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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Gen 1 had the worst Pokémon, in my opinion

Ka-pi96 said:
I'd say it's the 2nd worst, since gen 2 had even worse Pokemon!

I'll also say while a lot of your criticisms are fair, I don't think the Psyduck one is. It's original Japanese name has nothing to do with psychic aspects so blame the localisers for that. Besides, if you're complaining about gen 1 typing then surely Gyarados' flying type should be the one to complain about rather than Psyduck/Golduck being pure water types. Like WTF has Gyarados got to do with flying? It should have been Water/Dragon!

Well Gen 2 got all of Gen 1's rejects that didn't make the RBY cut, so you're on to something there.

Gen 2 gets my award for "Generation with the least inspired English names." Way too many mon in GSC that GameFreak did a half ass job of coming up with names for. We went from Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres to Entei, Raikou and Suicune (I freaking hate everything about Suicune: it's name sounds like suicide, no one can pronounce it right, why does it have those stupid  ribbon tails that go to its face and do absolutely nothing, why is the top of its head shaped that way for no reason, and its playstyle is super boring to play against and watching paint dry is more fun). From Mew and Mewtwo to Ho-oh and Lugia (*hock spit*). GameFreak, we don't speak Japanese.

As far as Gyarodos goes, its typing actually makes sense. It and Magikarp are based on koinobori, those kites you see in Japan designed after karp. If Dark type existed in Gen 1, it probably would have been that from the get-go. Keep in mind that back then, GF wanted to keep the Dragon type rare and special, and probably felt that making it Dragon would have been too OP (it was already damn strong at the time).



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friendlyfamine said:

Gen 6 and Gen 7 had such good Pokemon...because there were less and there was more emphasis on quality rather than quantity. It shouldn't come to surprise at all that the Pokemon felt more memorable as a result. They could afford to go this route since there was already 500+ Pokemon in the dex, so adding another 100 Pokemon wasn't exactly necessary, and they could be more careful and clever with design. Gen 1 couldn't, it needed the quantity as the first title in the series.

There are about as many good Pokemon in Gen 7 as Gen 1, because Gen 1 had so many. And I'd say at least 40 of the Gen 1 Pokemon had good design.

It's kind of unfair to make these comparisons unless you condense the sample size of Gen 1...and you can't.

Couldn't agree more. The last couple of gens have been about quality over quantity. It would take too much time to go over all of the inspired designs of 6 and 7. I could find a previous post where I did just that before.

Gen 7 EASILY takes the cake for the for the gen with the most Pokemon that actually tie into its location and world. Just about all of the Pokemon based on animals are either based on real world animals from the Hawaiian islands, or some aspect of Hawaiian culture.



LuccaCardoso1 said:

A lot of people like to praise generation 1 for having great Pokémon designs, and while I really like some of the designs (such as Lapras, Bulbasaur and Eevee), I think it was overall the worst generation in that regard. Not only design-wise, but they also made some decisions (due to hardware issues or simply lack of identity) that don't fit anymore with what the series has become. Here are some examples:

 

  1. Ekans is just a snake. No more, no less. Its name is also just "snake" backwards.
  2. Seel is just a seal. They just changed a letter.
  3. Dewgong is just a Dugong. They just changed two letters.
  4. Krabby is just a Crab. Its name in Japanese is literally "Crab". The only inspiration for its design is a crab.
  5. Venomoth is just a regular moth. So creative.
  6. Goldeen is just a goldfish. There's absolutely nothing interesting about it.

 

But in the world of Pokémon there are no snakes, seals, dugongs, crabs, moths, goldfish so they are the equivalent creatures.

Understand that gen 1 was the only gen that ever was the only gen.

Gen 1 created the Pokémon world and archetypes were used to facilitate. 



Yer but when you think about it, it makes sense.

Gen 1 Car vs 2018 Car

Things evolve over time.

For its time, that was probably as much as the gameboy would handle lol.



 

 

Oh yeah. Ice cream pkmn are the best.



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LuccaCardoso1 said:

A lot of people like to praise generation 1 for having great Pokémon designs, and while I really like some of the designs (such as Lapras, Bulbasaur and Eevee), I think it was overall the worst generation in that regard. Not only design-wise, but they also made some decisions (due to hardware issues or simply lack of identity) that don't fit anymore with what the series has become. Here are some examples:

 

  1. Ekans is just a snake. No more, no less. Its name is also just "snake" backwards.
  2. Nidoran Male and Female are two different species. I guess the Game Boy couldn't handle sprite differences based on gender.
  3. Nidorina and Nidoqueen can't breed. Both Nidoran, Nidorino, and Nidoking can. That's still true in newer games, despite it making absolutely no sense at all.
  4. Dugtrio is the laziest Pokémon ever created. It literally is three Digletts together, not a single new feature added to it. I can understand Magneton being three Magnemites together because that's what magnets do, but moles don't do that as far as I'm concerned.
  5. Psyduck and Golduck are pure Water-types, despite Psyduck literally being an amalgamation of "Psychic" and "Duck". 
  6. A lot of Pokémon are literally wearing clothes. It's not like they have clothes-like aspects, they're clearly using human clothes. Jynx, Hitmonchan, Mr. Mime, Machoke and Machamp all wear human clothes.
  7. Kadabra and Alakazam are holding spoons all the time. Kanto must have a pretty big spoon factory. It's not like the spoons are part of the Pokémon either, they're clearly just holding them.
  8. Graveler evolving into Golem makes no sense. Graveler is a living rock. Golem is a reptile "stuck" inside a rock.
  9. Seel is just a seal. They just changed a letter.
  10. Dewgong is just a Dugong. They just changed two letters.
  11. Muk is just a larger Grimer. And they're both just boring piles of mud.
  12. Krabby is just a Crab. Its name in Japanese is literally "Crab". The only inspiration for its design is a crab.
  13. Electrode is a terrible evolution. It would have been much more interesting to go from Voltorb (a Poké Ball), to a Great Ball and then to an Ultra Ball. Instead, they just flipped it around and gave it a mouth.
  14. Mr. Mime and Jynx look too much like humans. It's weird to even call them Pokémon.
  15. Venomoth is just a regular moth. So creative.
  16. Exeggcute is a bunch of eggs. Just eggs with faces.
  17. Kangaskhan is born with a baby in its pouch. I guess they didn't think that through.
  18. Goldeen is just a goldfish. There's absolutely nothing interesting about it.
  19. Dragonair and Dragonite don't even look remotely similar. Why are they part of the same evolutionary family?
I probably forgot some things, but this is what I can remember off the top of my head. Do you think I'm wrong in any of those points? What's your least favourite generation of Pokémon?
EDIT: If I had to rank Pokémon generations from best to worst, based on Pokémon design, it would go as follows:

1. Gen 6
2. Gen 3
3. Gen 7
4. Gen 4
5. Gen 2
6. Gen 5
7. Gen 1

So anything else in this game seems to be real for you but just not the spoon? Animals in different colours, which can only pronounce their names and are shooting ice from their bodyparts is normal but the spoons are not? A 10 years old boy fight the mafia thats normal but the spoon? Thats your problem?



Flilix said:

Gen 3 > Gen 6 > Gen 4 > Gen 7 > Gen 2 > Gen 1 > Gen 5

Gen 1 might be the least creative, but gen 5 had way more boring and forgettable Pokémon.

for the monster design... but don't forget that Generation 1 basically started everything of a billion+ dollar franchise, on a god damn 4mhz processor running on 4 AA batteries lol, today you gift people a 2teraflop machine and you get Knack or Sea of content.



Why not check me out on youtube and help me on the way to 2k subs over at www.youtube.com/stormcloudlive

I only ever played Pokemon Blue and Go anyway.
I should probably get Pokemon Whatever for my 3DS at some point (Whenever I can get over the low resolution) and give one of the later games a good try.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

Ganoncrotch said:
Ka-pi96 said:

Fixed that for you.

A lot of the gen 1/2 mons really are just incredibly uninspired and boring. Take off the nostalgia goggles and you can see that.

you have to take into account that the OP was -5 years old when Gen one was a thing, by the time he was old enough to walk/talk/post on the internet, the concept of a pokemon which must make allowances to be male/female do not make sense to him because when he was born the Nintendo DS and PSP were on the Horizon, the concept of a game being limited by a 4mhz processor is hard to take into account when you have something close to a portable PS2 available by the time he can talk.

This makes me feel old to say, but I must now understand why people would sigh and roll their heads when classic films are criticized by people on youtube in 2018

I love how you just assumed I have no nostalgia towards the first generation because of my age. Well, as a kid I was given whatever my older brother stopped using. My favourite childhood movie is The Lion King, and I wasn't even born when that released. I had a Game Boy with Pokémon Blue. Then I had a Game Boy Advance with Pokémon Emerald and LeafGreen. I had never touched a DS before 2011.



B O I

The correct ranking is the following.

1: Gen 2
2: Gen 1
3: Gen 5
4: Gen 4
5: Gen 6
6: Gen 3
7: Gen 7

Why anyone values Gen 3 so high baffles me. But anyway, this is the correct ranking, anyone else arguing against should be examined.