GAS will fill the room.

092: Gastly

Ah, the original Ghost type Pokemon, and the only one of the first 151. At the time I thought the Gastly line was pretty awesome, but now that we're getting loads of service to the Ghost type, the Gastly line's fallen quite a lot on my personal “tier list.” Not because they're bad or even aged poorly, but simply because things like Duskull, Shedinja, and Mimikyu are stiff as hell competition.

Gastly is a simple ghostly wisp with a face, with the twist being it's a wisp made of poisonous gas. That said, there's little to it other than that. I do like its expression with the devilish smile, baggy eyes, and the eyes themselves even hover over its actual head a bit.

...But then we get a look at its original sprite, and I can't help but feel like we missed out a bit. Cause this implies the initial conception of Gastly was nothing but a fog with a disembodied face floating in it. As simple as it is, THAT would've been really cool! Even if it does understandably feel like it stands against the rest of its line a bit. But they kinda already do. Gastly certainly looks the part of a Ghost/Poison type, but not Haunter or Gengar. The black body Gastly has now is fine, not nearly enough to tarnish the design, but I can't help but wonder what THIS Gastly would've looked like in 3D.

Personal Score: 6/10

Haunter should be such a lame name, but it just isn't.

093: Haunter

Haunter is quite a bit cooler than Gastly is. It's even more typical a ghost shape than Gastly was, but its silhouette is pretty rad at any rate. Not a whole lot of Pokemon got the ol' Rayman hands thing going on. I would've rather they ended at the wrists rather than leaving some stump of arm there. Or at least that it tapered off into a “ghostly tail” like the main body did.

But again, just look at that original sprite! Is that not the coolest Haunter has ever looked? Especially with those circles for pupils and wicked Jack-o-lantern face! It really is interesting how just changing the colors and face a bit can totally change a Pokemon's look and feel. Had we gotten this Haunter, it'd be an easy 9 for sure.

I am the shadow on the moon at night!

Filling your dreams to the brim with fright!

094: Gengar

I've got mixed feelings about Gengar. Like I said, back in the day it was pretty cool, but nowadays how can a gremlin ghost even as cool as Gengar stand up to the likes of Drifblim or Palossand? Gengar's got a cool idea too, that sadly doesn't feel executed on properly simply due to the technical limitations at the time where the technology simply wasn't there to properly have a "shadow" Pokemon that acts as a doppelganger to other Pokemon.

The only real thing the shadow thing affects is that it vaguely looks like Clefable. Which lends some interesting theories about when the Clefairy line was going to be the mascots, supposedly having Gengar as an “evil” counterpart. I'm also surprised it being a living shadow hasn't turned it into a Ghost/Dark type by next gen. Nothing about it being "Poisonous" is left, really.

When a boy becomes a soft, fuzzy man.

Mega Gengar:

A lot of the Mega Evolutions were given to fan favorites. So naturally, Gengar is one of the Gen 1 Pokemon to receive one. Gengar's newfangled Mega Evolution makes it far more shadow-like than previously. And its a little less humanoid, which is nice. In all honesty, if I were asked to redesign Gengar while also having to change as little about it as possible, this would probably be how I'd do it. It looks like a far better follow-up to Haunter than Gengar was. I'm digging the purple into red gradient. Really nice. My only real complaint is that the third “eye” feels unnecessary and out of place a little. Especially since even with Sun and Moon's added Pokedex entries for Megas, it doesn't do anything with it.