Everybody do the flop!

287: Slakoth

Sure, a sloth is a well overdue animal! And if you just love sloths on the basis that their sluggish, sleepy demeanor is cute, then you probably already love Slakoth plenty. And there's plenty to love with such an adorable face it has! Half-lid eyes are something that's like, almost always a win in design. And we even like how rubbery its arm looks there, haha.

Though for Slakoth it feels a bit of a disappointment that they don't incorporate any of the extra-fun aspects that a sloth entails. Did you know sloths are so slow, colonies of algae and moss grows on them? Or that moths love resting on them? This thing was begging to be a Grass type! But unfortunately, I guess we already have enough, even when only at the very start of a generation.

Personal Score: 7.5/10

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288: Vigoroth

No Pokemon line in this Gen can just stick to one idea, huh? Vigoroth takes a turn in reimagining a sloth as a much more active creature, like an ape or some other tree-climbing mammal. The idea is sound but the execution is kind of a mixed bag. It just misses our on a lot of Slakoth's charm, especially in the face. Maybe giving it a grouchier face or just full-on turn this line into an answer to Primeape, so long as we're repeating Gen 1 concepts. Vigoroth's not bad but the idea just deserves better than this.

Personal Score: 6/10

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289: Slaking

And then it just sort of... flops back into being slow and lazy? Not sure what the back and forth is meant to be but oh well. Unfortunately, Slaking just isn't anywhere near as charming as ol' Slakoth. Not helped by the fact that it's not really a sloth anymore, just kind of an ape thing. Its gimmick is that its stats are absurdly high, but it has the ability "Truant", which means it takes a rest every other turn. Though it's funny how this ability essentially made it worse than even Vigoroth, funnily enough, since a whole turn is a terrible thing to miss out on, let alone on the regular.

It's just even more of a shame that we struggle to really find anything to like about Slaking. So bland... so... existing, unexcitedly. It's not bad but just. Also kinda nothing. Maybe it looking incredibly boring is kind of the point, but even Slakoth had a fun personality to it. Slaking over here is just King Dedede with less charisma.