Sequels really can be the make or break moment for a lot of game series. The moment to prove whether or not you're a one-trick pony or just some dying trend. Of course a lot of cynics would point out how Pokemon couldn't keep up the hype it had back in the Gen 1 days, but to be fair THAT craze was unsustainable from the start, haha.
All this is probably why Gen 2 is in the state that it is. It's a game that saw its beginnings as an expansion pack for Red and Blue and it shows, with so many of the Pokemon being evos or prevos of Pokemon that already existed. Perhaps the attempt to maintain momentum is also why this generation feels really safe in a lot of ways. There's certainly a handful of weirdo Pokemon, Wobbuffet and Shuckle chief among them. But not too many of the new mons rock the boat too hard quite like a Magneton or Weezing. They're here to be easy to market and win kids over again, so you got plenty of Pokemon like Skarmory or new Eeveelutions or Scizor which are almost shoe-ins for being popular.
It honestly keeps being a toss-up whether we like this Gen or Gen 8 less, both of them hovering around for the grand ol' prize of "our least favorite Gen". Granted that's a question we've not been hyper-interested in solving, since even Gen 2 has a number of merits to it. Even if a lot of the Pokemon feel standard compared to Gen 1 and future gens. There's still stuff to like, just in terms of raw Pokemon appeal this Gen feels like it could've done better.
...Which is why the Gold beta leak feels so gosh darn WEIRD. SO many of the Pokemon had way cooler concepts and designs in the beta phase of the game only for them to get axed for far more vanilla-looking designs. Like, we don't wanna be rude and say they shot the game in the foot on purpose because, well, if Pokemon's still around today they must've done SOMETHING right. But it's still so bizarre that you'd start with designs like that gulper eel and Beta Mantine there and just. Make them so much more "normal."
Top 10 Favorites of Gen 2:
It feels a little bit telling about this gen that not a single Pokemon got a 10/10 rating. A few got close! But not quite for us. All these 'mons are fun but they don't quite hit that point of REALLY striking our fancy in that especially special place in our heart.
Our Top 10 Overall:
It feels like it says a bit when these guys only make a bit of a dent into our top faves so far in this review series.
Bottom 10 Least Favorites:
And yeah, there was hardly a shortage of "meh" Pokemon to pick from here. Still cannot forgive Lanturn.
The Cutest:
This Gen had plenty of cuties at least, especially with 'mons like Swinub and Dunsparce around!
The Coolest:
It feels like all the "basic interest" categories are easy to fill out because Gen 2 just has those kinds of Pokemon in spades.
The Prettiest:
Even the "pretty" category isn't that hard to fill out, the only stretches really feeling like Umbreon and Chinchou. But even then, there is a nice beauty to both of their simplicity. That and black and gold is just a nice color scheme.
The Spookiest:
Ouch though, this one's a bit barren. No thanks to an aggressive lack of Ghost types. Murkrow and Chinchou certainly fit the bill, and while Houndoom COULD fit in, we dunno if we'd call it or Sneasel "spooky", necessarily. And sure, Celebi just for the monstrosity in the movie.
Most Creative:
For all the rather safe 'mons Gen 2 had, it still had a handful of REALLY fun 'Mons with really creative designs!
Most Charming:
It feels bad to keep falling back on the same handful but like. These are it! These are the really fun ones!
Weirdest/Most Unique:
AKA creative applications of tails.
Most Under-Appreciated:
If nothing else because for how cool Donphan is, it feels like it's odd that it hasn't wound up with Scizor, Sneasel, or Skarmory's club of Gen 2 fan-faves. That's whatcha get for not having your name start with an S, I guess.
Most Forgettable:
Even in light of a couple of these guys getting new evos/regional variants they're still not terribly memorable. Mantine really needs a new evo, man.
Best (Pr)Evolution:
Man, even this was difficult to fill out. The Eeveelutions are fairly competent additions to the Eevee cast, and good buffers to keep outright downgrades like Crobat out. Porygon 2 is still the coolest application of a "Pokemon that got an evo later".
The Dunsparce Award:
Bet the other 99 Pokemon are jealous.
The Verdict:
And that's a wrap on Gen 2! We'll take a bit of a break from the daily Pokemon uploads to get a couple of bigger articles done (should also finish that 151 Animals series we forgot about, whoops). But hopefully before too long, we're moving into Gen 3!
Could you make a tier list like you did for Kanto?
ReplyDeleteAdded, tiermaker was not working for some reason when we tried the first time.
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