the show, but we at least assumed he would be better in some way then his pre-evolution. We were horribly, horribly wrong.

#027 - Sandshrew

SANDSHREW

IN SHOW

I remember seeing Sandshrew a lot in the show, but not as a main character. Sandshrew was always one of those pokemon that you would see living life in a pokemon utopia while the main characters were walking by a field, or in clips of battle in a league competition. This always surprised me because Sandshrew was so cute and could have been a pretty good mascot for the series. Maybe not the main mascot, but Brock definitely could have branched out and caught one as it would have been much closer to Rock than his later pokemon would be.

WHY YOU WANT A SANDSHREW

Sandshrew actually has a pretty good pokedex picture, as far as they go. You can clearly identify what pokemon is popping up in front of you, and it’s cute, which is what we had come to expect for the Sandshrew we had seen on the show. It may not have been the most imaginative of the pokedex pictures but it did actually show the pokemon in a reliable way which is more than we had come to expect. He even has some pretty good moves that he’ll learn before evolving, and he continues the good move set even if you choose not to evolve him.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A SANDSHREW

Sandshrew doesn’t learn any Ground type moves. He’s the first Ground type pokemon in the pokedex and he doesn’t know a single move! Yes, all of his moves fit him and work well together, but when you add pokemon to your party a lot of people tend to do it because they need the type to defeat a trainer or gym leader, and when the first, and most likely to be found, Ground type doesn’t actually have any Ground type moves, that can cause serious problems. Also, it learns a poison attack and I don’t understand how it can do that but not learn any from its only elemental type.

IN SUMMARY

Sandshrew was a cute pokemon that got a lot of air time, even if it was in the background, and a lot of people remember it very clearly because it was in so many background shots. Its constant appearances are probably because it was so animal like and very believable. Even with effective attacks it lost its appeal because it didn’t actually have any moves of its type and that can cause problems when you’re building a team around different types and how they work well together. Having a Sandshrew is essentially the same thing as having a normal pokemon but with different weaknesses and it’s not really worth the slot on that basis alone.

#026 - Raichu

RAICHU

IN SHOW

Though Raichu has been in a lot of episodes of the show, the first and only Raichu to appear was the one owned by Lt. Surge. He was a powerhouse that had been evolved at a young level just so he could be powerful. This Raichu easily defeated Pikachu the first time they faced off, and made Ash question whether or not he should evolve Pikachu to compete. Most other Raichu that have been seen have been background characters either demonstrating the evolutionary power of evolution stones or in background/filler fights. But Lt. Surge’s Raichu is the only one that ever strongly affected the plot, almost making Raichu the pokemon mascot and not Pikachu, and the only one anyone ever remembers.

WHY YOU WANT A RAICHU

Raichu looked cool, though not really intimidating or the powerhouse that we expected. He can learn a variety of TM’s, and even the HM Flash which can be helpful later on in the game as you begin to encounter dark and dangerous caves.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A RAICHU

First of all, Thunderstones are hard to locate, so even having the chance to get a Raichu can be a tedious chore, unless you decided to go through the process of catching one, which doesn’t make much sense when you already have a Pikachu you could evolve. Raichu was supposed to be a tough badass, but he didn’t learn any moves at all. Because of this he suffers from ‘exactly the same but...’, but in this case instead of the move set being only slightly improved on there is actually no change. Because Raichu will not learn any moves. At all.

IN SUMMARY

Raichu seems like a really cool idea, and it might just be because Pikachu is so popular. How many times did we wish as kids that Ash would finally take the plunge and evolve Pikachu, because we had been told that Raichu was stronger and would have a bunch of powerful moves. But the games were a huge disappointment because Raichu didn’t learn ANYTHING. And maybe it was because Thunderstones were so hard to come by that it was supposed to take a long time for you to be able to evolve your Pikachu so there was no real need for Raichu to learn any moves, but if you caught a wild Raichu you would have to rely solely on TMs. And some people would catch a Pikachu and not even look at it until they had a Thunderstone and could get the cool evolution. It’d be a shame for those people because their pokemon would never actually be worthwhile. EVER! When we were young we had no way of knowing whether or not a pokemon would learn moves. There was no book on the subject and no website that would give us a list. So people would evolve a young Pikachu, have a pointless Raichu, or catch a Raichu, and level it hoping that eventually it might learn something. Sadly you would get to level 100 and realize that you had levelled up a useless pokemon, and wasted a slot on your team that could have actually been held by a useful pokemon.

I’m done ranting now.

#025 - Pikachu

PIKACHU

IN SHOW

Now we come to it, the man of the hour, the pokemon that even your grandmother can recognize on sight. Ash’s first pokemon who hated him in the beginning and by the end of the next episode was inseparable from him. Pikachu has been shown to hate being in a pokeball and is constantly on the run from the evil Team Rocket who are trying to enslave the poor guy because of his amazing strength. And it’s true, not all Pikachu are like the Pikachu we’ve come to know and love. Most Pikachu live out in the forest, in groups, finding food and just in general being electric mice. Pikachu has been in every single episode, except for special ones, and every single movie. He’s even been the subject of some of his own shorts. He loves ketchup and beating people, but he’s also very kind and loves to make other people happy.

WHY YOU WANT A PIKACHU

Despite Pikachu being omnipresent in the show’s universe, Pikachu is actually a pretty uncommon pokemon so if you can catch a Pikachu you can show it off to people and be proud. Plus, he comes in handy for the gym battle against Misty when, depending on the pokemon you chose, it can be hard to keep your head above water.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A PIKACHU

Almost everyone goes out of their way to locate and catch a Pikachu so that they can show it off because it is so popular so having a Pikachu won’t lead to any originality points. The only place you can locate a Pikachu is in the Veridian Forest and the next gym is Brock, so you won’t find much use for him in that battle. Pikachu is actually only really useful for the Water gym, as most other gyms are resistant to him or take only normal damage. Also, he looks a little chubby in the picture, and I’m pretty sure it’s because he’s been eating too much ketchup.

IN SUMMARY

Pikachu in the show is one of the main characters, and the only pokemon to never leave Ash for any reason, even if it’s just to be stored with Prof. Oak. He’s cute and cuddly and he’s got a personality that we all love. He’s at the center of almost every single one of Team Rocket’s plots and that’s saying something. Pikachu is the mascot of the entire franchise, and sure that’s mainly because he’s Ash’s pokemon, but still. But the Pikachu in the show is extremely smart, fast, and over powered. He can defeat rock and ground pokemon just because he wants to. When Pikachu defeated Brock by simply powering up his electricity or Rhyhorn by aiming for the horn, people laughed. It was one of the most ludicrous things we’d ever seen, and a clear break of the game rules. But our Pikachu would never be that awesome. Though Pikachu is a pretty nifty pokemon and is one of the most useful for defeating Misty, unless you’re running into a lot of water trainers, Pikachu can be pretty useless in game. So catch Pikachu because he’s hard to catch and it’s nice to say you did it, but don’t stick with him the whole game.

#024 - Arbok

ARBOK

IN SHOW

Jessie’s newly evolved Arbok lasted from Season 1 to Season 6 of the show, and we were all pretty attached to it by that point. We had seen Arbok blast off with the team countless times, and be recruited into some of Jessie’s many schemes. Arbok was still as emotional as it had been when it was an Ekans, crying when it didn’t have the lead role in a movie and relying on Jessie for support. When Arbok finally left the show it was only to protect another group of Ekans and because Jessie forced him to. Arbok was extremely upset, refusing to leave and crying his eyes out when he did. This may not have been the first time we had seen Jessie and James be upset, but it was one of the first times we realized that they did really care for and love their pokemon.

WHY YOU WANT AN ARBOK

Arbok’s picture looks really good. His design was solid, and yes it’s hard to mess up a snake but after spending so long with Arbok we knew what he looked like and the Arbok pokedex picture actually did it justice. He could learn an HM, strength, which is always a nice thing to have. It’s evolution from Ekans actually make sense as they build on what Ekans already brought to the table to give Arbok a good strong look.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT AN ARBOK

Arbok is a disappointing pokemon when it comes to move set. It actually learns all of the same moves as Ekans and learns them faster so it’s actually a better idea to wait to evolve your Ekans instead of allowing it to evolve the moment it hits level 22. It’s ‘exactly the same but...’ stats approve and that’s supposed to make it a little more worthwhile. It’s hard to see why you shouldn’t just keep your Ekans as an Ekans for the entire game when there’s no real reason to evolve a pokemon, and that was a huge error that the company made. In a game that’s all about levelling your pokemon and making it stronger, there’s a problem when your pokemon is actually a faster learner before it evolves, meaning it improves more in its primary stage.

IN SUMMARY

In all honesty, maybe we should have been expecting disappointment when it comes to Arbok. He was never that good in the show for all that we loved him and we constantly saw him being defeated. So why did we expect any better in the game? Perhaps it’s our own fault that Arbok sucked so bad? We got our hopes up that Arbok might just be awful because of how Jessie trained it and used it, and maybe she just hadn’t tapped into Arbok’s full potential. We would be able to do that because we were the ultimate pokemon masters and all our badges showed that we could in fact train pokemon to be worthwhile even when we were told they weren’t. But the show producers were actually trying to warn us! Arbok was gonna suck, and we had better be prepared. It’s a shame that we weren’t.

#023 - Ekans

EKANS

IN SHOW

Jessie had an Ekans. It was her most important pokemon, and it helped define her entire character. She was the bad girl with the snake pokemon, making her intimidating and possibly even sexy to some people. And Ekans loved Jessie. At one point they were separated on the Island of Giant Pokemon and all Ekans could think about was returning to his Jessie, and when they finally were reunited it was very emotional for the both of them. Ekans only ever wanted to make Jessie happy and this was proven when he decided to evolve because Jessie wanted him to so badly.

WHY YOU WANT AN EKANS

Anyone who loves snakes will want an Ekans. There are only 2 families of snake pokemon and Ekans comprises one half of the first family. Its evolved form Arbok is hard to catch, so if you want an Arbok your best bet is to go for the fairly common Ekans. Ekans also receives a pretty good variety of moves before it levels up so it creates a good basis for the evolution. Ekans also happens to be the very first pure poison pokemon in the pokedex so it has some pretty unique strengths without the added weakness of different types, and that hadn’t been seen yet.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT AN EKANS

Because Ekans is the first pure poison type in the pokedex you would expect him to have a pretty good selection of poison attacks to work with. You’d be wrong. By the time Ekans evolves he will only have poison sting, unless you wait until level 38 to evolve him, and poison sting is not one of the stronger poison attacks. Catching an Ekans because you hope he will have enough poison attacks to do some severe damage to an opposing type will set you up for disappointment.

IN SUMMARY

Ekans was a loyal and worthy pokemon to Jessie, and everyone was happy when it evolved, just as they would be when their own Ekans evolved. It’s not because people don’t like Ekans either, the Ekans in the television show made it so that no one would ever think poorly of an Ekans because it had just enough character to make us root for it. But Ekans was just of no use until it evolved, and when even the character in the television show that loves it above all other pokemon agrees with that statement, you know there’s a problem.