Why is Spinarak sad? Is it cold? Hungry? Or perhaps just... lonely!

167: Spinarak

A spider was another big animal that was missing in Gen 1, but Gen 2 delivered on. For how simple it is, I love Spinarak. Unlike its daytime counterpart, it's missing a pair of legs, but oh well. If that were an actual deal-breaker, I'd hate most of the Bug type, haha. Anyway, I do like how it has a sad face on its abdomen, which doesn't seem to do anything on its own other than be a fun little detail. A face display on a spider is a neat idea. I also like its adorably simple, stylized face. And its fat little legs really make it look like it has fingers for legs, like a silly Halloween toy/puppet, and I love the energy of it overall.

The only web developer that's happy to find bugs.

168: Ariados

Ariados I'm lightly mixed on. The design itself is a rad design for a Bug type, especially loving that menacing face. It's so simple but it works very well. The more menacingly shaped legs is a neat touch as well. Plus the strange "legs" it has that are sticking straight up as well. Gives me a bit of peacock spider vibes.

However, Ariados here almost looks more insectoid than arachnoid to me. The combination of the fewer limbs and smaller, more defined head give it just a bit more of an ant-like look more than anything. Not that it's necessarily a mark against it, it just feels a little cheap for our first spider Pokemon to... not look like a spider all that much. And yeah, as pictured above, ant-mimic spiders do exist, but nothing about Ariados comes off like an ant-mimic was the intention. Ariados is still cool, I'm just slightly bewildered.