#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.