Tyrogue-5 standing by.

136: Tyrogue

...Eh? Tyrogue is kinda just one of those Pokemon we forget even exists. It's a fighting creature, sure, but that base was already covered by Machop. Tyrogue just feels like it merely exists out of obligation. It's here to link two previously unrelated lines together by being a baby form for both and then introduce a new one.

Personal Score: 5/10

Ah, the infallible strategy of Spin to Win

137: Hitmontop

Even then, Hitmontop doesn't really look like it belongs in the same family as Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee. The two were vaguely humanoid monster things, but Top here is moreso on the cartoony stylized end of humanoids and doesn't fit in. There is a neat idea in portraying a spinning top creature as a fighter, throwing a flurry of kicks as it spins around, but its design isn't too terribly exciting for us.

But then you throw in its beta design and what?!? How on Earth is this a thing that was going to be boring ol' Hitmontop at some point?!? This idea for a spinning top creature is so much more creative, having the thing spin on what LOOKS like a head is actually standing on a tapered foot of some kind, but the appendages on its head resemble feet! How did we not get THIS?!? Well, probably because its design is even more divorced from the Hitmons if this was indeed always intended to be a new Hitmon. But who needs Hitmons, man?!? Why couldn't we have gotten this guy???